The Tarahumara Community of Choreachi

The fight for indigenous land rights in Mexico’s Copper Canyon region

Members of the Tarahumara indigenous community of Choreachi, located near Mexico's famed Copper Canyon, have long been fighting illegal logging of their old growth pine forest lands. Although the people of Choreachi have been in possession of their territory since time immemorial, they have still not obtained legal recognition of their rights to the land.

The Sierra Madre Alliance (SMA) is a local organization working on Tarahumara issues that partnered with EDLC on the case of Isidro Baldenegro. In 2007, the SMA requested international legal help from EDLC on behalf of the Choreachi community in their effort to finally resolve their land claims.

The Indigenous Community of Choreachi

The Tarahumara pueblo of Choreachi is one of the most traditional indigenous communities in North America, and the last Tarahumara community to live in an ancient old-growth pine forest. Forty-six threatened, endangered, and protected species live on those lands, and over one hundred twenty species of migratory birds have been identified there.

The indigenous people of Choreachi are determined to protect their land, which they believe was planted by Onoruame (God) as a sacred natural gift. Choreachi is both a cultural and an ecological treasure of international importance.

The struggle for land rights

Choreachi is threatened by a neighboring community of mixed ancestry that covets its forests. In the 1990s, the Mexican agrarian authorities certified a process- obtained through fraud- in which these opponents of the Choreachi people were recognized as the sole members of the ejido (“peasant community”). In 1999, the Choreachi community uncovered the fraud that had stripped them of their rights to their ancestral lands.

To generate attention to their struggles, the Choreachi community organized a march in the city of Chihuahua in 2005. More than one hundred fifty women, children, and elders maintained an encampment for fifteen days in front of the Government Palace. The government finally agreed to continue the suspension of logging in the area of Choreachi, and to provide for a local attorney to represent the community in pursuing their land claims.

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To secure the survival of these indigenous peoples as viable, distinct cultural communities within Mexico, it is necessary to protect their land and natural resource rights.

- Experts’ Report Concerning the Land and Natural Resource Rights of the Community of Choreachi, Mexico under International Law, prepared by DLA Piper US (2007)