THE RIVER YUMANS

Key Concepts:
Spirit Mountain
River Yuman warfare
dreaming
Mojave
Cocopah
Quechan (Yuma)
Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT)
Maricopa
Chemehuevi
the mourning ceremony

Reading Assignment, Text: Chapter 7, "The River Yumans," pp. 232-259

The River Yuman tribes lived along the lower Colorado and Gila Rivers in rancheria settlements, with each house separated from its nearest neighbor by 100 yards or more, and with each settlement separated from the next by some four to five miles. Their ancestors, as well as the ancestors of the Upland Yumans, are believed to be from the prehistoric Patayan culture. The three River Yuman tribes discussed in this course are the Mojave, the Cocopah, and the Quechan, or Yuma Indians. As previously noted, the Maricopa are a River Yuman tribe that moved eastward from the Colorado River and who now live with the Pima on both the Gila River Indian Reservation and the Salt River Indian Reservation.

Today, the Mojave, Cocopah, and Quechan live on a series of reservations that reach from the Fort Mojave Reservation in the north (which spans parts of three states, Nevada, California, and Arizona) to the Cocopah Reservation in the south (which is just north of the Mexican border). Spirit Mountain, the emergence place of the Yuman peoples, is clearly visible from the Fort Mojave Reservation and is described in the textbook.

The Chemehuevi are a Southern Paiute tribe that moved near their Mojave allies along the Colorado River. Today they live on two reservations, the Chemehuevi Reservation and the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation (that they share with the Mojave, Hopi, and Navajo).

The River Yuman tribes waged war against each other for at least three centuries. Originally directed at conquest and the seizure of territory, intertribal wars took on a new character after 1830, when several communities had been forced to relinquish their land. As early as the 16th century, some of the small River Yuman tribes were forced off the Colorado River because their farmlands were under attack from both upriver and downriver enemies. Some anthropologists theorize that River Yuman tribes resorted to warfare for economic reasons, instead of intensifying their agricultural production, but others point out that the Mojaves, Quechans, and Halchidhomas cultivated wheat in historic times, which would have given them an additional crop. Other motives include vengeance for the loss of kinsmen, the strong sense of tribal nationalism, and the conviction held by each tribe that they were the chosen people.