[Aztlan] Votan and Na Chan

[Karen Bassie]

The sources indicate that Votan founded a town called Na Chan, and then 
expanded his territory into the Tzeltal zone. The location of the town 
is unknown, but that is not surprising given that the precise location 
of many Postclassic towns are unknown. As noted in an early posting, the 
Nuñez (and presumably Ordoñez) documents were likely sworn testimonials 
to support the claim of an indigenous leader for preferential treatment 
by the Spanish authorities. So the documents were likely created by 
Votan's descendants who would have had at least a basic knowledge of 
where their family originated. For example, my mother's family 
immigrated to Canada from Russia in 1929, but everyone in the family 
knew they were originally from Germany.
By their very nature, the Votan documents would exaggerate the 
importance of Votan.