The proportions of these racial classes vary greatly in different parts of the country. In the north the Indian tribes as such have practically disappeared. The Tarahumaras and Tepehuanas and especially the Yaquis, living in regions until recently little valued by the whites, by their resistance to further encroachments on their rights have had more attention drawn to them than their number warrants. In the south the indigenes are in general a larger part of the population. Guerrero and Michoacan inhabited by the Tarascas; Oaxaca with its Miztecs in the west and Zapotecs in the east; and Yucatan, Campeche, and Chiapas, in which the population is very largely of the Maya group, are the most distinctively Indian areas.
The number of the pure Indians has decreased relatively with the gradual spread of intermarriage with whites and mixed bloods and doubtless will continue to do so. In a large part of the republic, however, they are the most important part of the population numerically and they are the chief source of the labor supply. [1]
The descriptions of the Indians of Mexico at various periods in the history of the republic are almost interchangeable. In general they have kept, with but slight modification, the customs they had four centuries ago when America was discovered. In many parts of the country they continue to live in almost complete isolation, sufficient unto themselves. Even now they con-
- ↑ See a discussion of these points in Erich Gunther, Handbuch von Mexico, Leipzig, 1912, p. 65 et seq., and Wallace Thompson, Op. cit., pp. 8-34 and 56-85.
