Once in Nuevo Ideal, it becomes central transit point where the main roads that communicate Northwest and Northeast Durango separate (the road going northwest to Tepehuanes is paved while the one going to Escobedo, Durango towards the northeast, is a dirt road).
The Jesuits began missionary work among the Tepehuan in 1596, establishing missions at Santiago Papasquiaro and Santa Catarina de Tepuhanes and, later, Zape.
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On November 16, 1616, a wagon train traveling to Mexico City was attacked by the Tepehuán just outside Santa Catarina de los Tepehuanes, a small village in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental.