Slike strani
PDF
ePub
[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

CHAPTER XIII.

THE MARICOPA, MOHAVE, APACHE-MOHAVE, YUMA, AND APACHE-YUMA.

LOCATION OF MARICOPAS JOIN THE PIMAS-
FIGHT WITH YUMAS-RESERVATION - LO-
CATION OF MOHAVES CHARACTERISTICS-

DWELLINGS-AGRICULTURE-RESERVATION—
LOCATION OF APACHE-MOHAVES - CHARAC-
TERISTICS-WAR AND RAID ON WHITES-SUB-
JUGATION OF LOCATION OF YUMAS-CHAR-
ACTERISTICS-LOCATION OF APACHE-YUMAS-
LANGUAGE-GAVE TROUBLE TO WHITES
SUBJUGATION OF.

MARICOPA. An important Yuman tribe which since early in the 19th century has lived with and below the Pima and from about latitude 35° to the mouth of the Rio Gila, southern Arizona. In 1775, according to Garces, their rancherias extended about forty miles along the Gila from about the mouth of the Hassayampa to the Aguas Calientes, although Garces adds that "some of them are found farther down river." They call themselves Pipatsje, "people," Maricopa being their Pima name. Emory states that they have moved gradually from the Gulf of California to their present location in juxtaposition with the Pima, Carson having found them, as late as 1826, at the mouth of the Gila. They joined the Pima, whose language they do not understand, for mutual protection against their kindred, but enemies, the Yuma,

and the two have ever since lived peaceably together. In 1775 the Maricopas and the Yumas were at war, and as late as 1857 the latter, with some Mohave and Yavapai, attacked the Maricopas near Maricopa Wells, southern Arizona, but with the aid of the Pima the Maricopa routed the Yuma and their allies, ninety of the ninety-three Yuma warriors being killed. After this disaster the Yuma never ventured so far up the Gila. Heintzelman states, probably correctly, that the Maricopas are a branch of the Cuchan (Yuma proper), from whom they separated on the occasion of an election of chiefs. Like the Pima, the Maricopa are agriculturists, and in habits and customs are generally similar to them. Venegas (History of California), states that about 6,000 Pima and Coco-Maricopa lived on the Gila river in 1742, and that they extended also to the Salado and the Verde; they are also said to have had some rancherias on the west side of the Colorado river in a valley thirty-six leagues long. Evidently the Indians referred to by Venegas as domiciled on the west side of the Colorado river, were the Yumas, from whom the Maricopas were separated. Garces estimated the population at three thousand in 1775.

By act of February 28th, 1859, a reservation was set apart for the Maricopa and Pima on the Gila river, Arizona; this was enlarged by executive order of August 31st, 1876; revoked and other lands set apart by executive order of June 14th, 1879; enlarged by executive orders of May 5th, 1882, and November 15th, 1883. No treaty was ever made with them.

The Maricopas, after making their treaty with the Pimas, which has been given in a previous volume, were self-supporting, cultivating their land, and always raising a surplus over what they consumed. It does not appear that they had any particular religious creed. There is no record anywhere of any legends concerning them. Their belief, probably, was the same as the Yumas and the Mohaves, confined to that of one great spirit, and never speculating as to how man was created, or when he appeared on the earth.

The Maricopas were friendly at all times to the whites. King Woolsey exercised great influence over them. When he organized his expedition, which resulted in the Pinole Treaty, an account of which has heretofore been given, the chief of the Maricopas joined him with 50 warriors, as did also the Pima chief. They followed the trail of the hostiles into the mountains and into the canyon known as Bloody Basin. The chief of the Pimas became alarmed and refused to go any farther. The Maricopa Chief, Juan Chiavria, followed Woolsey and in the ensuing fight it is said that Woolsey saved Juan Chiavria's life, by killing a hostile Indian who was about to stab the chief to the heart. After that the entire tribe held him in great reverence, and when his farm at Agua Caliente was raided by the Mohaves, Juan Chiavria sent word to them that if they did not cease their depredations upon his white friends in the Gila Valley, he would raise an army of Maricopas, Pimas and Papagos, and destroy the entire tribe. Needless

[ocr errors]

to say, the Mohaves were good thereafter as far as the Gila river settlements were concerned.

MOHAVE (from hamok "three," avi "mountain"). The most populous and warlike of the Yuman tribes. Since known to history they appear to have lived on both sides of the Rio Colorado, though chiefly on the east side, between the Needles (whence their name is derived) and the entrance to the Black Canyon. Ives, in 1857, found only a few scattered families in Cottonwood valley, the bulk of their number being below Hardyville. In recent times a body of Chemehuevi have held the river between them and their kinsmen the Yuma. The Mohave were strong, athletic, and well developed, their women attractive; in fact, Ives characterized them as fine a people physically as any he had ever seen. They were famed for the artistic painting of their bodies. Tattooing was universal but confined to small areas on the skin. Their art in recent times consists chiefly of crude painted decorations on their pottery. Though a river tribe, the Mohave had no canoes, but when necessary had recourse to rafts, or balsas, made of bundles of reeds. They had no large settlements, their dwellings being scattered. These were four-sided and low, with four supporting posts at the corners. The walls, which were only two or three feet high, and the almost flat roof were formed of brush covered with sand. Their granaries were upright cylindrical structures with flat roofs. The Mohave hunted but little, their chief reliance for food being on the cultivated products of the soil, as corn, pumpkins,

« PrejšnjaNaprej »