GSHA-SC would like to welcome you to a new website by John Schmal. It is IndigenousMexico.org,
This website is a resource for anyone interested in the indigenous tribes of Mexico and Southwest United States.
When John started doing Mexican genealogical research in the 90s, many people asked him about the type of indigenous tribes that inhabited the regions where their ancestors came from. He had friends whose families had come from Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacán and Guanajuato and they wanted to know more about these tribal groups whose names they had never heard of. So twenty years ago, he started to research these “unknown” native groups and put together their stories.
Mexico has one of the most diverse linguistic and cultural environments in the world. In school, we all learned about the Aztecs and Mayans, but there is so much more to the indigenous people of Mexico. Remember that Mexico has 31 states, but the Aztecs and Mayans inhabited or ruled over significant portions of only 13 states.
Today, he believe that EVERY MEXICAN STATE HAS A STORY TO TELL. And he would like to help people learn more about those stories. This website features a number of short histories and presentations that will put you, your students, and your library patrons on a path to learning more about the native people who may be your ancestors.
Even today, 500 years after Cortés arrived on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, Mexico has 64 ethnolinguistic groups within its borders, and each of those groups has a story to tell.
This website has been developed as A ONE-STOP RESOURCE for interested persons and students. The bibliographies provided at the end of these histories and the footnotes in the presentations can provide you with additional resources to help you learn more about these fascinating groups.
Please take a moment and look over the site, add it to a list of resources. Please note that the work will always be brought up to date when more information becomes available.
