Tarahumara - Settlements

The Tarahumara in the Sierra Madre continue their traditional pattern of living near their fields in hundreds of hamlets and isolated homesteads scattered along streams and canyons. Catholic missionary efforts to congregate the Tarahumara into compact villages have largely failed, but their churches have become the foci of community religious and political activities. In the second half of the twentieth century, notched log houses have replaced more traditional stone and mixed stone and handhewn-plank houses over much of Tarahumara country. In many areas, residents move during the growing season to cultivate dispersed fields; some shift to rock shelters or winter houses during the colder months of the year.