Yuman

Yuman (Quechan)
A Yuma from the collection of Edward S. Curtis
Total population
2,000 - 4,000
Regions with significant populations
Arizona, California
Languages
Yuman language (aka Quechan language), English
Religions
Traditional

Yumas. In: "United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. Report of William H. Emory…" Washington. 1857. Volume I.

The Yuman (also Yuma, Quechan, Kwtsan, Kwtsaan) are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona just north of the border with Mexico.

The Quechan are one of the Yuman tribes. They should not be confused with the Quechuas, which is the term used for several ethnic groups that use a Quechua language in South America, particularly in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

Yuman is derived from the old name for the tribe, Yuma. The reservation is a part of their traditional lands. Established in 1884, the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation has a land area of 178.197 km² (68.802 sq mi) in southeastern Imperial County, California, and western Yuma County, Arizona, near the city of Yuma, Arizona.

The Yuman people are a group of Native American ethnic groups of the Yuman language family. The historic Yuman-speaking peoples in this region were skilled warriors and active traders, maintaining exchange networks with the Pima in southern Arizona and with the Pacific coast.

The term Patayan is used by archaeologists to describe the prehistoric Native American cultures that inhabited parts of modern day Arizona, California and Baja California, including areas near the Colorado River Valley, the nearby uplands, and north to the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. These prehistoric people may have been ancestoral to the Yuman. They practiced floodplain agriculture where possible, but relied heavily on hunting and gathering.

History

Quechan territory

The first important contact of the Quechan with Europeans was with the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and his party in the winter of 1774. Relations were friendly and on Anza's return from his second trip to Alta California in 1776 the chief of the tribe and three others journeyed to Mexico City to petition the Viceroy of New Spain for the establishment of a mission. The chief, Palma and his 3 companions were baptized there on February 13, 1777. Palma was given the name Salvador Carlos Antonio.

Spanish settlement among the Quechan did not go as well as hoped and the tribe rebelled on July 17, 1781 and killed 4 priests and 30 soldiers. The Spanish mission settlements of San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer and Puerto de Purísima Concepción were also decimated. The tribe was punished militarily the following year.

The United States engaged the Yuma Indians in warfare during the Yuma Expedition, which was one of many Indian Wars that took place before the American Civil War.

Population

File:Edward S. Curtis Collection People 038.jpg

Hwalya - Yuma by Edward S. Curtis. 1908

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially (see population of Native California). Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Quechan at 2,500. Jack D. Forbes (1965:341-343) compiled historical estimates and suggested that before they were first contacted the Quechan had numbered 4,000 or a few more.

Kroeber estimated the population of the Quechan in 1910 as 750. By 1950, there were reported to be just under 1,000 Quechan living on the reservation and another 1,100+ off it (Forbes 1965:343). The 2000 census reported a resident population of 2,376 persons on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, only 56.8 percent of whom were of solely Native American heritage, and more than 27 percent of whom were white.

Yuma traditional narratives

Quechan traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Quechan (Yuma) people of the lower Colorado River area of southeastern California, southwestern Arizona, and northeastern Baja California.

The Southern California Creation Myth is particularly prominent in Quechan oral literature. This and other narrative elements are shared with the other Yuman-speaking peoples of southern California, western Arizona, and northern Baja California, as well as with their Uto-Aztecan-speaking neighbors.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Curtis, Edward S. [1908] 2007. The North American Indian Volume 2. Classic Books. ISBN 1404798021
• DuBois, Constance Goddard. 1908. Ceremonies and traditions of the Diegueño Indians" Journal of American Folk-lore XXI(82): 228-236. Retrieved September 10, 2008.
• Erdoes, Richard, and Alfonso Ortiz. 1985. American Indian Myths and Legends. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. ISBN 0394740181
• Halpern, A. M. 1997. Kar?úk: Native Accounts of the Quechan Mourning Ceremony. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520098188
• Hinton, Leanne, and Lucille J. Watahomigie (eds.). 1984. Spirit Mountain: An Anthology of Yuman Story and Song. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, Tucson. ISBN 0816508178
• Luthin, Herbert W. 2002. Surviving through the Days. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520222709
• Waldman, Carl. 2006. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816062744.

• Kroeber, A. L. [1925] 1976. Handbook of the Indians of California (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78). Dover Publications. ISBN 0486233685

• Yuma Reservation, California/Arizona United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 10, 2008.

• Spier, Leslie. [1933] 1978. Yuman Tribes of the Gila River. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0486236110
• Bee, Robert L. Bee, and Frank W. Porter. 1989. The Yuma (Indians of North America). Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 1555467377
• Bee, Robert L. 1983. "Quechan." In Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 10, Southwest, Alfonso Ortiz (ed.), 86-98. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0160045797
• Garrigues, Lisa. 2008. Quechan elders take fight against casino resort to Washington Indian Country Today, August 12, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2008.
• Fenger, Darin. 2007. Quechan filmmaker says he's grateful for blessings News From Indian Country, 5-27-07. Retrieved September 7, 2008.

External links

• Fort Yuma-Quechan Tribe Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona

• Curtis, Edward S. 1908. The North American Indian

• The River Yuman People Native American Desert Peoples, DesertUSA.

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