Yaqui

Ya·qui

noun \ˈyä-kē\

Definition of YAQUI

1

: a member of an American Indian people of Sonora, Mexico

2

: the Uto-Aztecan language of the Yaqui people

Origin of YAQUI

Mexican Spanish, alteration of earlier hiaqui, probably from Yaqui hiyaki, the Yaqui River

First Known Use: 1861

Rhymes with YAQUI

blocky, cocky, hockey, jockey, pocky, rocky, sake, stocky

Ya·quí

geographical name \yä-ˈkē\

Definition of YAQUÍ

river 420 miles (676 kilometers) NW Mexico in Sonora flowing SW into Gulf of California

Yaqui

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

American Indian people living in southern Sonora state on the west coast of Mexico. They were settled agriculturalists who offered stubborn resistance to the first Spanish invaders and only gradually came under mission influence. In the 19th century they fought against Mexican encroachment on their fertile lands, and they were finally quelled with difficulty in 1887. Thousands were subsequently deported. In the 1930s much of their land was returned to them. Irrigation projects have led to a shift from subsistence agriculture to cash cropping (wheat, cotton, and crops for vegetable oil). They number about 25,000 in Mexico and more than 9,000 in Arizona.