The Yavapai ( ) are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Their Yavapai language belongs to the Upland Yuman branch of the proposed Hokan language family.
Today Yavapai people are enrolled in the following federally recognized tribes: Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Yavapai-Apache Nation of the Camp Verde Indian Reservation Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe.
The Yavapai historically controlled about 10 million acres of land in west-central Arizona. Their lands bordered the San Francisco Peaks to the north, the Pinaleno Mountains and Mazatzal Mountains to the southeast, the Colorado River to the west, and almost to the Gila River and the Salt River to the south.Salzmann, p. 58
The Yavapai historically were divided into geographically distinct bands or subtribes: Kewevkepaya, Gwev G’paaya (southeastern) Tolkepaya,Braatz, Surviving Conquest, p. 27. Tolkepaye (western) Wipukepa, Wiipukpaa (northeastern), also known as the Verde Valley Yavapai Yavepé, Yaavpe (northwestern)
Name The name Yavapai comes from the Mojave language term Enyaéva Pai, translating as "People of the Sun".Pritzker, A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples, p. 103
American settlers often mistakenly called the Yavapai "Mohave-Apache," "Yuma-Apache," or "Tonto-Apache".Utley, p. 255
Language
The Yavapai language is one of three dialects of the Upland Yuman language, itself a member of the Pai branch of the Yuman language family.Jones, p.79 Their Upland Yuman language may be part of the proposed Hokan language family.
The language includes four dialects, known as Kwevkepaya (Southern), Tolkepaya (Western), Wipukepa (Verde Valley), and Yavepe (Prescott).Mithun (1999) p. 578.
Population The Yavapai population was about 1,550 in 1992. In C.E. 1500, by some estimates there were perhaps 1,500 Yavapai.
History
Their creation story explains that Yavapai people originated "in the beginning," or "many years ago," when either a tree or a maize plant sprouted from the ground in what is now Montezuma Well, bringing the Yavapai into the world.
Western archeologists believe the Yavapai derived from Patayan (Hakataya) peoples who migrated east from the Colorado River region to become Upland Yumans. Archeological and linguistic evidence suggests that they split off to develop as the Yavapai somewhere around CE 1300.
16th century The first recorded contact with Yavapai was in 1583, when Hopi guides led Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo,Ruland Thorne, p. 2 to Jerome Mountain. De Espejo sought gold and was disappointed to find only copper. In 1598, Hopi brought Marcos Farfán de los Godos and his group to the same mines, to their excitement. Farfán referred to the Yavapai as cruzados because of the crosses painted on their heads.Swanton, p. 368
17th and 18th centuries Juan de Oñate had led a group through Yavapai lands in 1598 and went back again in 1604–1605, looking for a route to the sea which Yavapai had told them about.
Warfare was not uncommon in the Yavapai world, and they made changing alliances for security. Wi:pukba (Wipukepa) and Guwevkabaya (Kwevkepaya) bands formed alliances with Western Apache bands, to attack and defend against raids by the Akimel O'odham and Maricopa bands from the south. Because of the greater strength of the Akimel O'odham/Maricopa, Yavapai/Apache raids generally conducted small-scale quick raids, followed by a retreat to avoid counterattack. The Yavapai defended their lands against Akimel O'odham incursions when the Akimel O'odham would invade to harvest saguaro fruits.Braatz, Surviving Conquest, p. 45
To the north and northwest, Wi:pukba and Yavbe' bands had off-and-on relations with the Pai people throughout most of their history. Though Pai and Yavapai both spoke Upland Yuman dialects, and had a common cultural history, each people had tales of a dispute that separated them from each other. According to Pai oral history, the dispute began with a "mudball fight between children." Scholars believe this split occurred around 1750.Hoxie, p. 456
In the intervening time, through contact with other tribes that had more European contact, the Yavapai began to adopt certain European practices. They raised some livestock and planted crops, also adopting some metal tools and weaponry. In a syncretic way, they adopted elements of Christianity. An estimated quarter of the population died as a result of smallpox in the 17th and 18th centuries, smaller losses than for some tribes, but substantial enough to disrupt their societies. With the use of guns and other weapons, they began to change methods of warfare, diplomacy, and trade. They used livestock raiding, either from other tribes such as the Maricopa, or from Spanish settlements to their south, to supplement their economy. They often acquired human captives in raids, whom they traded as slaves to Spaniards in exchange for European goods.Braatz, pp. 63–67
Spanish missionary Francisco Garcés lived among the Yavapai in 1776.
19th century
In the 1820s, American beaver trappers, having depleted the beaver population of the Rocky Mountains, began entering Yavapai territory. They trapped beaver along the Salt, Gila, and Bill Williams rivers. When Kit Carson and Ewing Young led a trapping group through the territory in 1829, the group was "nightly harassed..." Traps were stolen and some of their horses and mules killed.Braatz, p. 71
The first fighting between US troops and Yavapai came in early 1837, when the Tolkepaya joined with their Quechan neighbors to defend against Major Samuel Heintzelman over a Quechan ferry crossing on the Colorado River. The Quechan used the ferry to transport settlers over the river, into California. After they killed a group led by John Glanton, who had taken over the crossing, the US government retaliated by burning the fields of the Quechans, and taking control of the crossing.Braatz, p. 76
According to Thomas Sweeney, the Tolkepaya would tell US officers encountered in Quechan territory, that they had a 30-day march to their own territory. They wanted to discourage US encroachment on their land.Braatz, p. 77
Following the declaration of war against Mexico in May 1845 and especially after the claim by the US of southwest lands under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, US military incursions into Yavapai territory greatly increased. After gold was discovered in California in 1849, more Euro-American emigrants passed through Yavapai territory than ever had before.Braatz, p. 74 Despite the thousands of emigrants passing through their territory, the Yavapai avoided contact with them.
