SONORA.- Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History have uncovered the remains of what is believed to be the first Pima village established beside the Mission of Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera, founded by Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino in the late 17th century.

The settlement was discovered in the Cocóspera Valley, between the towns of Ímuris and Cananea in the mountains of Sonora. Its remains had been preserved beneath a grove of mesquite trees for more than 300 years, only about 100 meters from the mission church.

The church is one of the few surviving Jesuit-built structures in the historic region known as the Pimería Alta, which extended across parts of present-day northern Sonora and southern Arizona.

For decades, architects, historians and archaeologists had tried to determine where the Himeri Pima people lived during the mission’s earliest years. Researchers hoped to better understand the development of the mission complex, daily life before and after the arrival of the Jesuits, and the community led in the 17th century by a local chief known as Cola de Pato, or Duck Tail.

The newly identified village appears to date to the mission’s founding by Father Kino in 1687. It was located outside the officially protected boundaries of the mission settlement and had been obscured by disturbances caused by construction projects carried out during the mid-20th century.

The discovery was made during archaeological rescue work connected to the Ímuris-Nogales railway project. Tomás Pérez Reyes, an archaeologist with INAH, worked with specialists from several parts of Mexico to document the settlement. The project is being carried out by the Ímuris-Nogales Railway Archaeological Rescue team, which includes six archaeologists from the INAH Sonora Center.

Júpiter Martínez Ramírez, a member of the team, said the site provides rare evidence of the resistance, cultural transformation and adaptation experienced by the Pima people as the mission system was imposed across the region.

Excavations have so far covered an area of approximately 800 square meters. Archaeologists identified domestic structures and spaces used for community gatherings, including buildings that combine Spanish and Indigenous traditions.

Some homes were built with molded adobe bricks, a construction technique introduced by the Spanish, while their interiors followed Indigenous spatial arrangements. These included hearths placed in the center of the dwelling. Researchers also found fragile traces of temporary structures built using local Native techniques.





Outside the buildings, archaeologists uncovered 20 ovens containing the remains of numerous animals, including cattle, pigs, sheep, deer, dogs, chickens, turkeys, donkeys and horses. The animals had been prepared using both metal knives and chipped-stone tools.

Plant remains associated with food preparation included amaranth, maize, cactus and quelites, a broad term used in Mexico for edible wild greens.

Martínez Ramírez said the variety of animal remains reflects the survival of Pima cultural practices, particularly in the way the community used all available resources.

“The Spanish did not eat horses, yet here we found cooked remains from all kinds of animals,” he said.

Among the most significant finds was a large number of arrowheads scattered throughout the settlement.

“We found them everywhere,” Pérez Reyes said. “This is material evidence that the Himeri Pimas continued to use them after the Jesuits established themselves in Cocóspera.”

The archaeologists also discovered ornaments made from shells originating in the Gulf of California. These were used alongside Christian crosses and religious medals, illustrating how Indigenous and European objects coexisted within the community.

According to Pérez Reyes, the artifacts reveal a turbulent period marked not simply by cultural replacement, but by resistance, negotiation and adaptation as the Himeri people were brought into the Jesuit mission system.

Mexico’s culture secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, said the discovery demonstrates the importance of archaeological rescue projects in protecting heritage and recovering histories that have remained hidden for centuries.

She noted that the settlement offers a closer view of everyday Himeri life through its architecture, objects and cultural practices, revealing a history of resistance, adaptation and continuity.

After the Jesuits were expelled from New Spain in 1769, Franciscan missionaries took control of the Cocóspera mission. Toward the end of the 18th century, they renovated the earlier Jesuit adobe building, covering it with brick and lime plaster.

Inside, they installed brick altars decorated with plasterwork and mural painting. These later Franciscan modifications are among the architectural elements still visible in the surviving ruins of the mission church today.