Upland Yumans

Upland Yuman is a linguistic and regional category, referring to the historic Yuman-speaking peoples who, for centuries, occupied the mountains and canyons of central and northwestern Arizona, and distinguishing them from the Yuman-speakers (Mojaves, Quechans, Maricopas) who made their homes along the lowlying Colorado and Gila River valleys. An understanding of early Upland Yuman identity can only be speculative. For the period before conquest by U.S. forces in the 1860s and 1870s, Upland Yumans may be most easily understood as a single “cultural” field, with some regional variation, of seminomadic families scattered across thousands of square miles; the total [Page 636]population probably numbered between 4,000 and 5,000 in 1860. Scholars more often identify two pre-conquest Upland Yuman “tribes”—Yavapai and Pai—categorizations based, in part, on generalizations found in 19th-century documents. However, preconquest Upland Yumans seem to have identified themselves first as members of local and regional bands. These identities were inseparable from specific locales—in other words, the sacred topography of homelands. More broadly, Upland Yuman families recognized affiliation with one of five distinct peoples—Pais (now Hualapais and Havasupais) in northwestern Arizona and, farther south and east, Tolkepayas, Yavapés, Wipukepas, and Kwevkepayas (collectively, Yavapais). Today, their descendants constitute five federally recognized tribes—Hualapai (with approximately 1,900 tribal members), Havasupai (650), Yavapai-Prescott (160), Fort McDowell– Yavapai (900), and Camp Verde Yavapai-Apache (1,850). At first glance, the creation of these formal tribal structures, in the early 20th century, appears to have ended a long history of Upland Yuman migration. More careful examination reveals that frequent relocation has continued so long as reservations have remained impoverished.

The circumstances of the original movement of Yuman-speakers into Arizona uplands are unclear. Upland Yuman creation stories describe original emergence, but Hualapais and Havasupais place that event at Spirit Mountain, along the Colorado River in Nevada, while Yavapais point to Montezuma's Well, a dramatic sinkhole in central Arizona. After emergence, oral traditions suggest, humans divided into separate tribes and spread out. In their emphasis on a diaspora, these early migration stories are similar to settlement theories forwarded by archaeologists. The most widely accepted scenario identifies a ceramic-making Patayan culture along the lower Colorado River after 700 CE. Patayan agriculture on the Colorado River floodplains allowed for population growth and attracted immigration from California. Eventually, some Patayan groups left the river and moved eastward into Arizona, where their descendants became the historic Upland Yumans. Some scholars suggest immigration into Pai territory occurred around 1300 CE, with expansion farther east into Yavapai lands sometime later. Eventually, an unoccupied buffer zone developed along the Yavapai-Pai border due to occasional hostilities between neighboring bands.

If Yuman-speakers moved east, away from river farmland, they also developed seasonal migration patterns. To survive in an arid, basin-and-range environment, Upland Yumans relocated frequently in an annual round to exploit wild food resources. From late spring to early fall, individual nuclear or extended families moved from one resource zone to another as different seeds, berries, and nuts came into season; agave, an important source of carbohydrates, they harvested year-round. A number of these family groups might have coalesced where wild plant foods were concentrated, only to scatter again after exhausting the local food supply. In late fall, with the cycle of wild plant harvesting concluded, Upland Yuman families formed winter camps, which contained several families and sometimes exceeded 50 members where resources were abundant. A winter camp generally remained in one locale, living off agave, cached food stores, and wild game—the larger camp size meant more manpower for group hunting techniques. In spring, winter camps broke up once more into smaller family camps.

...