Eusebio Francisco Kino

When Father Francisco Eusebio Kino arrived at the Pimeria Alta, on March 13, 1687, it had a native population of some 20,000 inhabitants. They hadn´t any type of political association. They were only rancherias dispersed along the rivers, of greater or smaller size according to the conditions of the environment, and spoke the same language.

And although there were also Indians who spoke Piman in today´s central Sonora, the missionaries, just for administrative reasons, divided the Pimas in two: Lower and Alta Pimeria. According to Kino himself, this division in two Pimerias had been made by a missionary, as he said:

"...like those of this large Pimeria, which Father Rector, Adamo Gil, used to name Pimeria Alta"

Today, the Pima Indians are divided in three types, accordint to the environment in which they live, and it is possible that this differentiation has old roots: Akimel Ohodham: people of the rivers, Tohono Ohodham: people of the deserts, and Hiached Ohodham: people of the sand.

The name of Papago which has given since Colonial times to the Pima who live in the deserts, according to Father Luis Xavier Velarde, S. J, is because:

...those who live there, named papabotas (that is bean eating pimas, because their main cultives are beans, named papabi)...

During the XVII, XVIII, and beginnings of the XIX Centuries, Spaniards recognized different groups among the Pima, naming them Pimas, Papagos, Sobaipuris, soba, Gileños, and Piatos. In particular, those who lived along the Santa Cruz and San Pedro rivers, were the Sobaipuris.

At his arrival, Kino brought with him a Royal Decree who prohibited, for 20 years, the work of the Pimas in any kind of work outside of the Missions. That gave the Mission the exclusivity of administration of the Indian, at least during the beginnings of the Mission Period in this area.

He established a chain of Missions combining Christianization with the teaching of the European means of exploitation of the environment. And because Pimeria Alta is a region that depends on the availability of water for to be developed, because Agriculture can only be carried on along the intermountain valleys, he applied the methods of exploitation that were used already in Central Sonora: irrigated agriculture in the small valleys, combined with cattle raising in the nearby mountains.

However, Kino´s idea wasn´t only to develop Christianism in Pimeria Alta, but also to use our region as a communication bridge to Eastern Asia: to China in particular. That was the reason he always tried to prove that Lower California is a peninsula. to achieve it, he tried to prove that in the Northern fringes of the Continent there was a landbridge to Asia, the mytical Strait of Anian.

Dolores, his first Mission, located in the Indian rancheria of Cosari, North of Cucurpe, was the base of his future operations, and from there he established all his other missions, always with the idea of extending to the Northwest to find that communication to Asia.

On the Magdalena River, the following day after his arrival at the Pimeria Alta, he started a visit which covered an Indian rancheria, which he named San Ignacio de Caborica, and founded there a Mission in 1690 under the administration of Father Luis Pinelli. It had, as visits, Magdalena, Imuris and El Tupo, while in another of the branches of the Magdalena river, Babasac, he established the Cocospera Mission. Also, along the Altar river he would establish the Tubutama mission, administered by Father Antonio Arias, in 1691. It had, as visits, Saric and Tucuvabia.

However, none of these missionaries remained for long, until 1693 when Father Agustin de Campos arrived at San Ignacio, and Daniel Januske at Tubutama. They would be the first permanent missionaries in Pimeria Alta, besides Kino himself.

In 1694, Father Francisco Xavier Saeta also arrived, and

"...after some duscussions whether the new Father missionary would be more useful at San Cayetano towards the North, or San Ambrosio del Tucuvabia towards Northwest, or either at La Concepcion towards the West, Father Visitor assigned that Priest... to the new mission of Nuestra Senora de Cabotca..."

In other words, with the arrival of this new missionary to the Pimeria, both Kino and the Visitor had the opportunity to consolidate some of the routes already sketched to the Northwest Coast: Either along the Santa Cruz River, the Altar River, or the more direct one, through Caborca: they chose Caborca, although this election turned to be a fateful one. Saeta wouldn't last at his mission: during an Indian uprising during Holy Week in 1695, the Indians killed him, and at the same time the dreams of establishing a chain of missions in that region suffered a blow.

Also, during this same uprising, the Pima Indians came to El Tupo in search of peace. They were having a meeting there with the Spanish authorities when Lt. Antonio Solis attempted to arrest the leaders of the uprising, and the soldiers killed 48 Indians.

Starting in 1697, Kino, without abandoning his original idea of tryint to communicate towards the Northwest, also tried to reinforce the Missionary enclaves along the Santa Cruz. To that end, he founded cattle ranches along that river, and so it came to be that some of those places came to be incorporated to the European nomenclature. In January of that year, he visited and mentioned the first place within today's municipality of Nogales, where he established the Missionary presence:

"...we took cattle, as well as some mares, and the small ranch of San Luis del Bacuancos was begun, with 60 heads of cattle; there was also some cattle at San Cayetano, ... and some cattle was taken to San Javier del Bac..."

This Indian ranch of San Luis was located near today's town of the Centauro de la Frontera. On November 26 of the same year, in another of the missionary visits:

"...during the night we arrived at the ranch of San Cayetano del Tumagacori,... and the next morning we counted some 30 houses and 150 souls... on the 27, after Mass, we left here, walking to the South, a little towards the Southwest; and some 6 leagues beyond, we arrived at the ranch of San Gabriel de Guevavi, ... where we counted 80 people, all of them land workers, with beautiful lands, being all of them irrigated..."

Guevavi was located a little downriver from San Luis, that is near today's bridge over the Santa Cruz, along the road between Nogales and Patagonia, obviously in today's state of Arizona.

This new route along the Santa Cruz, following San Luis, Guevavi, Tumacacori, and San Javier del Bac, by then had turned into the main communication route of the Jesuit Missions towards the North.

Turning now our attention to the region where today's city of Nogales is located, in November 1701 Father Kino crossed it. That Month he left Dolores beginning one of his exploratory trips, the only one in which he would cross the Colorado River into California. During that trip, being at Guevavi:

On the 5, having said Mass in the new and very clean church that Father juan de San Martin had recently built (and His Reverence had gone seeking for a cure), and I had ordered for a new ceiling to be built, and whitewashed it, I left towards the West, to San Ambrosio del Busanic..."

That is, leaving Guevavi, the missionary left to his right the road he had followed in all of his previous trips along the Santa Cruz river to the North. Instead, he now went Southwest, making a detour around Mt Benedict, and then along today's Proto Canyon, and over the pass and down to the Arroyo Los Nogales. He then continued South along the Arroyo Los Nogales where the city is located now, and after crossing Encinas Pass, he intered the Alisos Arroyo:

"...and having passed near the new ranch of San Simon and San Judas del Siboda, where there were some one thousand heads of cattle, and seven herds of mares,with enough horses and mules, all for the new missions to be established, and having walked 15 leagues, we arrived to sleep at the good place of another Sonoidac, located seven leagues before San Ambrosio del Busanic"

In this manner, another supply route with more cattle ranches was established, to try to find another road to the Northwest: Guevavi, Cibuta, and Busanic. It is possible that there was some Indian population in the canyon where Nogales is located now. However, Kino didn't mention the place.

When Kino passed away in Magdalena, on March 15, 1711, he had already established missions along the Concepcion river, the Santa Cruz, San Pedro, Sonoita and Gila, covering the whole of Pimeria Alta. You can click the image at the left, to see his death certificate.

We must add that within the municipality of Nogales, Kino also mentioned the locales of Capazura, located South of San Luis, while a companion of Kino in many of his travels, Juan Matheo Mange, would mention Quiquiborica, also located South of San Luis.