The last big battle between the Colorado–Gila River alliances took place in August 1857, when about 100 Yavapai, Quechan, and Mohave warriors attacked a settlement of Maricopa near Pima Butte. After overwhelming the Maricopa, the Yavapai left. A group of Akimel O'odham, supplied with guns and horses from US troops, arrived and routed the remaining Mohave and Quechans.Braatz, Surviving Conquest, p. 78.
In 1851, a group of Yavapai attacked American settlers, the Oatman family.Braatz, pp. 253–54 Roys Oatman and his wife were killed, along with four of their seven children. The son, Lorenzo, was left for dead but survived, while sisters Olive Oatman and Mary Ann were later sold to Mojaves as slaves. The story was widely published and increased white settlers' fears of attack in Arizona.Campbell, p. 80
The Yavapai Wars, or the Tonto Wars, were a series of armed conflicts between the Yavapai and Tonto Apache against the United States in Arizona. The period began no later than 1861, with the arrival of American settlers on Yavapai and Tonto land. At the time, the Yavapai were considered a band of the Western Apache people due to their close relationship with tribes such as the Tonto and Pinal. From 366 to 489 Yavapai were killed in massacres, and 375 perished in Indian Removal deportations out of 1,400 remaining Yavapai.
When in early 1863, the Walker Party discovered gold in Lynx Creek (near present-day Prescott, Arizona), it set off a chain of events that would have White settlements along the Hassayampa and Agua Fria Rivers, the nearby valleys, as well as in Prescott, and Fort Whipple would be built, all by the end of the year, and all in traditional Yavapai territory.
The Americans, led by General George Crook, fought against the Yavapai and Tonto Apache in 1872–73. Aided by Pai scouts, the Americans killed many of the Yavapai and forced them onto a reservation at Camp Verde, where a third of the surviving Yavapai died from disease. The Skeleton Cave massacre occurred in 1872. In 1875, they were forcibly relocated to the San Carlos Reservation in the March of Tears. After only 25 years, their population of 1,500 plummeted to only 200 survivors.
20th century By 1900, most Yavapai left the San Carlos Reservation to return to the Verde Valley and neighboring homelands.
Culture Cuisine
Before being confined to reservations, the Yavapai were mainly hunter-gatherers, following an annual migration to different areas to follow the ripening of different edible plants and movement of game animals. Some communities supplemented this diet with small-scale cultivation of the "three sisters" (maize, squash, and beans) in fertile streambeds. In particular, the Tolkepaya, who lived in lands that were less supportive of food gathering, turned to agriculture more than other Yavapai. They had to work to cultivate crops, as their land was also less supportive of agriculture. In turn, Tolkepaya often traded items such as animal skins, baskets, and agave to Quechan groups for food.
The main plant foods gathered were walnuts, saguaro fruits, juniper berries, acorns, sunflower seeds, manzanita berries and apples, hackberries, the bulbs of the Quamash, and the greens of the Lamb's quarters, Scrophularia, and Lupinus plants. Agave was the most crucial harvest, as it was the only plant food available from late fall through early spring. The hearts of the plant were roasted in stone-lined pits, and could be stored for later use.Braatz, p. 29 Primary animals hunted were deer, rabbit, jackrabbit, quail, and woodrat. FishGifford, pp. 250, 255 and water-borne birdsFish's, p. 21 were eschewed by most Yavapai groups. Some groups of Tolkepaya began eating fish after contact with their Quechan neighbors.Braatz, p. 42
Dances
The Yavapai practiced traditional dances such as the Mountain Spirit Dance, War Dances, Victory Dances and Social Dances. The Mountain Spirit dance was a masked dance, which was used for guidance or healing of a sick person. The masked dancers represented Mountain Spirits, who dwell in Four Peaks, McDowell Mountains, Red Mountain (near Fort McDowell), Mingus Mountain-(Black Hills) near Camp Verde, and Granite Mountain near present-day Prescott. The Mountain Spirits also dwell in the caves of Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well in the Verde Valley.
Yavapai also participate in dances and singing shared with neighboring tribes such as the Apache Sunrise Dance and the Bird Singing and Dancing of the Mojave people.
The Sunrise Dance Ceremony may have come to the Yavapai through the Apache. with Apache and Yavapai often intermarried and adopted elements of each other's cultures; these two tribes reside together on the Camp Verde and Fort McDowell reservations. The Sunrise Dance is a four-day rite-of-transition for young Apache girls, which typically takes place from March through October. The sunrise dance is an ancient practice, unique to the Apache. It is related to the Changing Woman, a powerful figure in Apache culture associated with longevity. The power of Changing Woman is transferred to the pubescent girl through songs sung by the medicine man. A medicine man is joined by other tribal members in singing a series of songs, up to 32 which are believed to have first been sung by Changing Woman.