The Yoeme - also known as Yaquis - are an Indigenous people who speak a Uto-Aztecan-based language in their ancestral homeland in Mexican State of Sonora. Following and during many conflicts with the Mexican government, numerous Yaquis were forced into slavery in the Yucatan, which gave rise to a mass migration of Yaquis to the Southwest United States. Pascolas (old men of the fiestas) Deer Dancers and Chapayekas are iconic figures in Yaqui traditions. Easter is central to their annual ceremonial cycle and thus they are known as the Pascua Yaqui, now a federally recognized Indian Tribe in Arizona (since 1978).
