USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. VII > Part 15
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The Apache-Mohaves, or, as they are some- times called, Yavapais, (Sun-people), are a branch of the Mohave tribe, which, according to Mike Burns, separated from the river In- dians, as did the Maricopas from the Yumas. When this separation took place is not known. Their range extended from Bill Williams' Fork as far south as Castle Dome and east to the Su- perstition Mountains, in and around Phoenix. They are described as tall, erect, muscular and well proportioned, the women being stouter and having more handsome faces than the Yumas.
This tribe was at war with the whites, and gave them as much trouble as any other band of Indians, hardly excepting that of Cochise. Their raids extended from the Superstition Mountains around McDowell, and west beyond Prescott and Wickenburg, and even, it is said, as far south as Sentinel. The Battle of the Caves, a description of which will be given in a succeeding volume, broke the power of this tribe, and the remnants gathered upon the Verde reservation. Most of them, in latter days, drifted back to their old hunting grounds, the
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McDowell reservation, which was assigned for their use November 27th, 1901, by the Secretary of the Interior, until Congress should take final action. When removed to the Verde Agency in May, 1873, their number was estimated to be about one thousand. By Executive order of September 15th, 1903, the old reservation was set aside for their use. At that time they num- bered between five and six hundred, but this number probably included some Apache-Yumas.
In 1905 the ravages of tuberculosis were re- ported to be largely responsible for a great mor- tality, the deaths exceeding the births four to one. On their reservation they have been mak- ing rapid progress in civilized pursuits, being, at this time, entirely self-supporting. They are good laborers, industrious and reliable.
YUMAS (Yahmáyo, "son of the captain.") One of the chief divisions or tribes of the Yuman family, formerly residing on both sides of the Rio Colorado next above the Cocopa, or about sixty miles above the mouth of the river, and below the junction of the Gila. Fort Yuma is situated about the center of the territory for- merly occupied by them.
These Indians, for the most part, are on the California side, their reservation being estab- lished in that state, but as their history is closely connected with Arizona, it is probably not out of place to give this short sketch of the tribe.
When Oñate visited the locality in 1604-05, he found the Yumas established in nine rancherias on the Colorado, entirely below the mouth of the Gila. Physically the Yuma were an athletic
MARICOPA, MOHAVE, APACHE-MOHAVE, ETC. 233
people, tall, straight, and sinewy, superior in this respect to most of their congeners. They were brave and, as we have seen, were at war with the whites until conquered by Major Heint- zelman in 1853, since which time they have been peaceful. They were in no sense nomadic, sel- dom leaving their villages, where, like the Mo- have, they practiced a rude agriculture, raising corn, beans, pumpkins and melons. This tribe was much demoralized through contact with the whites during the early 60's. They are now making rapid advances in civilization.
The Apache-Yumas, or Yulkepaia, which, ac- cording to Corbusier, probably means "spotted belly sparrows," was a body of Yuman Indians known as Apache-Yumas, said by Corbusier in 1886, to have sprung recently from a mixture of Yumas, Mohaves and Yavapais. They claimed as their home the desert stretch of western Ari- zona between the Colorado river and the coun- try of the Yavapai, over which they roamed until placed on the Verde reservation, Arizona, in May, 1873. In 1875 most of these, numbering in all about five hundred, were removed to the San Carlos reservation. They speak the Yuma dialect. They were warlike and gave our sol- diers and settlers much trouble before they were finally subdued.
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CHAPTER XIV. THE PIMA.
EARLY HISTORY - LANGUAGE - ALWAYS PEACE- ABLE-CHIEF SUPPORT AGRICULTURE-WEAP- ONS - LEGENDS AND MYTHS - LEGENDS OF BUILDING OF CASA GRANDE-CASA DE MON- TEZUMA-OTHER LEGENDS-THE TURQUOISE LEGEND-WIND AND RAIN GODS-BIRTH OF Нок.
