Seris call themselves “Konkaak,” which means “the people.” The word “seri” comes from the yaqui language and means “men from the sand.”

Currently seris live in two places of the desertic coast of Sonora: Desemboque which is located in Pitiquito’s municipality and Punta Chueca located in Hermosillo’s. Frequently, and according to the fishing cycles, seris also live in several fishing camps distributed along their territory approximately about 100 littoral km. The konkaak territory covers an area of about 211 000 ha at see level and it’s integrated by a continental part and by the Tiburon Island.

Toward the south, Punta Chueca is communicated by a land road to Kino Bay, from where a 105 km road leads to Hermosillo. Towards the north, Desemboque is communicated by a 156 km road to Caborca, Sonora.

Currently, there are 619 Seris in Sonora.

HISTORY

The Konkaak territory had, before the arrival of the Spaniards, as natural borders the sea, the mountains and the Encinas desert. Through the desert coast, towards the south, it limited with the Yaqui river, at the north with the desert of Altar, at the east it arrived until Horcasitas and at the west, in addition to the coast, it occupied near islands like Tiburon, San Esteban, Patos and Alcatraz. The area that crossed the group included what at the moment are fourteen municipalities of Sonora, because it was a nomadic town whose mobility turned around the water-bearing resources and to the cycles of the basic flora and fauna for its survival. It is presumed that at the pre-Hispanic time they were organized in six bands, divided as well in clans. There were no head of clan nor band, and it was only appointed to carry out that duty the most qualified member in extraordinary times, as in a war, as well as in difficult times of little harvesting, hunting and fishing. Women have an economically important role, because she was in charge of the harvesting that guaranteed the daily sustenance, thus were organized in clans of matriarchal structure.

Within their culture, the konkaak were the antithesis of what the Spaniards needed: its territory was not easily usable, they didn’t have accumulated wealth, they didn’t produce the sufficient goods to make the conquest income-producing and were useless as manual labor to cultivate and to serve, since they did not know those activities. For that reason, the seris conserved for a longer period of time their autonomy and culture, more than other indigenous towns. During the colonial period, the most stable contacts occurred between seris and the Jesuits, who tried to concentrate them in towns to evangelize them and to teach them agricultural workings. None of its efforts were successful and the seris always returned to the desert life, reason why they were considered like a militant group, dedicated to the looting, robbery and slaughter of the cattle of white people.
The Spaniards first and Mexicans later, reacted before konkaak not with policies of conquest and colonization but of extermination. That leaded to the almost total annihilation of the group.

LANGUAGE

The language of konkaak forms part of the filum or Hokano ancestry, to which also belongs coahuilteco (northeast of Mexico) and tlapaneco. Nevertheless, the language seri comprises the seriyumana family, which means, on one hand, that its narrower and more recent relation is with the yumano of the North part of the peninsula of California, and, by the other one, that this language totally resists with the one of the neighbor speakers of languages and uto-Aztecs like pima, pápago, yaqui and mayo which belong to another filum or relatively recent ancestry in the area. At the moment most of the population is bilingual and, in some cases, even trilingual, because in addition to seri they speak Spanish and English.

Seris maintain their language with great vitality and instead of adopting terms of the Spanish to designate the new cultural elements that have been added to their life, they continue creating new terms.

Do you want to learn some Seri? Here's a Seri Vocabulary just for you!

Seri Vocabulary

Numbers from 1 to 10

CRAFTS

The artisan work at this moment consists of iron wood carving, the weave of coritas (baskets) and the elaboration of necklaces. The iron wood carving was initiated in 1964 by Don Jose Astorga Encinas, in a critical moment for the tribe who needed monetary income to survive.

The necklaces, of varied and innovative designs, are made of snail shells, seeds, beads, and rattlesnake and fish vertebrae.

RELIGION

The seris didn’t develop a very complicated religious-governmental system. Their world interpretation, their rituals, festivities, and other cultural manifestations have a close character related to nature and other biological and social aspects of the group reproduction.

In that way, their main rituals are related to birth, puberty, and death. Their songs and tales are about the sea, the sharks, foxes, and ancient feats of heroes and warriors. As they weren’t formally evangelized, they lack of catholic elements that are found in other Indigenous groups.

In the seri zone, there are no catholic churches or priests. However, there are two protestant temples.

FESTIVITIES

Their main festivities are about puberty, the arrival of the seven blade large turtle, death rituals, and those associated with the seri new year and the end of the coritas production.
For their ceremonies, they use wooden buzzers, tin rattles, hammers made up of inverted gourds sustained over water and the omichihuatli, which is a stick that is roughed against another so it may sound over the inverted pot.

RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER TOWNS

The main contacts of the seris are with non-indigenous population of Kino Bay and Hermosillo, and have to do with commerce and services. Relationships with other Sonoran natives have been caused by governmental institutions which have promoted political advices. They also have a strong contact with foreigners, mainly from United Stated, in the commercial and religious scope. Their relationship with them is cordial, but however there is resentment against Mexicans due to the memory of the ancient slaughters and fights in order to gain their territory.

INTERESTING FACTS

- The Seri tribe lacks completely ethnic affinity with the Pima-Opata family of Sonora.
- Seris have the habit of tattooing themselves and piercing their ears and nose.
- Seris cry their dead people; men do it during the day, while women cry them at night. When a child dies, his or her parents cut their hair and paint their faces black, showing in this way mourning.
- They don’t bury dead bodies, however they put the corpses below trees, all covered with thorny branches in order to protect them from birds of prey. In this way, they get dried by the effects of the sun, and get back to the earth pulverized by the time.

Source:

Instituto Nacional Indigenista, http://www.ini.gob.mx

Links:

Seri Cultural Center - http://www.folkart.com/~latitude/sonora/culture.htm (English)
The Seri Indians of Sonora - http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/online.bks/seris/titlseri.htm (English)
Serian Family - http://www.sil.org/americas/mexico/seri/familia-seri.htm (English & Spanish)
Museo de los Seris - http://iscson.uson.mx/SERIS.HTM (Spanish)
Los Seri, Mitos y Matrimonios - http://www.econatura.org/revista1/Secciones/OtrosP.htm (Spanish)