Yavapai people

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yavapai
Total population
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Arizona Arizona
Languages
Yavapai (three dialects of Upland Yuman language), English
Religions
Indigenous, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Havasupai, Hualapai, Western Apache
An early 20th century basket bowl woven of willow and reed
An early 20th century basket bowl woven of willow and reed

Yavapai (sometimes translated as mouthy, or talkative people, but generally translated as the sun people because they worshipped the sun, though many agree that it is a corruption of the Yuman word "Nyavkopai" - east people[1]) is an over-arching term for four distinct tribes of Native Americans from central Arizona in the United States. The Western Yavapai call themselves Tolkepaya, the Northeastern Yavapai call themselves Yavapé, the Southeastern Yavapai call themselves Kwevkepaya, and the fourth group call themselves Wipukepa. The Yavapai have much in common, linguistically and culturally, with their neighbors the Havasupai, the Hualapai, and the Athabascan Apache.[2] Often, Yavapai were mistaken as Apache by White settlers, variously being referred to as "Apache-Mohave" or "Tonto-Apache".[3] Before the 1860s, when White settlers began exploring for gold in the area, the Yavapai occupied an area of approximately 20,000 mi² (51800 km²) bordering the San Francisco Peaks on the north, the Pinal Mountains on the east, and Martinez Lake and the Colorado River at the point where Lake Havasu is now on the west.[4]

Contents

[edit] Pre-reservation culture

[edit] Subsistence

Before being confined to reservations, the Yavapai were mainly hunter-gatherers, following an annual round, migrating to different areas to follow the ripening of different edible plants, although some tribes supplemented this with small scale cultivation of the "three sisters": (maize, squash, and beans) in fertile streambeds. In particular, the Tolkepaya, who lived in lands that were less supportive of food gathering, turned to agriculture more than other Yavapai, despite the fact that their land was also less supportive of agriculture. In turn, Tolkepaya often traded items such as animal skins, baskets, and agave to Quechan groups for food. The main plant foods gathered were walnuts, saquaro fruits, juniper berries, acorns, sunflower seeds, manzanita berries, hackberries, the bulbs of the Quamash, and the greens of the Lamb's quarters, Scrophularia, and Lupinus plants. Agave was the most crucial harvest, being the only plant food available from late fall through early spring. The hearts of the plant were roasted in stone-lined pits, and could be stored for later use.[5] Primary animals hunted were deer, rabbit, jackrabbit, quail, and woodrat. Fish[6] and water-borne birds[7] were eschewed by most Yavapai groups, though some groups of Tolkepaya began eating fish after contact with their Quechan neighbors.[8]

[edit] Shelter

Yavapai homes
Yavapai homes

In summer, shelters were often simple lean-tos without walls. During winter months, closed huts (called uwas) would be built of ocotillo branches or other wood and covered with animal skins, grasses, bark, and/or dirt, though in the Colorado River area, Tolkepaya built uwatamarva, which was a rectangular hut, that had dirt piled up against its sides, and a flat roof. Other shelter was often sought in caves or abandoned pueblos to escape the cold.[9]

[edit] Social organization

For most of Yavapai history, the family was the focal group, be it the nuclear family, or extended. This is partly due to the fact that most food-providing sites were not large enough to support larger populations. However, exceptions are known. Near Fish Creek, Arizona, was Ananyiké (trans: Quail's Roost), a Kwevkepaya summer camp that supported upwards of 100 people at a time, providing access to prickly pear fruit harvest, and hunting of rabbits and woodrats.[10]

In winter, camps were formed of larger groups consisting of several families that broke up in time for the spring harvest.

[edit] History

The former territory of the Yavapai. The yellow line shows the forced march to the San Carlos Reservation.
The former territory of the Yavapai. The yellow line shows the forced march to the San Carlos Reservation.

Yavapai believe that their people originated "in the beginning", or "many years ago", when either a tree, or a maize plant sprouted from the ground in what is now Montezuma Well, bringing the Yavapai into the world. Most archeologists agree that the Yavapai originated from Patayan groups who migrated east from the Colorado River region to become Upland Yumans, and then splitting off to become Yavapai somewhere around 1300 AD.[11]

Warfare was not uncommon in the Yavapai world, and alliances were often formed for security. Wipukepa and Kwevkepaya bands formed alliances with Western Apache bands, to attack and defend against raids by Pima and Maricopa bands from the south. Because of the greater strength had by the Pima/Maricopa, Yavapai/Apache raids were generally smaller quicker raids, followed by a retreat to avoid counter-attack. Yavapai lands were defended against Pima incursions when Pima bands would move into Yavapai lands to harvest saguaro fruits.[12]

