COMMUNITIES SERVED BY SMA:
Choreachi (Pino gordo)

Choreachi is perhaps the most functional traditional community in North America and has maintained its unity during a seventy-year battle to defend its lands and forests. It is the last Tarahumara community to live in an ancient forest, which they are determined to protect because it was planted by Onoruame (God) and is a sacred natural gift. Choreachi is reknowned for its shamans, whose authority has never been broken by missionary, mestizo, or government influence.

Today Choreachi is threatened by a neighboring mestizo community which covets its forests. In 1999, the community protested illegal logging and, with support from SMA, uncovered a land fraud which had stripped them of their rights to their ancestral lands. SMA has sponsored numerous biological studies in the region, trained indigenous promoters in conservation planning and research, and, in 2000, we submitted a community-generated proposal to establish a natural protected area. Also in 2000, our partners initied legal procedures to regain title to their lands.

Choreachi is both a cultural and an ecological treasure of international importance. In 2001, CONABIO designated Choreachi as a national conservation-priority areas, thanks to information provided by SMA and our partners. Its old-growth pine forest descends into oak savanna, desert, and finally tropical dry forest at the base of the 6,000-foot-deep Barranca Sinforosa, at the northern border of the pueblo. SMA-sponsored studies [link] have documented forty-six threatened, endangered, and protected species in Choreachi including Jaguarundi, Thick-billed Parrot, Golden Eagle, Northern Goshawk, three species of Trogon, and Military Mackaw. Over 120 species of neotropical migratory birds have been identified there.

Due to Choreachi’s land conflict, the government has refused services to the community. Over three hundred children have no access to school; there are no jobs, and traditional agriculture no longer meets the needs of the community. SMA has begun fundraising and planning to build a primary school in Choreachi and to regenerate local agriculture through soil restoration.

The campaigns to established a Natural Protected Area and to gain recognition of Tarahumara land rights are still underway.