Pima villages facts for kids

The Pima Villages, also known as the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee-Posh (Maricopa) villages, were located in what is now the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County, Arizona. Spanish explorers first found these villages in the late 1600s along the south side of the Gila River. Over time, their lands were part of different governments: first New Spain, then Mexico, and finally the United States. American fur trappers and travelers met the Pima and Maricopa people in these villages from the 1830s onwards.

History

Spanish period: 1694 to 1821

First encounters (late 1600s)

Father Eusebio Kino was a Spanish missionary who helped set up missions in the Sonoran Desert. By the early 1690s, he had established three missions south of the Pima Villages.

The Akimel O’odham villages were along the Gila River. Father Kino and Captain Juan Mateo Manje first met them in 1694. A count taken by Manje in 1697 and 1699 found 1,118 people living in five villages. These villages were within the area of today's Gila River Indian Community. From east to west, they included Tucsan, Tusonimo, Coatoydag, Soación, and Comacson. Another 132 Akimel O’odham lived further west near Gila Bend.

Captain Manje also noted that 960 Cocomaricopa (Opa) people lived in villages further west along the Gila River. There was a long, empty area between the Cocomaricopa and their enemies, the Quechan people, who lived near the Colorado River. To the east of the Pima Villages were the Sobaipuri villages along the San Pedro River.

Changes in the 1700s

Padre Jacobo Sedelmayr's visit (1744)

In 1744, Padre Jacobo Sedelmayr visited the Pima along the Middle Gila River. He found them living in three main settlements: Tuquisan, Tussonimo, and Sudacsón. Sudacsón was the largest. These areas had very fertile fields. The Pima used irrigation ditches to grow crops on both sides of the river and on islands.

Sedelmayr noticed that Pima farming had improved. They started using irrigation and growing new crops like cotton and wheat. It's thought that Sobaipuri people, who had been driven from their lands by the Apache, might have brought cotton farming to the Pima.

Pima Revolt (1751)

Some Pima warriors, led by an old chief named Jabanimó, took part in the Pima Revolt in 1751. They burned a padre's house and chapel at Mission San Xavier. Later, in 1756, Jabanimó attacked the mission again but was stopped by Spanish soldiers. Even with these conflicts, the Pima Villages generally remained friendly with the Spanish but kept their independence.

Defending against Apache raids

The Apache began attacking the Pima Villages. Since the Pima were too far from the Spanish fort at Tucson for quick help, they developed their own strong defense system. This system grew from Pima warriors helping Spanish soldiers since 1694.

Unlike other groups, the Pima of the Gila villages created their own military. All able-bodied men had to serve. They trained to be skilled fighters, organized and efficient like a professional army. They had lookouts, patrols along their borders, and fast ways to communicate between villages. One leader had authority over both civil and military matters, and each village had its own Captain.

Their way of fighting became very professional. They weren't just raiding for goods; they were defending their homes. This system became very strong by the mid-1800s. It also led them to move their villages away from the Gila River. In 1775, Padre Pedro Font wrote that the Pima moved their village of Sutaquison away from the riverbanks. They explained that the woods along the river made it hard to fight the Apache. By living in open land away from the river, they could better chase and defeat the Apache.

Mexican period: 1821 to 1853

After Mexico became independent from Spain, people wanted to reopen land routes to California. In 1823, Father Félix Caballero traveled from Baja California to Tucson. A military group, led by Captain José Romero, was sent to help the priest return and find a route to California.

Travels in the 1820s

Captain Romero's records show they traveled up the Gila River, passing through the Pima Villages and then the Maricopa villages. The first Maricopa village was Hueso Parado, close to where the Gila and Santa Cruz Rivers meet. Other Maricopa villages stretched downriver to Agua Caliente.

In 1825, Colonel Mariano de Urrea, the governor of Sonora, listed the Pima Villages along the road from Tucson to the Gila River. He named villages like Buen Llano, El Hormiguero, La Tierra Amontonada, El Apache Parado, La Agua, and El Hueso Parado. The last one was a mix of Maricopa and Pima people.

California Gold Rush impact

After the 1820s, the Maricopa faced many attacks from the Yuma and other tribes. They also lost many people to diseases. Because of this, they moved closer to the Pima in the Middle Gila region. By the time of the California Gold Rush, all Maricopa villages were east of the Sierra Estrella mountains, below the Pima Villages on the Gila River.

In December 1849, Benjamin Ignatius Hayes traveled through the Pima Villages on his way to California. He wrote that there were eight Pima villages with over 10,000 people. He also noted three Maricopa villages with about a thousand people.

The Gold Rush brought many travelers, and with them came diseases like cholera. This disease spread from Europe to the US and then along trails to California. In the years that followed, many people died from cholera in Mexico, including many in the Pima and Maricopa villages.

American period: from 1853

Even after moving near the Pima Villages, the Maricopa were still attacked by the Yuma. However, the last major attack happened on June 1, 1857. The combined Pima–Maricopa warriors defeated their enemies in the Battle of Pima Butte. Maricopa people whose villages were destroyed settled at Socatoon, which soon appeared in the first American census.

Chapman's census (1857)

A few months after the Battle of Pima Butte, Lieutenant Alfred Chapman of the U.S. Army took the first US census of the Maricopas, Pimas, and Papagos. This census listed their captains, warriors, women, children, and total population. It found 8 Pima villages and 2 Maricopa villages (one of which, El Juez Tarado, was mixed) along a 15-mile stretch of the Gila River.

Here are the Pima Villages listed:

And here are the Maricopa Villages listed:

St. John's census (1859)

In 1859, the Pima Villages and some of their lands became part of the Gila River Indian Reservation. An Indian Agency was set up at Casa Blanca. Silas St. John, who was an agent for the Butterfield Overland Mail, became the Special Agent for the Pima and Maricopa Indians.

Agent St. John also took a census that year. It showed 3,770 Pimas and 472 Maricopas. This count might not have been completely accurate, possibly because gifts were being given out at the time. It showed fewer people than the 1858 count. The Pima Villages listed were: Buen Llano, Hormiguero, Hormiguerito, Casa Blanca, Cochinilla, Arenal No. 1, El Cerro No. 1, El Cerro No. 2, Arizo del Agua, Arenal No. 2. The Maricopa Villages were: Sacaton and Huesoparada. El Cerro No. 1 and No. 2 were new, smaller villages, showing that farming was expanding to trade with the Mail company and the military.

That year, the reservation was also surveyed for the first time by A. B. Gray.

1860 census

The 1860 US census recorded the Pima Villages and their populations as: Agua Raiz (523 people), Arenal (577), Casa Blanca (323), Cachanillo (504), Cerrito (257), Cerro Chiquito (232), El Llano (394), and Hormiguero (510). The remaining Maricopa also lived in two villages: Hueso Parado (250) and Sacaton (144).