To the north and northwest, Wipukepa and Yavapé bands had off and on relations with the Pai people throughout most of their history. Though Pai and Yavapai both used Upland Yuman dialects, and a common cultural history, both had tales of the origins of a dispute that separated the peoples from each other. According to Pai myth, the dispute began with a "mudball fight between children". It is believed that this split occurred around 1750.[13]

The last big battle between the Colorado-Gila River alliances took place in August 1857, when about 100 Yavapai, Quechan, and Mohave warriors surprise attacked a settlement of Maricopa near Pima Butte. After overwhelming the Maricopa, the Yavapai left, to have Pima supplied with guns and horses from US troops show up and rout the remaining Mohave and Quechans.[14]

[edit] European contact

The first recorded contact with Yavapai was made by Antonio de Espejo,[15] who was brought to Jerome Mountain by Hopi guides in 1583, looking for gold. However, de Espejo was disappointed to only find copper. In 1598, Hopi brought Marcos Farfán de los Godos and his group to the same mines, to their excitement. Farfán referred to the Yavapai as "cruzados" because of the crosses worn on their heads.[16]A group led by Juan de Oñate went through Yavapai lands in 1598, and again in 1604-5, looking for a route to the sea that Yavapai had told them about. After this, no other European contact was made for more than 200 years.

In the intervening time, despite little or no direct contact with Europeans, but contact with other tribes with more European contact, Yavapai did begin to incorporate elements of European culture into their own, such as livestock and plant crops, modern tools and weaponry, as well as elements of Christianity. Though their de-centralized communities, and less contact with Europeans helped to make this less of an issue than it was for many neighboring tribes, to their detriment, smallpox also spread through their communities. It is estimated that around 25% of the population died as a result of smallpox in the 17th and 18th centuries. They also began to change methods of warfare, diplomacy, and trade. Livestock raiding, either from other tribes such as the Maricopa, or from Spanish settlements to their south, became a supplement to the Yavapai economy. As well, raids often yielded human captives, to be traded as slaves to Spaniards in trade for goods.[17]

In the 1820s, beaver trappers, having depleted the beaver population of the Rocky Mountains, began entering Yavapai territory, trapping beaver along the Salt, Gila, and Bill Williams Rivers. When Kit Carson and Ewing Young led a group through the territory in 1829, the group was "nightly harassed...", and had traps stolen, and horses and mules killed.[18]

Following the declaration of war against Mexico in May 1846, and especially after the claim by the US of southwest lands in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, military incursions into Yavapai territory greatly increased. After gold was discovered in California in 1849, more White emigrants passed through Yavapai territory than ever had before.[19] Despite the thousands of emigrants passing through their territory, Yavapai rarely made contact with Whites.

The first fighting between US troops and Yavapai came in early 1852, when Tolkepaya joined with their Quechan neighbors to defend against Major Samuel Heintzelman over a Quechan ferry crossing on the Colorado River. The Quechans used the ferry crossing to transport settlers over the river, into California, but after killing a group led by John Glanton, who had taken over the crossing, the government decided to burn the fields of the Quechans, and take control of the crossing.[20]

According to Thomas Sweeney, Tolkepaya would tell US officers they encountered in Quechan territory, that they had a 30-day march to their own territory, as a means of discouraging US encroachment on their land.[21]

[edit] The Oatman family

In 1851, the Oatman family was ambushed by a band of Yavapai (though many historians argue that it is impossible to know whether or not these were Yavapai, or some other tribe[22]). Roys Oatman and his wife were killed, along with four of their children. The son, Lorenzo, was left for dead but survived, while sisters Olive and Mary Ann were later sold to Mojaves as slaves. The story was widely published, and increased White settlers' fears of attack in Arizona.[23]

[edit] Gold

When in early 1863, the Walker party discovered gold in Lynx Creek (near present-day Prescott, Arizona), it set off a chain of events that would have White settlements along the Hassayampa and Agua Fria Rivers, the nearby valleys, as well as in Prescott, and Fort Whipple would be built, all by the end of the year, and all in traditional Yavapai territory.

[edit] Interactions with the US government

Wassaja, "Carlos Montezuma" in 1890
Wassaja, "Carlos Montezuma" in 1890

With the Mohave people's power greatly diminished, Tolkepaya saw that they needed to make new alliances to protect their safety. In April 1863, Quashackama, a well-known Tolkepaya, met with Arizona Territory superintendent of Indian affairs Charles Poston, along with representatives of the Pimas, Mohaves, Maricopas and Chemehuevis, at Fort Yuma, to sign an agreement intended "to promote the commerce in safety between the before mentioned tribes and the Americans." However, the agreement was not an official treaty, so therefore not legally binding in any way.[24]

Despite this, the growing numbers of settlers (very quickly outnumbering Yavapai) began to call for the government to do something about the people occupying the land that they wanted to occupy and exploit themselves. The editor of a local newspaper, the Arizona Miner, said "Extermination is our only hope, and the sooner it is accomplished the better."[25]

According to Braatz, "In December 1864, soldiers from Fort Whipple attacked two nearby Yavapé camps, killing 14 and wounding seven." The following month, Fort Whipple soldiers attacked another group of Yavapé, this time killing twenty-eight people, including their headman, Hoseckrua. Included in the group were employees of Prescott's US Indian agent John Dunn.

