The Patas In Search Of A Sonoran People

the long version

"This book brings together a tremendous number of historical sources to paint a picture of the Opatas, a group that has been largely neglected in academic literature. It should serve as a key historical reference to fellow scholars as well as the general reader."--Kirstin Erickson, Author or Yaqut Homeland and Homeplace: the Everyday Production of Ethnic Identity. In 1600 they were the largest, most technologically advanced indigenous group in northwest Mexico, but today, though their descendants presumably live on in Sonora, almost no one claims descent from the Opatas. The Opatas seem to have "disappeared" as an ethnic group, their languages forgotten except for the names of the towns, plants, and geography of the Opateria, where they lived. --Book Jacket.