Researchers

Water within Yaqui cultural paradigms is a sacred element, and is key within Yaqui sacred history. With each successive invasion of the Yoeme homeland these foundational relationships have been threatened. Yet invariably, the Yoeme have launched resistance movements to colonization and domination by foreigners. Today their struggle for autonomy continues as the Mexican government of the state of Sonora has begun the construction of an aqueduct, which threatens their long-lived relationship to Río Yaqui, its ecosystem, and their cultural original instructions. The current government project entitled el Acueducto Independencia threatens to remove water from the lower Rio Yaqui basin, and divert it to the Capital of Sonora, Hermosillo. That Acueducto would further detract from the limited water supply that currently reaches the eight Yaqui pueblos. My interpretative framework draws from mythological studies, native epistemologies of place, Yaqui sacred histories, Decolonial methodologies, and Tribal Critical Race theory.