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Tepehuán

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Tepehuán

The Tepehuán are an Indigenous people of Mexico. They live in Northwestern, Western, and some parts of North-Central Mexico. The Indigenous Tepehuán language has three branches: Northern Tepehuan, Southeastern Tepehuan, Southwestern Tepehuan. The heart of the Tepehuan territory is in the Valley of Guadiana in Durango, but they eventually expanded into southern Chihuahua, eastern Sinaloa, and northern Jalisco, Nayarit, and Zacatecas. By the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Tepehuan lands spanned a large territory along the Sierra Madre Occidental. Tepehuán groups are divided into the Ódami (Northern Tepehuán), Audam (Southwestern Tepehuán), and O'dam (Southeastern Tepehuán), each with their own language, culture, and beliefs.

Tepehuán, alternately Tepeguán, derives from the Nahuatl term Tēpēhuanih, meaning "Mountain Dwellers" or "Mountain People". The tepe element comes from Nahuatle tepetl (mountains), and huan coming from nemohuayan (dwelling) or from macehualtin (people). Endonyms from the Tepehuán language include O'dam (Southeastern Tepehuán), Audam (Southwestern Tepehuán), and Ódami (Northern Tepehuán).

Today most men wear jeans, shirt and cowboy hat and sandals. Traditional clothing, worn by some men and more women, is very simple in the case of the first and very colorful in the latter. The male attire consists of a shirt, pants and blankets. Blankets in Northern Tepehuán are called kutum and sawira, respectively. In most communities, these items have a simple decoration in a colorful thread used to sew the hems and folds. Even in places like San Francisco de Ocotán, it is customary to tack pants, various multicolor tissues headbands, from the hem to the knee. The traditional hat, known as bonam, is made of soyate fabric with a circular shape. There are some variations in different communities. Like traditional dress, very few people these days use the leather and three holes Susak huaraches, although in some communities use is mandatory in ceremonies as mitote. The women's dress consists of three main parts: a skirt or springcity, a blouse with long sleeves and an apron around the waist. The fabrics are satin-like and decorated with lace and colored ribbons. The long socks use of bright colors is very widespread, roasted like plastic shoes. The outfit is enriched with long hair combs, beaded necklaces and earrings or other accessories. Men and women use traditional bags to complement their outfit.

They still retain some of their traditional customs. The northern Tepehuán numbered 18,249 in 2005, the southeastern, 10,600, and the southwestern, 8,700. The following groups of Tepehuán live in Mexico today:

Ódami, meaning “People of the Mountains” "We The People" or "People of This Land", live in southern Chihuahua. Tepehuans means mountain people. Ódami use the term obhai to refer to mestizos or foreigners.

The Tepehuan government is composed of a master general, several governors, six alternates, captains, sergeants, corporals, officers of justice, and prosecutors. Along with the captain-general, governors administer justice and intervene in resolving conflicts between people. The other members of Ódami government also involved in the administration of justice, while prosecutors are dedicated to clean the churches and partiers, the arrangement of the altar.

Each community has a ring other parties, introduced following the colonial evangelization that stewards are sponsored elected a year in advance to gather the necessary funds to pay for adornments and beef slaughtered in offering to saint commemorated.

O'dam means “People of the Mountains” "We The People" or "People of This Land" in Southeastern Tepehuán and Audam means "We The People" or "People of This Land" in Southwestern Tepehuán, both groups live in the Sierra Madre Occidental in southern Durango and Zacatecas, northern Nayarit, Jalisco. The O'dam, also known as Tepehuanes South or South Tepeguanos are an ethno-linguistic group. The Tepehuanes name or Tepeguanes (as they were known in colonial times) is of Nahuatl origin and was imposed both by speakers of that language as by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Linguistically, O'dam and Audam belong to the Tepiman branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, in the same branch as Ódami (Northern Tepehuan).

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