Frank Russell, in the 26th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institu- tion, 1904-05, gives the following in regard to the Pima Indians:
"The tribe known as the Pimas was so named by the Spaniards early in the history of the re- lations of the latter with them. The oldest ref- erence to the name within the writer's knowl- edge is that by Velarde: 'The Pima Nation, the name of which has been adopted by the Span- iards from the native idiom, call themselves Otama, or, in the plural, Ohotoma; the word Pima is repeated by them to express negation. This 'negacion' is expressed by such words as Pia, 'none,' piate, 'none remaining,' pimate, 'I do not know' or 'I do not understand.' In the last the sound of te is often reduced to a faint click. The Americans corrupted this to 'Pimos,' and while this form of the word is now used only by the illiterate living in the neighborhood of the tribe, it is fairly common in the literature refer- ring to them. They call themselves A-a-'tam,
ANTONIO AZUL, CHIEF OF THE PIMAS, His Son and Grandson.
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THE PIMA.
'men' or 'the people,' and when they wish to dis- tinguish themselves from the Papago and other divisions of the same linguistic stock, they add the word â'kimult, 'river.' 'River people' is in- deed an apt designation, as evidenced by their dependence on the Gila.'
"Gatschet has thus defined the Pima linguis- tic stock in an article entitled 'The Indian lan- guages of the Pacific,' which was published in the Magazine of American History :
" 'Pima. Dialects of this stock are spoken on the middle course of the Gila river, and south of it on the elevated plains of Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora, (Pimeria alta, Pimeria baja). The Pima does not extend into Califor- nia unless the extinct, historical Cajuenches, mentioned in Mexican annals, spoke one of the Pima (or Pijimo, Pimo) dialects. Pima, on Pima reserve, Gila river, a sonorous, root-dupli- cating idiom ; Nevome, a dialect probably spoken in Sonora, of which we possess a reliable Spanish grammar, published in Shea's Linguistics; Pa- pago, on Papago reserve, in southwestern Ari- zona.' "
The Pimas were the hereditary foes of the Apaches as will be seen by some of the tradi- tions. They were, at one time, a very numerous tribe; indeed, it is claimed by some archaeolo- gists, as will be shown later in this history, that the Pimas built the Casa Grande and other works of that nature. They have cultivated the land which they now occupy for more than three hundred years, supporting themselves always through agriculture. Their crops were wheat, corn, vegetables and cotton. The Pimas and
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the Maricopas supplied the Americans with food in the early history of Arizona. The Mormon Battalion was their customer in 1847; they sup- plied the Boundary Survey under Bartlett, with cereals for man and beast. The Walker Party owed much to their generosity; in fact, the Pimas, particularly, with open-handed hospital- ity, have always supplied the necessary wants of the white man.
Their weapons originally were war clubs of mesquite wood; bows and arrows; the arrows sometimes pointed with glass, stone and iron, were used in warfare. For defensive purposes they had a raw-hide shield, which was almost im- penetrable. They took no scalps. They con- sidered their enemies, particularly the Apaches, as possessed of evil spirits, and did not touch them after death. Adult warriors of the Apache tribes were never taken captives, but women, girls, and young boys, were, at times, made pris- oners, while on other occasions all the inhabit- ants of a besieged Apache camp were killed. They treated their prisoners with great human- ity, sharing with them their food and clothing. These captives frequently acquired the Pima language, and, at times, would marry into the tribe.
Agriculture, with the aid of irrigation, was practiced by them from prehistoric times. Each community owned an irrigation canal, some- times several miles in length, the waters of the river being diverted into them by rude dams. At times, since the occupation of the country by Americans, they have suffered for lack of water, but this now, to a great extent, has been obvi-
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THE PIMA.
ated. In former times they planted with a dibble, and later plowed their fields with crooked sticks, drawn by oxen. Grain was threshed by the stamping of horses, and winnowed by the women, who skillfully tossed it from flat baskets. Wheat is now their staple crop, of which, dur- ing favorable seasons, for many years past, they sold large quantities to the whites. They also cultivate corn, barley, beans, pumpkins, squashes, melons, onions, and some long staple cotton, known as Pima Cotton. In common with most of the Indian tribes, the mesquite bean was formerly one of their principal articles of food, large quantities of which were gathered by the women, pounded in mortars, or ground on metates, and preserved for winter use. The women of the tribe also gathered large quanti- ties of the saguaro cactus, and made it into syrup, from which an intoxicating beverage was formerly brewed. Tobacco was regarded by the Pimas rather as a sacred plant, than one to be used for pleasure. The women were, and are, expert makers of water tight baskets of various shapes and sizes, decorated in geometrical de- signs. The swastika also appears in their basket work, and is found upon the painted rocks of their reservation.
