Editing Cajemé (section)

===Appointment as Alcalde Mayor===

Having successfully served in the Mexican military in the war against the French occupation, Cajemé's service proved so exemplary that in 1872 he was appointed to the office of [[Alcalde|Alcalde Mayor]] of the Yaqui by then Sonora Governor [[Ignacio Pesqueira]]. Expected by Pesqueira to assist in pacifying the Yaqui people, he instead united the eight Yaqui [[Village|pueblo]] into a small, independent [[republic]] and unexpectedly announced he would not recognize the Mexican government unless his people were allowed to independently govern themselves. Cajemé took on the role of a social reformer, he reorganized the administrative system of Yaqui society and life back to a state that had existed when there was far greater autonomy and self-sufficiency for the Yaqui people. This was based it to a large extent on the earlier Yaqui system (Mayors, Captains, [[Medicine man|Temastianes]] etc.). He re-established the popular assemblies, summoning them whenever it was necessary to rely on the entire population. Restructuring and disciplining Yaqui society to provide economic security and military preparedness, Cajemé instituted a system of [[taxation]], and external [[trade]] control, initially establishing a tax on the ships that traded in the Yaqui River. To impose a toll on commercial traffic on its territory, in particular those who traded salt extracted from the coasts of the Yaqui nation, and to demand a premium from the cattle owners who the Yaquis stole cattle from, upon their return. All these economic sources allowed them to procure arms and ammunition, and also to develop agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing.<ref>Gouy-Gilbert, 1983</ref> This was all for the welfare and defense of the new nation against those that would take away the Yaqui's traditional lands.