The Tarahumara Indians are far from the central areas, hard to come by, living around Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico. This canyon is 4 times larger in overall size than the Grand Canyon in the USA.. While some small villages or some houses are spread towards the inside of the canyon, other villages are located around the canyon.. Since Copper Canyon is a touristic place, there is no transportation problem, but going to the areas where the locals live is very, very complicated.. You will either have your own private jeep or hitchhike all the time like I did with my German friend.. Because there is no scheduled bus or minibus. Another problem; These areas of the state of Chihuahua are the heaviest and most dangerous drug trafficking in Mexico. It is even said to be the most dangerous place in the world in this sense.. If you’re not into drugs, I don’t think you’ll have any problems, but the weird jeeps in the area and the masked men with heavy weapons in their hands are a little scary.
We spent 3 weeks around the canyon looking for the Tarahumara Indians. The places and regions we were in were as follows; Batopilas and the village of Satevo, the town of Divisadero, the village of Urique and the city of Creel. These regions have a peculiar climate.. Like most desert climates, Creel city was extremely sunny the day before and flaky snow the next day.. Of course, I say desert climate, but that is also a bit strange.. It is extremely hot during the day and I can say cool or cold at night.. So finding these natives is challenging under any circumstances.. Perhaps the most effort and time I have spent searching for Natives so far have been on the Tarahumara Indians.. I know that some days I walk 15 km with a backpack.. I had already broken both of my toenails due to excessive exertion during these walks.
About 15-20 of them We visited the homes of the Tarahuma Indian. Although some families gradually adapted to the world order and changed their cultures and lifestyles, we also met a few families that remained unchanged, ate their dinner and drank their water.. These few families still don’t use money. There is no electricity or water in their home.. They continue their lives by using the crops they grow in their fields, such as beans and corn, for barter.. They don’t know Europe or America. They don’t know anywhere but Mexico. Although they use the Tarahumara language among themselves, there are a lot of people who speak Spanish.. That’s why knowing Spanish is usually enough to communicate with them.
I told you we visited families. Do not think that the houses are side by side. One on one mountain, the other on the other. When we asked why your houses are not next to each other, they said “everyone’s house is close to their field, so there is a distance between them”.. It took an hour on average to leave one house and go to the next.. But it was worth the effort and I can say that we got to know the Tarahumara Indians thoroughly by getting the photos we wanted.
The natives do not have any items in their homes.. There’s something like a little rug. When they go to bed at night, they lay it on the ground, they take something like a blanket over them, that’s all.. no kitchen. They cook their meals by the fire outside.. no water at home. They use the nearest creek. You can see all of them in the videos I shared in 3 sections below.
Video Part 1;
The Tarahumara Indians, like other Indians I know, do not have much of family planning.. It is not possible to see married couples at the age of 15 with their children.. Or it is normal for them to have 8-9 children in a house while living in poverty.. Living conditions are also quite heavy and difficult for us.
When you first meet the Tarahumara Indians, you Although they seem cold, after a little talk you realize that they are very warm people.. I can even say that they were the warmest of the locals I’ve ever met.. Of course, this does not apply to locals who have come or gone from the village to the city.
Video Part 2;
I visited these natives in early 2015. We also learned sad things while talking to them or to people nearby.. We heard recently that some families were unable to find food due to drought and committed suicide.. Even though some say that there was a mass suicide, I could not find definitive information on this subject, but it is true that people committed suicide due to starvation and not being able to care for their families. Did I mention it’s like a desert climate?. This must be one of the painful consequences of living in this region.