In 1864, Arizona Territory Governor John Goodwin advised the territorial legislature that all tribes be subdued and sent to reservations.[26] The same year, a dispatch from the US Army stated "All Apache [Yavapai were routinely lumped in with their neighboring Apache] Indians in that territory are hostile, and all Apache men large enough to bear arms who may be encountered in Arizona will be slain whenever met, unless they give themselves up as prisoners."[27]

Not long after, in retaliation for the murder of a Pai headman by Americans, a group of Pai attacked some wagon trains, and closed the road between Prescott and Fort Mohave to all traffic. In response, the US Army declared all Indians in lands beyond 75 miles (121 km) east of the Colorado River (the great majority of traditional Yavapai territory) to be "hostile" and "subject to extermination".[28]

[edit] Skeleton Cave

The entrance to Skeleton Cave
The entrance to Skeleton Cave

In December 1872, Colonel George Crook used Apache scouts to find a cave in Salt River Canyon that was being used by Kwevkepaya to mount attacks on White settlers. On December 28, accompanied by 100 Pima scouts, Captain William Brown led 120 of Crook's men to siege the cave. 110 Kwevkepaya were trapped in the cave, when Brown ordered the soldiers to fire at the roof of the cave, causing rock fragments and lead shrapnel to rain down on the Kwevkepaya. Having nowhere else to go, the besieged gathered around the mouth of the cave, where soldiers (accompanied by Crook) pushed boulders onto them from above, killing 76 of the group.[29] The survivors were taken to Camp Grant as prisoners. The Yavapai were so demoralized by this and other actions by Crook, that they surrendered at Camp Verde, on April 6, 1873.[30] In 1925, a group of Yavapai from the Fort McDowell Reservation, along with a Maricopa County Sheriff, collected the bones from the cave, and interred them at the Fort McDowell cemetery.[31]

In 1886, many Yavapai joined in campaigns by the US Army, as scouts, against Geronimo and other Chiricahua Apache.[32]

[edit] Reservation life

[edit] Yavapai-Apache Nation

After being relocated to the Camp Verde Reservation, on the Verde River near Camp Verde, the Yavapai there began to construct irrigation systems (including a five-mile long ditch)[33] that functioned well enough to reap sufficient harvests, making the tribe relatively self-sufficient. But contractors that worked with the government to supply the reservations were disappointed, and petitioned to have the reservation revoked. The government complied, and in March 1875, the government closed the reservation, and marched the residents 180 miles (290 km) to the San Carlos reservation. More than 100 Yavapai died during the winter trek.[34]

By the early 1900s, Yavapai were drifting away from the San Carlos Reservation, and were requesting permission to live on the grounds of the original Camp Verde Reservation. In 1910, 40 acres (161,874 m²) was set aside as the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, and in the following decade added 248 acres (1,003,620 m²) in two parcels, which became the Middle Verde Indian Reservation. These two reservations were combined in 1937, to form the Camp Verde Yavapai-Apache tribe.[35] Today, the reservation spans 665 acres (2.7 km²), in four separate locales.[36] Tourism contributes greatly to the economy of the tribe, due largely to the presence of many preserved sites, including the Montezuma Castle National Monument.

[edit] Yavapai Prescott Indian Reservation

The Yavapai-Prescott flag
The Yavapai-Prescott flag

The Yavapai reservation in Prescott was established in 1935, originally consisting of just 75 acres of land formerly occupied by the Fort Whipple Military Reserve.[37] In 1956, an additional 1,320 acres (5 km²) was added. Succeeding the tribe's first chief, Sam Jimulla, his wife Viola became the first female chieftess of a North American tribe. Today, the tribe consists of 159 official members.[38]

[edit] Fort McDowell Reservation

Theodore Roosevelt had Fort McDowell declared a 40 square miles (100 km²) reservation in 1903,[39] but by 1910, the Office of Indian Affairs was attempting to relocate the residents, to open up the area, and water rights to other interests. A delegation of Yavapai testified to a Congressional Committee against this, and won. Today, the tribal community consists of 900 members, 600 of whom live on the reservation.[40]

