Trail Of 1000 Tears by Russ

This is a documentary for the American Indians of Yaqui decent. Yaqui leader Juan Banderas (executed 1833) wished to unite the Mayo, Opata, and Pima tribes, together with the Yaqui, to form an alliance separate from Mexico in the 1820s, but the effort failed and the Yaqui remained within the scope of Mexican legal authority. The nation suffered a succession of brutalities by the Mexican authorities, including a notable massacre in 1868 where 150 Yaqui were burned to death by the army inside a church. Another prominent (and failed) effort to win independence was led by the Yaqui leader Cajemé. Following this war, the Yaqui were subjected to further brutality under the regime of Porfirio Díaz, who implemented a policy of ethnic transfer, in order to remove the Yaqui from Sonora so that he could encourage immigration from Europe and the United States. The government transferred tens of thousands of Yaqui from Sonora to the Yucatán peninsula, where they were sold as slaves and worked on plantations; many of these slaves died from the brutal working conditions. Many Yaqui fled to the United States to escape this persecution. Today, the Mexican municipality of Cajeme is named after the fallen Yaqui leader.