Mission Del Rey Blog

The Tarahumara or Rarámuri, as they call themselves, inhabit the Copper Canyon, as it is known in the U.S., or the Sierra Tarahumara in northwest Mexico. The actual name Tarahumara was what the first Spanish called these Native American people. The Spanish originally encountered the Tarahumara throughout Chihuahua upon arrival in the 1500's, but as the Spanish encroached on their civilization the shy and private Tarahumara retreated for the nearly inaccessible canyons of the Sierra Tarahuma …

Native American drums have long been a part of the Tarahumara culture. Reaching the Tarahumara Indians and the Mission Del Rey area to hear their native drums proved quite a challenge early on. The following is an account of one of the first explorers to reach the area in the late 1800's. Photograph circa 1890 Climbing, climbing, climbing, one massive cordon after another, at the start through dense oak thickets, and over hills flattened and eroded with countless deep, precipitous gashes seaming …