[edit] Orme Dam conflict

Responding to growth in the Phoenix area, in the early 1970s Arizona officials proposed to build a dam at the point where the Verde and Salt Rivers meet. The dam would have flooded two-thirds of the 24,000-acre (97 km²) reservation. In return, the members of the tribe (at the time consisting of 425 members) were offered homes and cash settlements. But in 1976, the tribe rejected the offer by a vote of 61%, claiming that the tribe would be effectively disbanded by the move. In 1981, after much petitioning of the US government, and a three day march by approximately 100 Yavapai,[41] the plan to build the dam was withdrawn.[42]

[edit] Language

Main article: Yavapai language

The Yavapai language is one of three dialects of the Upland Yuman language, itself a member of the Pai branch of the Yuman language family.[43] The language includes three dialects, which have been referred to as Western, Northeastern and Southeastern,[44] as well as Prescott, Verde Valley, and Tolkapaya.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Braatz, p.38
  2. ^ Gifford, p.249
  3. ^ Utley, p.255
  4. ^ Salzmann, p.58
  5. ^ Braatz, p.29
  6. ^ Gifford, pp.250, 255
  7. ^ Fish's, p.21
  8. ^ Braatz, p.42
  9. ^ Braatz, p.36
  10. ^ Braatz, p. 35
  11. ^ Braatz, pg. 27
  12. ^ Braatz, p.45
  13. ^ Hoxie, p.456
  14. ^ Braatz, p. 78
  15. ^ Ruland Thorne, p.2
  16. ^ Swanton, p.368
  17. ^ Braatz, pgs. 63-67
  18. ^ Braatz, pg. 71
  19. ^ Braatz, p. 74
  20. ^ Braatz, p. 76
  21. ^ Braatz, p. 77
  22. ^ Braatz, pgs. 253-4
  23. ^ Campbell, p.80
  24. ^ Braatz, p.87
  25. ^ Braatz, p.89
  26. ^ Campbell, p. 104
  27. ^ Gifford, pgs. 275-6
  28. ^ Braatz, pg. 92
  29. ^ Braatz, p.138
  30. ^ Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. Retrieved on 2007-01-01.
  31. ^ Fenn, p.12
  32. ^ Braatz, p. 3
  33. ^ Pritzker, p.104
  34. ^ Salzmann, p.59
  35. ^ Braatz, p.221
  36. ^ Official website of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
  37. ^ Coffer, p.51
  38. ^ Yavapai Prescott Indian Tribe - About YPIT. Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
  39. ^ Hoxie, p.457
  40. ^ Yavapai History. Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
  41. ^ Nelson Espeland, pp.185-186
  42. ^ Orme Dam victory celebrated. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
  43. ^ Jones, p.79
  44. ^ University of California, p.24

[edit] Sources

  • Braatz, Timothy (2003). Surviving Conquest. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Campbell, Julie A. (1998). Studies in Arizona History. Tucson, Arizona: Arizona Historical Society.
  • Coffer, William E. (1982). Sipapu, the Story of the Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, Van Nostrand Reinhold, ISBN 0442215908.
  • Fish, Paul R.;Fish, Suzanne K. (1977). Verde Valley Archaeology: Review & Prospective, Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona.
  • Gifford, Edward (1936). Northeastern and Western Yavapai. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
  • Hoxie, Frederick E. (1996). Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Houghton Mifflin Books, ISBN 0395669219.
  • Jones, Terry L.; Klar, Kathryn A. (2007). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity, Rowman Altamira, ISBN 0759108722.
  • Kendall, Martha B. (1976). Selected Problems in Yavapai Syntax. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., ISBN 0824019695.
  • Nelson Espeland, Wendy (1998). The Struggle for Water: Politics, Rationality, and Identity in the American Southwest, University of Chicago Press, The Struggle for Water: Politics, Rationality, and Identity in the American.
  • Pritzker, Harry (2000). A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195138775.
  • Ruland Thorne, Kate; Rodda, Jeanette; Smith, Nancy R. (2005). Experience Jerome: The Moguls, Miners, and Mistresses of Cleopatra Hill, Primer Publishers, ISBN 0935810773.
  • Salzmann, Zdenek; Salzmann, Joy M. (1997). Native Americans of the Southwest: The Serious Traveler's Introduction to Peoples and Places. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 0-8133-2279-0.
  • Swanton, John Reed (1952). The Indian Tribes of North America, US Government Printing Office.
  • University of California, Berkeley (1943). University of California Publications in Linguistics, University of California Press.
  • Utley, Robert Marshall (1981). Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865, University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0803295502.
  • http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/soldier/sitec1.htm
  • Fenn, Al (September 30, 1971), "The Story of Mickey Burns", Sun Valley Spur Shopper
  • http://yavapai-apache.org/home.htm
  • http://www.ypit.com/
  • http://www.ftmcdowell.org/History%20&%20Culture.htm
  • http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/1117sr-fhormedam17Z8.html

[edit] External links