At the time of first contact with the Spanish in the mid-16th century, the Opatería was a land of “statelets” – a number of independent, agricultural towns scattered up and down the inland valleys of the Sonora River (statelets: Corazones, Señora, and Guaraspi), Moctezuma River (statelets: Cumupa, Batuco, and Pinebaroca), Bavispe River (statelet: Sahuaripa), and Aros River (statelets: Paibatubo, and Oera). There were at least 5 Opata statelets, and 4 others which were either Opata, Pima, or mixed. The statelets had populations of several thousand people, and consisted of towns surrounded by dispersed dwellings, and irrigated cropland on which the Opata grew corn, squash, beans, and cotton. The Jova, however, were a more dispersed people, living in more rugged terrain, and depended more on hunting and gathering than the other Opata groups.