ABSTRACT
The traditional homeland of the Yaqui and the Mayo is in northwest Mexico. Yaqui territory was, and is, along the lower Río Yaqui in central Sonora; the culturally related Mayo live along the banks of the Río Mayo in southern Sonora and the Río Fuerte and the Río Ocoroni in northern Sinaloa. The two groups are sometimes called Cáhitan-speaking peoples (Beals 1945:1003). They speak closely related languages belonging to the Uto-Aztecan stock (Greenberg 1987:381). The Yaqui call themselves Yoeme, and the Mayo call themselves Yoreme.
