The Indian Country of Southern Arizona

Abstract

IN Arizona, as in no other of our states, the Indian has maintained his hold upon the land. In numbers of pure-blooded Indians the state leads with over 46,ooo of the nation's 355,000,1 while over considerable parts of the area primitive cultures hold sway. The white population has infiltered itself into the region on a pattern largely indicative of the areas and zones originally tinoccupied or of sparsest Indian population. Only the barren desert wastes immediately to the east of the lower Colorado River have been shunned by both Indian and white. Phoenix, the present metropolis, with the great oasis lying about it is contiguous with the relatively closely knit Pima communities but occupies the lands upon which the Indians were unable to apply water. Tucson, the second largest city and earlier metropolis, occupied a zone between Papagos and Apaches-a part of the Papago territory untenable on account of Apache raids. In northern Arizona the important settlements have grown up along the Santa Fe Railway which succeeded the old Santa Fe trail, proceeding in part through a neutral zone between hostile Apaches to the south and Navajos to the north. The Indian population of Arizona remains distributed much as it was before white settlement. The present day reservations include the most important areas of Indian occupation, though considerably restricted, especially in the case of the hostile Apaches and Mojave Apaches. For convenience of treatment the Indians of Arizona may be divided into two groups: the southern tribes who occupy the drainage basin of the lower Colorado River and chiefly that of its one important branch, the Gila, and the northern tribes who occupy the drainage basin of the middle Colorado and its chief branch, the Little Colorado. This article aims to give a sketch of the southern group of tribes.