The Yaqui communities of Sonora engage in continuous albeit sporadic rebellion. José María Leyva “Cajeme,” a sergeant who fought for the Republic at the siege of Querétaro (1867), reorganizes the governance of the eight Yaqui pueblos: Cócorit, Bácum, Vícam, Tórim, Pótam, Rahun, Huírivis, and Béleb. He is executed on 25 April 1887 in Cócorit pueblo. His successor, Juan Maldonado “Tatebiate,” is killed in action against the federales on 10 July 1901. Newspapers in opposition to the Díaz government protest that the campaign against the Yaquis is fundamentally a slave trade. Prisoners and their families who are captured are sent to Yucatán and Quintana Roo to work on the vast hemp and chicle plantations of that region.

The Mayan Indians refuse to give up their autonomy and culture despite repeated military campaigns against them. Colonel Victoriano Huerta campaigns under the command of General Ignacio A. Bravo in Yucatán and Quintana Roo. On 1 June 1904 the government declares victory and announces that the campaign against the Maya is officially closed. On 15 July 1908 a military train is inaugurated in order to facilitate “the campaign against the Mayan Indians.”

On 1 June 1906 the workers, many of them Yaquis, contracted by the Green Consolidated Mining Company, protest and go on strike, demanding pay equal to that received by North American workers of the mine. A disturbance breaks out between the Americans and the Mexicans and subsequently American mercenaries from Arizona are brought in by the mining company. Americans fight with guns and rifles and the Mexicans primarily with rocks and fires they set to mine property. Martial law is proclaimed but not until after the death of 23 and wounding of 22 on both sides, and the imprisonment of the miners including Yaqui Javier Huitemea in the dungeons of San Juan de Ulúa. This event, the first strike of its kind, is considered a precursor of the Revolution of 1910.