Chichimeca Jonaz

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Chichimeca Jonaz
Úza
Total population

Mexico:approx 1,641 (200)

Regions with significant populations
Mexico (Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí)
Languages
Chichimeca Jonaz, Spanish,
Religions
predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Pames

The Chichimeca Jonaz are a group of indigenous Mexicans living in Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí. In Guanajuato State the Chichimeca Jonaz people live in a community of San Luis de la Paz municipality. The settlement is 2,070 m above sea level. They call this place Rancho Úza (Indian Ranch) or Misión Chichimeca.

In the 2000 General Census by INEGI 1,641 people named themselves as speakers of the Chichimeca Jonaz language. Of these 1,433 speakers lived in Guanajuato, and the other 115 in San Luis Potosí.

Their language belongs to the Pamean sub-branch of the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean linguistic family, the closest relative of the Chichimeca Jonaz language is the Pame language.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards they were a nomadic people roaming North Central Mexico. After the Spanish Conquest of Mexico they fought against Spaniards and Christianized Indians in the Chichimec Wars along with the Pames and Otomies and other Chichimecan peoples. In the last part of the sixteenth century they settled down in the area they now inhabit.