WHEREAS, the Tarahumara Indians have lived in the Copper Canyon region of the state of Chihuahua for 2000 years and continue to live there with traditions, customs, survival mechanisms, and religion, little changed over that entire period; and

WHEREAS, in the words of Bennett & Zingg, the Tarahumara have proved a valuable group for study because a simple American Indian culture still functions among them in a large tribal entity. “Super-imposed on this native culture is a thin veneer of Spanish-Indian elements which can be separated with considerable certainty from the pre-Spanish elements;@ ^[1] and

WHEREAS, other great societies, including the Mimbres, the Mesa Verdeans, the Hohokum, and the Mogollon - all of the Gran Chichimeca area, which stretches over 2,700,000 square kilometers from the North American Pacific coast across northwestern Mexico and southwestern United States as far as present day central Chihuahua and west Texas - all suffered collapse, dispersion, reorganization, or abandonment, and do not exist today; and

WHEREAS, the Tarahumara are worthy of our respect and our study not just for their own fascinating culture, but also as the last remaining active society from which scholars can see evidence of the transmittal of ideas across the the Gran Chichimeca area by virtue of the prehistoric significant Uto-Aztecan language shared by its inhabitants;^[2] and,

WHEREAS, the magnificent Tarahumara are, in our modern age, confronted by the encroachment of non-Indian people into their remaining homeland; are exploited by those who would make a spectacle of their society for a fast profit; are manipulated by still others who would employ them in the furtherance of illegal endeavors; and ignored, unacknowledged, or disregarded by so many of us who have the collective power to protect them and their ancient way of life; and

NOW THEREFORE, the undersigned individuals, who are members of the FRIENDS OF THE TARAHUMARA INDIANS, or who sign this petition as friends of said organization, call upon the government officials of the Republic of Mexico and the State of Chihuahua, to move with all speed to enact legislation and to otherwise promote, the creation of a cultural biosphere, a designated area consisting of or existing within, the present day living area of the Tarahumara Indians in Copper Canyon, Chihuahua.

A cultural biosphere would be a region in which the Tarahumara could live among themselves only, in the manner they have maintained for thousands of years, under the protection of the Mexican government, but with as little outside interference in their lifestyle as possible.  The undersigned urge the public officials of Mexico to act quickly, and, if desirable and possible, to engage the assistance of the international community of nations, in the protection of the Tarahumara and in the process of establishing and maintaining a cultural biosphere as called for in this petition.                           

^[i]Tarahumara Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico, 1935, Bennett & Zingg, 1935

^[ii] (HBNAI, Vol.9 Smithsonian)