Whence they derived it, is a mystery. They manufacture coarse pottery, some of which is also decorated. It is said that their arts have deteriorated from contact with the whites.
The squaws were the real laborers, the males preparing the ground and tilling the fields and reaping the crops, but the squaws winnowed the grain and carried it to market in huge baskets,
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while the buck oftentimes rode along on a pony, collecting the money for the grain, and spending it for his own pleasures.
They were governed by a head chief, and a chief for each village. These officers were as- sisted by village councils, which, however, did not appoint representatives to the tribal coun- cils, which were composed of the village chiefs. The head chief was not hereditary, but he was elected by the village chiefs. Descent was traced in the male line, and bore some resem- blance to the gentes, though they exert no influ- ence on marriage within the group or gens pro- hibited. The whole history of the Pimas is written in legends and myths.
The first move in starting a school and mission work among the Pimas was made by General A. J. Alexander, who was stationed at Fort Mc- Dowell, and, while there, on October 18th, 1868, he wrote a letter to a member of the Ladies Union Mission School Association in the State of New York upon this subject. This was the lever that started the missionary work among the Indians of Arizona, and also resulted later in the establishment of schools by the Govern- ment, the first of these being at Carlisle, Penn- sylvania, and others in Arizona, in 1870. The Rev. Charles H. Cook came from Chicago, and opened the first Indian school in Arizona, at Sacaton Agency, on February 15th, 1871. Mr. Cook continued this work for many years there- after.
In the 28th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, of the Smithsonian Insti- tution, 1906-07, is an article by Jesse Walter
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THE PIMA.
Fewkes, on the Casa Grande, which article con- tains a collection of the legends of the Pimas.
Their first legend was related to Father Font by the Governor in 1775, and is the oldest legendary account of Casa Grande extant, from Pima sources. This legend is as follows :
"That in a very distant time there came to that land a man who, because of his evil disposi- tion and harsh sway, was called The Bitter Man; that this man was old and had a young daugh- ter; that in his company came another man who was young, who was not his relative or any- thing, and that he gave him in marriage his daughter, who was very pretty, the young man being handsome also, and that the said old man had with him as servants the Wind and the Storm-cloud. That the old man began to build the Casa Grande and ordered his son-in-law to fetch beams for the roof of the house. That the young man went far off, and as he had no axe or anything else with which to cut the trees, he tarried many days, and at the end he came back without bringing any beams. That the old man was very angry and told him he was good for nothing; that he should see how he himself would bring beams. That the old man went very far off to a mountain range where there are many pines and, calling on God to help him, he cut many pines and brought many beams for the roof of the house. That when this Bitter Man came there were in that land neither trees nor plants, and he brought seeds of all and he reaped very large harvests with his two servants, the Wind and the Storm-cloud, who served him. That by reason of his evil disposition he grew
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
angry with the two servants and turned them away and they went very far off; and as he could no longer harvest any crops through lack of the servants, he ate what he had gathered and came near dying of hunger. That he sent his son-in- law to call the two servants and bring them back and he could not find them, seek as he might. That thereupon the old man went to seek them and, having found them, he brought them once more into his service, and with their aid he had once more large crops, and thus he continued for many years in that land; and after a long time they went away and nothing more was heard of them.
"He said also, that after the old man, there came to that land a man called The Drinker, and he grew angry with the people of that place and he sent much water so that the whole country was covered with water, and he went to a very high mountain range which is seen from there, and which is called The Mountain of the Foam (Sierra de la Espuma), and he took with him a little dog and a coyote. (This mountain range, Superstition Mountains, is called 'of the foam, because at the end of it, which is cut off and steep like the corner of a bastion, there is seen high up near the top a white brow as of rock, which also continues along the range for a good distance, and the Indians say that this is the mark of the foam of the water which rose to that
height.) That The Drinker went up, and left the dog below that he might notify him when the water came too far, and when the water reached the brow of the foam the dog notified The Drinker, because at that time the animals
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THE PIMA.
