MODULE 7

THE UPLAND YUMANS

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Key Concepts:
Havasupai
Cataract Canyon
Hualapai
annual round
agave/mescal
the Peach Springs Bilingual/Bicultural Program
Yavapai
subtribes

Reading Assignment, Text: Chapter 8, "The Upland Yumans," pp. 262-303

The presence of the Pai (Hualapai and Havasupai) and Yavapai in the Southwest is indeed ancient-their Patayan ancestors lived on and near the Colorado River far back into prehistoric times-and for many centuries these groups, known collectively as the Upland Yumans, have occupied nearly one-third of present-day Arizona. Their original territory was vast, covering the northwestern portion of the state from the Colorado River on the north and west, south to the Gila River, and as far east as San Francisco Peaks. Bands traveled from mountain slopes covered with pine forests through plateau lands of sage and juniper down to simmering deserts.

The Upland Yuman tribes share what is essentially the same culture. The differences among these groups seem to be the result of adaptation to different ecological zones and differential culture contacts. The Hualapai traded with the Mojave, and the Southeastern Yavapai shared matrilineal kinship and basket styles with the Western Apache. The Havasupai have long been friends, allies, and trading partners with the Hopi, whose annual salt pilgrimage to the Grand Canyon brought them to Havasupai territory. Hopi families came to live with the Havasupai, and, during the winter months, some Havasupai families went to live with the Hopis of Third Mesa. To bring rain and ensure the fertility of their crops, the Havasupai performed katsina-like dances until the early 1900s, when they were confined year round to their reservation in Cataract Canyon.

Ethnically, the Havasupai and the Hualapai are one people, although today, they are politically separate groups as the result of U.S. government policy. The Hualapai (Pa'a or Pai) had three subtribes, with each divided into several bands. The Havasupai were one band in the eastern subtribe and divided their year between summers in Cataract Canyon, a side-canyon of the Grand Canyon-where they farmed, practicing a rancheria lifestyle-and winters on the plateau above the canyon, where they hunted and gathered. During the spring, they moved back into the canyon and planted gardens. When the reservation was created in 1882, the federal government confined them to the 518 acres at the bottom of the canyon and they lost almost 90% of their aboriginal land. The loss of their economic base had a major influence on their culture, forcing them to rely more on farming and seeking wage labor outside the canyon. Eventually, the tribe began to rely on tourism, as visitors found their way to Cataract Canyon. In 1975, Congress reallocated 185,000 acres of their original hunting grounds back to the tribe. Today, tourism provides the economic base for the Havasupai, involving nearly all of the 450 people who live in Supai (There are roughly 650 enrolled tribal members.).

In the spring and summer, while the Havasupai were farming in the canyon, their Hualapai relatives pursued an annual round-a fairly regular pattern of movement-to follow the sequence of ripening wild plants and to avoid overexploiting plants in any particular locale. In small, semi-nomadic bands, the Hualapai left their winter villages to gather agave or wild mescal in foothills and canyons. They baked mescal stalks in earth ovens for several days so that they could eat the delicious inner core. The women then crushed the outer layers into a pulp, formed them into slabs, and dried them in the sun, so that they could then be boiled for food, mixed with water to drink, or stored for future use. The Hualapai returned to the foothills and canyons in midsummer to harvest the ripened fruits and seeds of several species of cactus. In late summer and early autumn, they collected ripened pinon cones and juniper and sumac berries.