The Tarahumara live in Copper Canyon in Mexico.  Copper Canyon is a complex of six major canyons that have their confluence south of Chihuahua.  In terms of area, the canyons are bigger than Denmark and about the same size as West Virginia, USA.  There are few roads into the canyons; those that are there are dirt or gravel and rarely traveled.  The cliff sides are steep and the roads and trails hang on the edge with a sheer cliff to the canyon bottom on one side and a sheer cliff to the top of the canyon on the other.  The ground is generally desolate and there are few areas flat enough for farming.

This is the Tarahumara’s home.  No one knows for sure, but estimates are that there are between fifty to seventy thousand Tarahumara living here.  Tarahumara live in small enclaves or completely isolated.  There are no Tarahumara “cities” or even towns.  Frequently, a family’s fields will lie many miles from their homes.

The Spanish never managed to conquer the Tarahumara.  When the Spanish advanced, the Tarahumara simply retreated further back into the canyons.  When the Spanish tried to follow them, the Tarahumara slaughtered them.  No one knows these canyons like the Tarahumara.  The Tarahumara and the Spanish fought many wars, all of which ended in an uneasy tie.

The Tarahumara still live traditionally.  Since they live completely isolated from the rest of society, modern conveniences are few and far between.  There is little to no electricity in the canyon (except for the silver and gold mines), no city water, sewage, etc.  Their lives are regulated by the sun.  When it is light, they get up and when it is dark, they generally go to bed (much like bluewater sailors).  The women wear wonderfully colorful dresses; the men wear colorful shirts and a loincloth.  Everyone wears “huaraches”, sandals that are made of old tires.

Their diet is high in carbohydrates.  Corn, beans (protein) and what other vegetables they can farm; typically squash or the like.  They do not eat much meat, although they will eat wild turkeys or deer if they can get them.  They raise goats, sheep and cattle, but don’t eat them – they are traded away.  They also grow tobacco and like to smoke.  They brew a type of beer from their corn.  Corn beer deteriorates quickly so they drink it all when they brew, resulting in rather drunk Tarahumaras.  But it is not the typical “drunken redskin”, they only brew and drink when they are having a festival or for large religious ceremonies.  The Tarahumara are extremely shy and for most of them, the beer drinking festivals are the only time, husbands and wives are together sexually.

The beer (tesgüino) is only brewed for important occasions (tesgüinadas), be the occasion a festival, party or religious ceremony.  Harvest festival and the like or a social gathering of several families, marriages are certain to require corn beer.

Their religion is a mixture of Catholicism and their old gods.  Jesuit priests attempted to Christianize the Tarahumara in the 1700 but they never completely converted.  The Jesuits were kicked out at one point by the Spanish and thereafter the religion developed along the lines of the Tarahumara beliefs.  Since they lived (and still) virtually isolated from the outside world, the religion developed in several different directions.  The divergence does not cause strife, however.  The most common belief is that God and his family, wife, sons and daughters live in heaven and make order in the world.  There is also a devil, Riablo.  Riablo is not completely evil.  He can be lured into doing good and while he makes evil or causes others to do evil, it is because of thoughtlessness, not because it is his intention.

The Tarahumara also eat peyote, which is a hallucinogen.  Only men eat peyote and then only on certain occasions.  If peyote is to be eaten, then a Shaman (wise man) must be there to lead the ceremony.  Boys may begin to eat peyote and drink the corn beer when they are 14.  After their fourteenth birthday, they are considered adults and have the responsibilities of an adult.

Marriages are arranged between families.  Normally a young woman or man will be married off to an older person.  Typically, a 16/18 year old will marry a person in their 40’s.  Later when their spouse dies, they will marry again, this time to a young man or woman.  With the arranged marriages, the Tarahumara attempt to avoid in breeding.  When we were in the San Blas islands, we saw several albino children among the Gunas, the result of marriages through several generations of close cousins.  We saw none amongst the Tarahumara and they do what they can to avoid it.

As noted, the Tarahumara live isolated from the outside world.  While many today have built and live in houses (typically 1 room), there are still many that live in caves.  It seldom rains here in Copper Canyon and the shelter that is needed here is shelter from the heat and the sun.  Caves are the perfect type of housing for this.  They are cool in the summer and while seldom needed, can be heated in the winter.  Generally, there will be a small spring in a cave, solving the water problem.

As I wrote above, because of the shortage of more or less flat arable land, families frequently live many miles from their farms.  This causes them to have to walk for several hours up and down the steep mountainsides to work their land.  The same is true if they want to visit other families or villages.  Visiting can easily mean a trek through the mountains of up to 100 kilometers or more.  We saw a number of Tarahumara houses that lay on top of a mesa or at the bottom of a gorge in complete isolation, many kilometers away from the nearest neighbor.  Guests are not an everyday occurrence.  Since distances are great here, the Tarahumara have developed their running capacities.  Frequently they will run up to 150 kilometers (yes, I DID write 150 kilometers or 100 miles) per day.  Running here, means running up and down steep mountainsides on narrow trails.

The Tarahumara have another name for themselves – Rarámuri Indians.  Rarámuri means – those that run on light feet.  A Tarahumara cheerfully runs 50 kilometers or more.  Their talent for running extremely long distances allows them to hunt wild turkey and deer.  They simply run after them until they are so tired they can no longer run away and then the Tarahumara kill them with a stone or a knife. 