Tarahumara Indians are famous in the world. One of the biggest reasons for this is that their men are very good runners.. Already in the region they are called Raramuri, not Tarahumara. In their language, Raramuri means “runner”.. I mean very good runners, their runs are almost superhuman.. In every ultra-marathon (80 km race) they participated, one of them would come first.. They are better trained than even the most professional athletes because their home is in the mountains and they constantly go up and down these mountains.. That’s one reason they’re good runners. The other reason is that there is an event that they celebrate once a year as a festival.. In this activity, they run nonstop for hours after a wooden ball.. For this run, some people talk about 200 km, while others talk about more km.. What’s even more interesting is that these guys don’t use shoes on runs.. They run either barefoot or in a handmade sandal style slipper. Likewise, they do not use shoes in the game played with the wooden ball I mentioned.. In the photos I saw, some actors’ feet were covered in blood.. Of course, although we can’t make sense of such situations, there is nothing we can do but respect.
Ultra marathon We learned that a Tarahumara native, who has been on the cover of famous sports magazines before, lives in the village of Urique.. My German friend Lars and I said let’s go find this guy. Although it seems close when you look at the map from a bird’s eye view, it took about 2 days to go to the village due to the transportation problem.. We would either hire a local guide and drive through the canyon or go slowly by road.. Let’s be blind to the lack of money, that’s when we missed the opportunity and experience of hiring a guide and camping the canyon in 3 days.. We would also have a chance to see the Tarahumara Indians who would probably be very, very hard to find during the canyon crossing, but now we were fed up and continued on our way.. At one point, we said we should cross the canyon ourselves, but whoever we talked to said that if you don’t have a guide, you can’t go down and out of the canyon, 99% you will die.. We hitchhiked by land to the village of Urique.. We also tracked down this Tarahumara runner who made the cover of the magazine.. We found it, but the man lives on one of the highest mountains around.. Let’s go, it only takes 3-4 hours to go on foot.. Well it has a comeback. Anyway, we said we’ve come, we’ll go this far somehow. Whoever we asked said those mountains are very dangerous, don’t go without a guide.. We were blinded again, but just two days ago, we stopped going to the man because the drug cartels were in conflict in those mountains and there were constant news of his death.. Even though 3-4 days were wasted, we deliberately said not to take such risks and we had to come back.
Video Part 3;
Another feature of Tarahumara men is that they wear skirts. Of course not all. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, those whose culture has been corrupted have changed their clothes and are wearing normal jeans.. But some of the mountaintop dwellers still wear skirts. Although it was difficult, we met about 6-7 men who wear skirts.
Tarahumara women like extremely colorful clothes.. They are also very photographic.. If you are interested in photography like me, these locals will impress you greatly.
Let me tell you this moment.. In the village of Satevo, 700-800 meters from the road, we visited some local families. Seeing that they welcomed us very well, we stopped by other houses in the vicinity.. We took photos and videos. We gave chocolates to the children, laughed and had fun. Now it’s time to go back. We thanked them all and left the houses.. We’re going down the road. At that time, I thought I’d turn around and take pictures of the houses from afar.. I saw that a few of them had come out of their houses, halfway through and waving to us over a rock.. He’s waving but we never turned our backs. Coincidentally, I just came back to take a photo.. I told my friend Lars right away that they’re waving at us.. He was also very surprised. Stop being surprised, this event really impressed us.. It’s like we never spoke on the way back. We expressed our surprise by repeating it from time to time.. You can also see the photo of the moment I mentioned below.
The Mexican government offers a discount on train transportation for these locals. Although it provides, it does not have much support other than that.. Whereas culture is about to disappear. Since transportation to the region is difficult, it is not easy to become a touristic place.. After 15-20 years, will the Tarahumara Indians survive without spoiling their culture? I do not think so. Because the children of most families have started to go to school.. You already see the change in school going children directly.. Families also go to work in the central regions to educate their children.. Some of the people we met even left the village and moved to the center.
Lastly, let me add this. Although I do not know exactly where the Tarahamura Indians originated and how they came to be, the faces and bodies of the people are very similar to the Indians we saw in those old western movies.. Some of them have exactly the same faces and looks.. I think they probably came from indians. I also saw in these natives all the naivety and humane attitudes I had heard about the Indians before.