talked, and the latter carried him up. That after some days The Drinker Man sent the Rose- sucker to Coyote to bring him mud ; they brought some to him and of the mud he made men of different kinds, and some turned out good and others bad. That these men scattered over the land, upstream and downstream; after some time he sent some men of his to see if the other men upstream talked; these went, and returned saying that although they talked, they had not understood what they said, and that The Drinker Man was very angry because these men talked without his having given them leave. That next he sent other men downstream to see those who had gone that way and they returned saying that they had received them well, that they spoke an- other tongue, but that they had understood them. Then The Drinker Man told them that those men downstream were the good men, and there were such as far as the Opa, with whom they are friendly, and that there were the Apache, who are their enemies. He said also that at one time The Drinker Man was angry with the people and killed many and transformed them into saguaros, (giant cacti), and on this account there are so many saguaros in that country. Furthermore, he said that at another time The Drinker Man was very angry with the men and caused the sun to come down to burn them, and was making an end of them; that he now begged him much not to burn them, and therefore The Drinker Man said that he would no longer burn them and then he told the sun to go up, but not so much as before, and he told them that he left
VII-16
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
it lower in order to burn them by means of it, if ever they made him angry again, and for this reason it is so hot in that country in summer."
In the account of Casa Grande given by John- ston in his Journal, in Emory's "Notes of a Mili- tary Reconnaissance," Washington, 1848, he wrote :
"The general asked a Pimo who made the house (Casa Grande) I had seen. 'It is the Casa de Montezuma,' said he; 'it was built by the son of the most beautiful woman who once dwelt in yon mountain; she was fair and all the handsome men came to court her, but in vain; when they came, they paid tribute, and out of this small store, she fed all people in times of famine, and it did not diminish; at last, as she lay asleep, a drop of rain fell upon her navel, and she became pregnant, and brought forth a boy, who was the builder of all these houses.'"
Capt. F. D. Grossman, in the Smithsonian Re- port for 1871, made the following allusions to the Pima legends regarding Casa Grande :
"The Pimas claim to be the direct descend- ants of the chief So-ho. The children of So-ho reinhabited the Gila River Valley, and soon the people became numerous. One of the direct de- scendants of So-ho, King Sivano, erected the Casas Grandes on the Gila River. Here he gov- erned a large empire, before-long before-the Spaniards were known."
The following quotation is taken from Bande- lier's Final Report, 1892, pt. 2, in Papers Arch. Inst. Amer. :
NORTHEAST CORNER OF CASA GRANDE.
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THE PIMA.
"Mr. J. D. Walker, an old resident in the vicinity of Casa Grande, who has been to me per- sonally an excellent friend and valuable infor- mant, told me this tale:
" 'The Gila Pimas claim to have been created on the banks of the river. After residing there for some time a great flood came that destroyed the tribe, with the exception of one man, called Ci-ho. He was of small stature, and became the ancestor of the present Pimas. The tribe, be- ginning to grow in numbers, built the villages now in ruins and also spread to the north bank of the river. But there appeared a monstrous eagle, which, occasionally assuming the shape of an old woman, visited the pueblos and stole women and children, carrying them to his abode in an inaccessible cliff. On one occasion the eagle seized a girl with the intention of making her his wife. Ci-ho thereupon went to the cliff, but found it impossible to climb. The girl, who was still alive, shouted down to him the way of making the ascent. When the eagle came back Ci-ho slew him with a sword, and thus liber- ated his people from the scourge.' "
Continuing from 28th Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology :
"The following existing Pima legends relat- ing to Morning Green, chief of Casa Grande, were collected from Thin Leather (Kamaltkak), an old Pima regarded as one of the best in- formed story-tellers of the tribe. Some of his legends repeat statements identical with those told to Father Font, 137 years ago, a fact which proves apparently that they have been but little
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changed by intervening generations. The state- ment which recounts how Morning Green was miraculously conceived by a Hohokam maiden has been verified by several legendists. The fol- lowing stories supplement published legends of this chief and other ancients and shed light on the condition of early society in the settlement over which Morning Green is said to have ruled :
HOW A CHIEF OF ANOTHER "GREAT HOUSE" ENTICED THE WOMEN
FROM CASA GRANDE.
" 'Morning Green, chief of Casa Grande, in- vited Chief Tcernatsing and his women to visit him. Tcernatsing lived in a great house sit- uated near Gila Crossing, which is so far away from Casa Grande that he found it necessary to camp one night en route at the settlement on the Gila River opposite Sacaton. When the visitors arrived at Casa Grande a dance was celebrated in the open space north of Compound A, some- where between it and the circular wall inclosing a reservoir or 'well.' Here the women who ac- companied Teernatsing danced with those of Casa Grande, singing the song :
Ta sai na wu wu Sun shade sing with me My body will become a humming bird.
