Spelling rules were non-existent in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, especially when the Padre was trying to spell an O’odham word like Sonoitac.  Some of the many ways it was written include, “Sonoydag, Xona, Xonoitac, and Sonoita.”  The most common spelling of the middle eighteenth century seems to have been “Sonoitac,” however.  Padre Kino called it “Los Reyes de Sonoydag,” and on October 27, 1699, claimed that there were “many more” people living at that ranchería than the “ninety souls” who were living at Guevavi.  On April 24, 1700, he wrote that Coro, the Chief of the Sobaípuri, “had gathered [there] with all his people, who numbered more than five hundred souls.”  Well up into the 1760's, Sonoitac continued to be more populous than its three sister missions, Guevavi, Tumacácori, and Calabazas, all of which were administered by the same priest.

Both before and after Kino’s death, Father Agustín de Campos administered the entire northern frontier from his headquarters at San Ignacio.  In the early years he referred to the ranchería as Xona, often in context with the nearby native settlement of Toaqui.  As time passed, he began to refer to Xona as Xonoitac, and Toaqui as Toacuquita.  Some time after Father Campos’ era, Xonoitac became a visita of Guevavi, a church was built, and a patron's name was added, making it San Ignacio de Sonoitac.  After the Pima rebellion of 1751, new churches were built at Sonoitac, Tumacácori, and Toacuquita, which became San Cayetano de Calabazas.  Sonoitac continued to operate as a mission until sometime in the 1780's, when it was abandoned.

The earliest church records of Sonoitac appear in the Cucurpe Mission register.  It is significant that on three different occasions Father Campos mentioned Toaqui and Xona together, almost as though they were one community, even though on a number of occasions he mentioned them separately and even recorded the time necessary to ride between the two.  It is a graphic example of two things: 1) the migratory nature of the ancient O’odham, and 2) the entire length of present day Sonoita Creek between Patagonia (ancient Sonoitac) and the Rio Rico golf resort (the original Toaqui) was evidently inhabited by native populations.

The following baptismal entry is the first recorded for a person from Sonoitac.  The event occurred one of two ways: either Father Campos baptized Salvador Cacabituoti at Sonoitac on one of his trips north and then recorded it in the Cucurpe baptismal  book on his way home, or else Salvador traveled to Cucurpe with him and was baptized there.  The Godfather, Salvador Jerman, was one of the earliest Spanish residents of San Ignacio and often accompanied Father Campos on his visits to the rancherías of the Pimería Alta.  Father Kino was still alive at this time.

Church buildings are generally not mentioned in mission baptismal and marriage entries, because if there was a dedicated church, it was assumed that the ceremony took place within its walls.  Thus, it is difficult to determine from mission registers when a specific church might have been built.  However, burials took place both within the walls of the cemetery, and beneath the floor of the church.  Only people of high standing in the community were buried in the church.  So, for a church like Sonoitac, which only had three recorded burials within its walls, it is not possible to determine an exact date of construction.  The first burial recorded as having taken taken place in the church was registered by Father Pauer, as follows:

Although this entry only tells us that there was a church at Sonoitac by the year 1756, a subsequent entry three years later by Father Pauer speaks of a new church, leading to the belief that the above mentioned church had probably been there for many years.

On October 19, 1768, Apaches attacked the Mission of Santa María Suamca, completely destroying it and forcing its Padre and inhabitants south toCocóspera, never to return.  Barely over a year and a half later on July 13, 1770, they struck at Sonoitac, killing nineteen people who had taken refuge in the house inhabited by Father Gil de Bernabé on his visits from Tumacácori.  Just under three years after that, the new Father at Tumacácori, Bartolomé Ximeno, in a letter dated March 5, 1773, pleaded with his Father Guardian to be allowed to move the few remaining inhabitants of Sonoitac to Agua Fria near Tumacácori.  Said he:

To be conducive to the teaching and instruction of these poor unfortunates, it is totally desirable and necessary that these four villages or farming communities be reduced to two, or no more than three.  On the contrary, in a very few years, the Apaches will finish off these little settlements.  The villages that should be brought together and joined in a new community are Guevavi and Sonoitac.  Sonoitac is situated on a mountain and at a distance from the other communities such that neither help nor aid can be sent in the frequent and repetitious invasions of the enemy.

 

Sonoitac Juan María, Isabel, Catalina, Miguel, Teresa, Ines María, Catalina, Joseph, Juan Chrisostomo, Luis, Juana, María, Josepha, Juan María, Juanico, Joseph, Antonio, Luis, Pablo, Lucia:

1770     On the thirteenth of July of the present year, the following died at the hands of the Apaches in the village of Sonoitac: Juan María, governor; his wife, Isabel, Catalina, a widow; Miguel [and] his wife Teresa; Ines María, a widow; Catalina [and] Joseph, single persons, and because of the [nature of the attack] they died without the sacraments; Juan Chrisostomo, Luis, Juana, María, Josepha, Juan María, Juanico, Joseph Antonio, Luis, Pablo, [and] Lucia -- all children.  They were given church burial in the cemetery, for which truth I sign.  Friar Juan Chrisostomo Gil de Bernabé Apostolic Father and Minister for His Majesty

Father  Antonio de los Reyes on 6 July 1772 submitted a report on the condition of the missions in the Upper and Lower Pimeria Alta.  This was his report on San Ignacio at Sonoitac as translated by Father Kieran McCarty.

The village of San Ignacio at Sonoitac is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains six leagues to the east of Guevavi and two leagues from ... Calabazas.  The lands are plentiful and good for farming, but the Indians work them very little.  The church and house of the Father Missionary have neither adornments nor furnishings.  When the Father comes to this village, and the other outlying stations, on his ministry, he brings all necessary equipment from the village at Guevavi.  According to the Census Book, which I have here before me, there are eighteen married couples, twenty widowers and bachelors, twelve widows, the number of souls in all ninety-four.