327
The European settlers were uninterested for the most part in the Comcaac territory. The lack of permanent or abundant water in the area, the perceived inadequacy
of the land for agricultural production and more importantly, the often-impossibleto-understand cultural ways of the Comcaac and their unequivocal reluctance to
become labor at the service of colonial expansion made the effort to missionized the
area an unpleasant and low-priority task for the Crown (Sheridan 1999). It was until
the first part of the Nineteenth century that the presence of European settlers was
established well within the Comcaac rage. The radical confrontation of their cultural ways led to recurrent campaigns of extermination as the only stable form of
expanding the colonial reach. The Comcaac resisted by guerrilla warfare, engaging
and disappearing into the heart of their territory. In an extraordinary story of defiance, the Comcaac were considered, next to the Apache tribes the single most preoccupying presence for colonial peace (Sheridan 1999). But the reduction of the
Comcaac territory had significantly started to take place.
After the Mexican Independence in 1821, mestizo inhabitants steadily encroached
on Comcaac territory, populating large expanses of land with livestock. Pascual
Encinas, owner of the “Costa Rica” ranch, carried out the most vicious of these
campaigns. The “Encinas Wars” stretched from 1855 to the late 1860s, killing about
half of the Comcaac population (McGee 1971/1898). The violence exerted during
the colonial and postcolonial period left a small surviving population of ~130
Comcaac individuals by the early 1920s (estimated number reported in Felger and
Moser 1985; see Sheridan 1999 and Rentería 2006 for details regarding this time
period). This small group was soon incorporated into the emergent mestizo smallscale fisheries economy of the region, establishing two remote villages (Smith
1966) in the late 1940s became the only strategy to survive the violent relation with
the Mexican population. The relative spatial and cultural isolation they enjoyed
allowed them to slowly recover their numbers; nowadays, they represent a population of over a thousand individuals.
In 1963, Tiburón Island, the heart of the Comcaac territory, was designated as a
natural protected area, resolution that henceforth prohibited this indigenous population from residing on the island. In a compensatory move, in 1975 the federal government granted communal legal rights to the Comcaac (via an “ejido”
2
) to part of
their ancient territory, including Tiburón Island—although residing on the Island
remains prohibited. The act created considerable legal confusion by imposing
diverse legal frameworks that determine access and use of resources on the island, a
situation that resulted in severe conflicts between the Comcaac people and a plethora
2 After the Mexican revolution (1910–1917), the government established a collective land reform
program in which lands were expropriated from large private owners and redistributed to landless
peasants. Ejidos are a form of communal property in which land was distributed to a group of peasants (or fishermen in this case), where land ownership resides with the ejido community rather than
the individual. In fact, the redistribution reform law stipulated that the redistributed lands remained
the property of the federal government. The administration and management of these lands and
their resources are collective. In 1991, however, the federal government passed neoliberal regulatory changes that allowed, among other changes, the sale of ejidos. Nonetheless, ejidos remain the
second largest form of land tenure in Mexico (Valdez 2006).
18 Social Cohesion and Environmental Governance Among the Comcaac of Northern…
The European settlers were uninterested for the most part in the Comcaac territory. The lack of permanent or abundant water in the area, the perceived inadequacy
of the land for agricultural production and more importantly, the often-impossibleto-understand cultural ways of the Comcaac and their unequivocal reluctance to
become labor at the service of colonial expansion made the effort to missionized the
area an unpleasant and low-priority task for the Crown (Sheridan 1999). It was until
the first part of the Nineteenth century that the presence of European settlers was
established well within the Comcaac rage. The radical confrontation of their cultural ways led to recurrent campaigns of extermination as the only stable form of
expanding the colonial reach. The Comcaac resisted by guerrilla warfare, engaging
and disappearing into the heart of their territory. In an extraordinary story of defiance, the Comcaac were considered, next to the Apache tribes the single most preoccupying presence for colonial peace (Sheridan 1999). But the reduction of the
Comcaac territory had significantly started to take place.
After the Mexican Independence in 1821, mestizo inhabitants steadily encroached
on Comcaac territory, populating large expanses of land with livestock. Pascual
Encinas, owner of the “Costa Rica” ranch, carried out the most vicious of these
campaigns. The “Encinas Wars” stretched from 1855 to the late 1860s, killing about
half of the Comcaac population (McGee 1971/1898). The violence exerted during
the colonial and postcolonial period left a small surviving population of ~130
Comcaac individuals by the early 1920s (estimated number reported in Felger and
Moser 1985; see Sheridan 1999 and Rentería 2006 for details regarding this time
period). This small group was soon incorporated into the emergent mestizo smallscale fisheries economy of the region, establishing two remote villages (Smith
1966) in the late 1940s became the only strategy to survive the violent relation with
the Mexican population. The relative spatial and cultural isolation they enjoyed
allowed them to slowly recover their numbers; nowadays, they represent a population of over a thousand individuals.
In 1963, Tiburón Island, the heart of the Comcaac territory, was designated as a
natural protected area, resolution that henceforth prohibited this indigenous population from residing on the island. In a compensatory move, in 1975 the federal government granted communal legal rights to the Comcaac (via an “ejido”
2
) to part of
their ancient territory, including Tiburón Island—although residing on the Island
remains prohibited. The act created considerable legal confusion by imposing
diverse legal frameworks that determine access and use of resources on the island, a
situation that resulted in severe conflicts between the Comcaac people and a plethora
2 After the Mexican revolution (1910–1917), the government established a collective land reform
program in which lands were expropriated from large private owners and redistributed to landless
peasants. Ejidos are a form of communal property in which land was distributed to a group of peasants (or fishermen in this case), where land ownership resides with the ejido community rather than
the individual. In fact, the redistribution reform law stipulated that the redistributed lands remained
the property of the federal government. The administration and management of these lands and
their resources are collective. In 1991, however, the federal government passed neoliberal regulatory changes that allowed, among other changes, the sale of ejidos. Nonetheless, ejidos remain the
second largest form of land tenure in Mexico (Valdez 2006).
18 Social Cohesion and Environmental Governance Among the Comcaac of Northern…