Two cognate tribes, the Waicuri and the Pericu, occupy the southern end of the Isthmus of Lower California. Their languages, which are still spolcen, are very badly corrupted.
The Yuma family is represented in Mexico by the Cocopa (Cucapa) and the Cochitni, who occupied all but the southern one-fourth of Lower California. The native tongue is al ready badly corrupted and is fast disappearing.
The Zoque, stretching over four and one half degrees of longitude, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, from east to west, and occupy ing parts of the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco, are surrounded by Zapoteca, Chinan teca, Maya and other races. The Zoque family is divided into four branches, Mixe to the north and west of the main territory, Zoque proper, to the south and east, Tapachula, in the southeastern corner of the state of Chiapas, on the Guatemala boundary line, and the Popoloco in the state of Puebla.
The great Athapascan family is represented in Mexico by the Toboso and the Apache. The area and location of land occupied by these two nomad, warlike tribes changed from time to time; but, roughly speaking, the Apache oc cupied an irregular territory, stretching south ward from the Rio Grande and the American boundary line for a distance of five degrees of latitude, from about 105° westward, cover ing parts of Chihuahua and Sonora. But they often raided over the northern part of the latter state far into the interior. The Toboso also occupied territory stretching from the Rio Grande southward, but their general habitat reached eastward from the western boundary line of Coahuila, within which state they lived in normal times. They often joined hands with the Apache in raids on the more civilized parts of the surrounding country; and they frequently gave the United States and the Mexican governments considerable trouble. Sometimes the depredators took refuge on the American side after a raid on Mexican citizens and vice-versa when they had raided American territory.
In and around the town of Chinantla, south of Vera Cruz, occupying territory about 100 miles in extent, are the Chinanteco, who are probably a survival of one of the ancient races who populated the country before the arrival of the Nahua. The Huave (Huabi, Guavi, Juave, Wabi), another primitive race, occupy the marshes around the great lagoon which forms the northern inlet of the Gulf of Tehuantepec.
Tradition says they once possessed all the isthmus country and that they came from the south. The Jananibre, a third primitive tribe of a very warlike disposition, who occupied the rugged southwest of Tamaulipas, from a short distance north of Victoria to the southern boundary of the state, about 100 miles, gave the Spaniards much trouble before they were finally conquered toward the close of the 18th century.
To the south and east of the southern Nahua and stretching from Guerrero to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was the home of the great Mix teca-Zapoteca family, which in culture, intel ligence, enterprise and achievement was scarcely inferior to the Nahua and the Maya, between whom they seem to have been the medium of communication and of the distribu tion of the arts and sciences. They possessed a culture which, while it resembled that of the Maya and Nahua, was nevertheless distinct. The Mixteca whose territory extended into parts of Puebla, Guerrero and a considerable portion of Oaxaca, were surrounded on the north' and west by the Nahua, while the Zapot eca were their neighbors on the east. They had an outlet on the Pacific Ocean to the south west, which they may have possessed for a long time, since it is the boast of one of their oldest legends, that their great culture hero, Yucano, defied the Sun, engaged him in combat and drove him into the ocean. The Mixteca Ian guage is still spoken over most of the Mixteca country. The traditions of the Mixteca make them an alien race fighting desperately for years for their existence, in the mountains, a part of which they were forced to abandon. The rugged nature of the country in which they lived created, in time, numerous dialects of the Mixteca. To the east and partly to the south of the Mixteca country lay that of the Zapoteca, stretching for a considerable distance along the Pacific Coast and occupying the southern side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, reaching north and west of the city of Oaxaca and including the famous valley of Oaxaca, in the moun tainous districts of which the native tongue is still spoken with comparative purity. The pot tery and the metal work of the Mixteca and the Zapoteca were sought by the Mexican mer chants, who distributed them over a wide area of country.