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The indigenous inhabitants of Bolsón de Mapimí were mainly hunter-gatherers. They belonged to numerous groups that the Spaniards called by different names and had no political central power. The biography of the indigenous leader Don Santiago Alonso, however, shows that leadership positions among those Indians were enduring. It seems clear that Alonso had a broad network of alliances that allowed him to rapidly gather substantial military forces and escape easily to territories beyond Spanish dominion, but his short-lived, though recurrent, alliances with Spaniards generated deep divisions between peaceful and warlike Indians that eventually brought about the extinction of the Cabezas as a group., Los indios del Bolsón de Mapimí eran sobre todo cazadores recolectores y comprendían múltiples parcialidades a las que les españoles dieron distintos nombres. No tenían poder politico centralizado. Pero la biografía de don Santiago Alonso muestra que los liderazgos entre los indios eran muy duraderos. Santiago contaba con una amplia red de alianzas que les permitían reunir fuerzas bélicas considerables y escapar con facilidad a territorios fuera del dominio español. Sin embargo, sus alianzas efímeras pero recurrentes con los españoles llevaron a profundas divisiones entre indios de paz e indios de guerra que terminó en la extinción de los cabezas como grupo.