The Tarahumara run everywhere.  They often run up to 150 kilometers per day (remember this is on steep mountain trails), sleep, then get up and run another 150 kilometers the next day.  And the next day.  And the next day.

Running is their great sport and they get high from running.  When a village wants a little entertainment, they will issue a challenge to several other villages; “We are the fastest runners in this canyon and if anyone doubts that, they can come over to us and try to prove it”.

Naturally, once the gauntlet is thrown, all the other villages take up the challenge.  The villages show up en masse, and it becomes a several day party.  Corn beer is brewed and consumed in vast quantities and all the men drink until they drop.  Sometimes they drink so much that the race is postponed for a day so they are capable of running.

The race consists of teams, each with a small wooden ball that they must keep in motion while they are running.  No hands allowed.  They pass the ball between themselves and kick it ahead.  Sometimes it jams under rocks or cactus and they have to dig it out (with their feet).  At night, they simply run in the dark.  We were told a story about a race run several years ago.  The team from the one village got so drunk that only one of the team members was able to stand the next morning for the race.  He ran the entire 250 kilometers through both the day and the night alone (he did lose, but everyone was impressed that he did it alone).  According to the story, he didn’t mind running the whole distance, but he was a little perturbed that he pissed blood for several days after he raced.

They are world renowned as the epitome of long distance runners.  There is a running discipline known as Ultramarathons.  Ultramarathons are races over 50 miles and they are all run through steep mountains.  One of the famous ones is the Leadville Ultra, just over 100 miles through the Colorado Mountains.  In the mid 90’s, three Tarahumara showed up to start.  Everyone else, semi and professional runners, had spent the month before the race strictly controlling their diet to ensure maximum endurance for the race.  They all ran in custom designed shoes and wore special clothing that allowed their sweat to dissipate while keeping them cool.  They had trained for years and wore compression bandages to keep their muscles from cramping.

The Tarahumara showed up wearing their colorful shirts and loincloths.  They stood at the start talking, drinking corn beer and smoking their home-rolled cigarettes.  Their shoes were their homemade sandals with old tires for soles (huaraches).

One of the other participants in the race described his experience:

We had run about half the distance when one of the Tarahumara suddenly appeared alongside me.  He looked like he had just started running.  He wasn’t sweating, wasn’t panting and he more or less floated over the ground.  He ran alongside me for several minutes, waved and disappeared.  I do mean he just disappeared.  He ran away from me as if I was standing still.  He floated over the ground and it seemed his feet never touched the stony path.  Soon another couple Tarahumara passed me, once again as if I stood still.  I’ve never seen anything like it.

The Tarahumara took first second and fifth place.  The winner was 55 years old.  Ultramarathons is considered a young man’s sport.  The following year, a couple of other Tarahumara showed up at the start.  This time they slaughtered all the competitors and set a new course record that has yet to be beaten.  Since then, a number of sports doctors have tried to understand how the Tarahumara can do it.  No matter how far they run, their blood pressure never gets above 130/70; their pulse rarely goes over 60.  Cardiovascular sicknesses are unheard of amongst the Tarahumara as are high cholesterol, diabetes and other lifestyle illnesses.  The same is true for old age.  Many Tarahumara live to well into their 90’s and continue to run until they die.

We saw two Tarahumara in a mountain trail across a gorge from us.  The one, a woman, was on her way down and while she wasn’t running, it was an impressive speed she had just walking.  The other was a man on his way up.  He also was not running, but his walking speed was about the same speed as my running speed (on flat ground).  The trail they were on was quite steep and we could only shake our heads in wonderment.

The Tarahumara only run long races – not ordinary marathons.  An ordinary marathon is much too short they say.  After 42 kilometers, we are just beginning to find our running rhythm and getting warmed up.

The women also run – just as well as the men.  There is one woman, Maria, Lorenz Ramirez who has become extremely well known.  She runs Ultramarathons, competing against the men.  The women competitors are no competition for her.  Not only does she compete against the men, she beats them regularly.

I can only guess at the humiliation those highly trained male runners must feel.  Here they are at the starting line equipped with every device modern science has developed to help them run and Maria shows up.  She runs in her traditional dress (almost ankle length), carrying a small water bottle in her hand and with a kerchief around her neck.  For running shoes, she wears huaraches she makes from old tires.

She simply runs away from all the men.  When the men hear she is coming to a race, they start talking about who will garner second place.  First place has already been decided.

The modern world is, of course, making inroads into Tarahumara life. A number of Tarahumara live on the outskirts of Creel and we saw many in town.  They sell their handicrafts, baskets and the like.  Some have mobile phones and some drive cars.  Tarahumara children do go to school and that means they are exposed to everything the rest of us are, mobile phones, computers, western diet, PC’s and the like.

As with most indigenous cultures, theirs is slowly dying out as the younger generations demand modern conveniences.  As long as they live far back in the canyons, however, their culture will survive.  There are no conveniences in the outback.

A final note.  We asked Caesar, our guide if anyone trekked through the canyons.  Were there guides etc?  He said that the only guides were the Tarahumara.  He had once trekked the length of one of the canyons with a Tarahumara guide.  It took one week.  He also said that there was one agency that could arrange for a Tarahumara guide, but did so with a warning:  Tarahumara walk at a different speed than westerners, unless you are in very good shape, you will not be able to keep up.