Pimería Alta: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

An area of 18th century New Spain, the Pimería Alta (land of the upper Pimas) encompassed modern southern Arizona in the United States and northern Sonora in Mexico.

The area took its name from its Native American inhabitants, the Pima and closely related Papago (or O'Odham) peoples. Pimería Alta was the site of an important chain of missions established by the Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and of a significant rebellion by the Pima peoples in 1751.