My understanding of the Aztec concept is very superficial, so I don't know if this is a parallel I'm projecting on them or if there's an actual similarity there. Help?
Most likely. The term chichimeca means "dog-people." The chichimeca were generally hunter-gatherers living on the northern fringes of the Aztec empire. The Aztec (Mexica) were inheritors of a 3,000+ year old tradition of previously highly sophisticated civilizations. The Mexica did not think very highly of the chichimeca, hence the term "dog-people."