Acaxee Rebellion The Acaxee Rebellion was an insurrection against Spanish rule in Mexico by Acaxee Indians in 1601 . The Acaxee . The Acaxee spoke a Uto - Aztecan language and lived in the mountains , the Sierra Madre Occidental , and canyons of east central Sinaloa and western Durango , east of the city of present day city of Culiacan . Their territory was about 125 miles north to south and 50 miles east to west . The area was called Topia and Tepehuana by the Spaniards . The Acaxee and their neighbors shared common features of culture identified by scholar Susan M . Deeds as The dispersed village culture of the Acaxee at the time of the first Spanish contact in the late 16th century may have been the remnant of a more complex hierarchical society that had been decimated by disease earlier in the same century . An epidemic swept the region in 1576 - 1577 , killing many thousands of Indians including possibly many Acaxee , and additional epidemics broke out in 1590 and 1596 - 1597 . Thus , by the time of the rebellion the Acaxee probably numbered only a few thousand . Furthermore , their capacity to resist the Spanish was adversely impacted by their endemic warfare with the Xixime to their south and the Tepehuan to the east . The Spaniards . The Spanish discovered silver deposits in Acaxee territory in the 1580s and established several mining camps . Several hundred Spaniards , black and Indian slaves , and Indian laborers migrated into the Acaxee country . They needed additional labor to work in the mines . Through the Encomienda system the Indians were forced to work in Spanish mines . However , the dispersed nature of the Acaxee settlements was a hindrance to utilizing Indian labor . Jesuit missionaries assisted in concentrating the Indians in larger settlements for easier exploitation . In the “ Peace by Purchase ” plan to resolve the Chichimeca War in 1590 the Spanish had recognized the utility of missionaries in the pacification of the northern frontiers of Nueva Espana . The Jesuits were relative newcomers to Mexico and the Indians of Sinaloa and Durango were their first major missionary efforts . In 1600 , the missionary Hernando de Santarén toured the region with a local encomendero , Captain Diego de Avila . Together they forced the Acaxee to accede to the demands of the Spaniards which included relocating to where the Spanish told them , building churches , cutting their long hair , wearing clothing , and destroying their religious images and idols . In return , the Spaniards promised to protect them from their enemies and provide tools , seeds , and schools for their communities . Indians who resisted the Spanish demands were beaten . The rebellion . An Indian leader named Perico initiated the rebellion in late 1601 . Using a mixture of Spanish and Indian religious practices , he promised his followers that the Spanish could be exterminated . The rebellion " was characterized by messianic leadership and promises of millennial redemption during a period of violent disruption and catastrophic demographic decline due to disease . " The rebellion aimed “ to restore pre - Columbian social and religious elements that had been destroyed by the Spanish conquest . ” Indian attacks over the first few weeks killed about 50 Spaniards . The Acaxee burned Spanish mining camps and buildings , including 40 churches , and besieged 40 Spanish in a church at San Andres . The siege was raised when reinforcements arrived from Durango . The priest Santarén led a peace delegation but several members of his group were killed as were members of another delegation led by a bishop . The Acaxee took up strong positions in the mountains and shut down most silver mining and other economic activities in their homeland for nearly two years . In 1603 , the Spaniards gathered an army of encomenderos and Indian allies and suppressed the Acaxee , executing Perico and 48 of their leaders and selling others into slavery . In the aftermath of the war the Jesuits assumed even greater influence , consolidating the Acaxee into a few settlements , appointing their leaders , and attempting to educate Indian children and remove them from the influence of their parents . In 1607 , a smallpox epidemic combined with the simultaneous appearance of Halley ’ s Comet , a portent of disaster , seems to have erased most remaining traces of the Acaxee ' s independence , although a few joined the Tepehuán Revolt in 1616 .