" 'When Teernatsing came and witnessed the women dancing he shook his rattle and sang a magic song, which enticed all the women of Casa Grande to follow him to another dance place, nearer the Gila. Morning Green, who also sang a magic song, found it powerless to prevent the departure of the women, and he went back to
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THE PIMA.
his house for a more powerful "medicine," after which he returned to the dance and ordered his women back to their dwellings; but they were so much bewitched by the songs of Teernatsing that they could not, or would not, obey him. Far- ther and farther from their homes Tcernatsing enticed the women, dancing first in one place and then in another until they came to his compound. Among the women who abandoned their home was the wife of Morning Green, who refused to return even after he sent a special messenger to her.'
"The sequel of the legend is that Tcernatsing married Nactci, a daughter of Morning Green, making her father so angry that he sent a spider to bite his own grandson, offspring of the union. When the boy was sick unto death, Teernatsing invited Morning Green to visit his grandson be- fore the boy died. Morning Green relented and sent his daughter an herb (the name of which is lost) powerful enough to cure the spider's bite, and thus the child's life was spared."
Another legend of Chief Morning Green, also obtained from Thin Leather, affords an in- structive glimpse of prehistoric thought.
HOW TURQUOISES WERE OBTAINED FROM CHIEF MORNING GREEN.
"One day, long ago, the women and girls of Casa Grande were playing an ancient game called toka, formerly much in vogue at Casa Grande, but now no longer played by the Pimas. During the progress of the game a blue-tailed lizard was noticed descending into the earth at a spot where the stones were green. The fact
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
was so strange that it was reported to Morning Green, who immediately ordered excavation to be made. Here they eventually discovered many turquoises, with which they made, among other things, a mosaic covering for a chair that used to stand in one of the rooms of Casa Grande. This chair was carried away many years ago and buried, no one knows where.
"Morning Green also distributed so many tur- quoises among his people that the fame of these precious stones reached the ears of the Sun, in the East, who sent the bird with bright plumage, (parrot ?) to obtain them. When Parrot ap- proached within a short distance of Casa Grande he was met by one of the daughters of the chief, who returned to the town and announced to her father the arrival of a visitor from the Sun. The father said, 'Take this small stick, which is charmed, and when Parrot puts the stick into his mouth, you lead him to me.' But Parrot was not charmed by the stick and refused to take it into his mouth and the girl reported her fail- ure. The chief answered, 'Perhaps the strange bird would eat pumpkin seed,' and told his daughter to offer these to him. She made the attempt without result, and, returning, reported that the bird refused pumpkin seed. The father then said, 'Put the seed into a blanket and spread it before the bird; then perhaps you may capture him.' Still Parrot would not eat, and the father thereupon suggested watermelon seed. But Parrot was not tempted by these or by seed of catsclaw, nor was he charmed by charcoal.
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THE PIMA.
"The chief of Casa Grande then told his daughter to tempt Parrot with corn well cooked and soaked in water, in a new food-bowl. Par- rot was obdurate and would not taste it, but, no- ticing a turquoise bead of blue-green color, he swallowed it; when the two daughters of the chief saw this they brought to him a number of blue stones, which the bird greedily devoured. Then the girls brought valuable turquoise beads, which Parrot ate; then he flew away. The girls tried to capture him, but without success. He made his way through the air to the home of the Sun in the East, where he drank an emetic and vomited the turquoises, which the Sun god dis- tributed among that people which reside near his house of rising, beyond the eastern moun- tains. This is the reason, it is said, why these people have many stone ornaments made of this material.
"But when the chief of Casa Grande heard that Parrot had been sent to steal his turquoises, he was greatly vexed and caused a violent rain to fall that extinguished all fires in the East. His magic power over the Rain god was so great that he was able even to extinguish the light of the Sun, making it very cold. Then the old priests gathered in council and debated what they should do. Man-Fox was first sent by them into the East to get fire, but he failed to obtain it, and then Road-runner was commissioned to visit Thunder, the only one that possessed fire, and steal his lighted torch. But when Thunder saw him running off with the torch he shot an arrow at the thief and sparks of fire were scat- tered around, setting afire every tree, bush and
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