Arizona Indian Peoples' Territories in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

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• Arizona Indian Peoples' Territories in the Nineteenth Century
• Harry J. Winters Jr. (bio)

In this paper I describe changes in the sizes and locations of the territories of several Arizona Indian peoples in the nineteenth century and the causes of those changes. The peoples whose territories I discuss are the Tohono 'O'odham, formerly called Papagos; the 'Akimeli 'O'odham, also called Pimas; the Hiach'eḍ 'O'odham, also called Sand Papagos and Areneños; the Piipaash and Halychduum, both also called Cocomaricopas and Maricopas in Spanish and later in English; the Quechan, also spelled Kwatsáan and called Yumas; the Baaja, also called Yavapais; and the Dilzhę'e, also called Tonto Apaches. See Appendix 1, Names of Arizona Indian Peoples, at the end of this essay for more on these names, which are interesting and important in themselves.

I do not discuss the territory of the mixed Sobaipuri and Tohono 'O'odham peoples living along the Santa Cruz River in the nineteenth century. The Sobaipuris were 'O'odham and, based on limited evidence, spoke the same language as Tohono 'O'odham and 'Akimeli 'O'odham. In 1800 their lands may have extended as far downstream on the Santa Cruz as Cortaro. As of 1800 at the farming village of Vaak, the site of San Xavier del Bac mission, the original Sobaipuri population had been decreasing for years due to diseases brought by foreigners and to Apache raiding. For years before 1800, missionaries on the Santa Cruz had been inviting Tohono 'O'odham from the west to come to Vaak to take the place of Sobaipuris who had died. By 1800 many Tohono 'O'odham had done so and more would come.

I discuss the territory of the Hiach'eḍ 'O'odham even though most of the land in which they lived in 1800 was in Sonora rather than in today's Arizona. 'A'al Vauphia, Little Wells, called Quitobaquito in Spanish, a very important village, was in today's Arizona. They traveled [End Page 118] across the desert between their territory in the south and places on the lower Gila River including Agua Caliente, two or three villages in the Wellton-Dome-Yuma area, and another near Somerton.

I call the Baaja (Yavapais) by their four individual subtribe names, Tolkapaya, Yavpe, Wiipukpaa, and Kwevakapaya, unless I am discussing all subtribes as a group. In that case I call them Baaja, their name for themselves. Gifford lumped the Yavpe and the Wiipukpaa together into the Yavpe, although he recognized the Wiipukpaa as a "subgroup" of the Yavpe. See Gifford (1936, 249–250). The Baaja, Hualapai, and Havasupai in Arizona and the Paipai in Baja California are known as Mountain Yuman or Upland Yuman peoples. The Paipai are Baaja who emigrated from today's Arizona centuries ago, but have retained the Baaja language and traditions. The Baaja, Hualapai, and Havasupai languages are mutually intelligible. See Appendix 2 on the pronunciation of Yavapai words.

The Piipaash, Halychduum, Quechan, and Mojaves are called River Yuman peoples because their fields were watered by the Colorado and Gila Rivers. The tribal name Halychduum is not well known outside of Yuman society. Today the Halychduum are usually called Maricopas since they have been living with the Piipaash since the 1830s. The principal location of the Halychduum today is in the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, in particular at Lehi.

I define the middle Gila River as the stretch from its junction with the San Pedro River to its junction with the Salt River. The lower Gila River is the stretch from its junction with the Salt River to its junction with the Colorado River.

The area in which the changes I describe took place is bounded on the west by the Colorado River. On the east it is bounded by the Sierra Ancha; Tonto Basin; the Superstition, Pinal, and Dripping Springs Mountains; and a line extending southwest from the Dripping Springs Mountains to the southern end of the Baboquivari Mountains. On the north it is bounded by the Bill Williams and Santa Maria Rivers and the southern rim of the Colorado Plateau south of Ashfork and Flagstaff. On the south it is bounded by the...