The river people, as the Pima tribe are fondly called, remain a small group of Native American tribes living in areas extending from northern Mexico (they reside in the states of Chihuahua and Senoa) and southern and central Arizona.
The tribe remains obscure due to their small population and limited dealings with the Europeans and Americans throughout the centuries down to this day.
Nonetheless, the Pima or the Akimel O’odham boasts of a rich ancestry that speaks greatly of the rich culture of the first settlers in North America.
We review the rich cultural heritage and history of the Pima Tribe.
Pima Tribe History
The Pima tribe is believed to have originated from the Hohokam culture, which existed between 300 to 1500 AD.
Upon evolving from the Hohokam culture, the Pima originally referred to themselves as the Othama.
The tribe resides in river settlements along the Senora, Salt, Yaqui, and Gila rivers in villages resembling ranchería.
They primarily engaged in subsistence farming, hunting, and gathering.
To battle drought, the Pima tribe proved innovative by constructing irrigation systems.
Compared to the surrounding tribes who resided close by, the Pimas had settled lifestyles that allowed them to cultivate the land.
But this put them in positions for raids and attacks from rival tribes, notably the Yavapai and the Apache.
However, they managed to forge a friendly bond with the Apache, but this did not entirely prevent military raids from the Apaches.
European Contact – Present Day
Unlike their Apache counterparts and most other American Indian tribes, the Pimas did not face European incursions into their territories as vastly as their neighbors.
The minimal interaction the tribe had with the Europeans was often with European parties traveling through their territories or parties visiting other tribes’ territories in the South.
However, with the advent of the Hispanic era, which lasted between 1694 A.D. – 1853 A.D., life for the Pimas would change as it did for all American Indian tribes in the South.
The first major visit the Pima tribe had with the Europeans was the visit of Eusebio Francisco Kino, known as Father Kino, a Tyrolese missionary and explorer, to their village in 1694.
Even with Father Kino’s visit, the Spanish, who had at this point morphed into the Mexican state, had little contact with the tribe.
Though they faced limited contact with the Europeans, they were not spared from the wave of death brought about by diseases by the Europeans.
Diseases were not the only effect of European contact on the Pimas; the tribe began embracing the rearing of livestock, making use of goods and tools forged from metal, and consuming new crops such as cultigens like wheat.
The little contact the tribe had with Europeans became more frequent in the 19th century, precisely 1894, in the Gila Valley, following the end of the Mexico-American war.
The first major contact the Pimas had with Americans was during the American war against the Mexicans, where the tribe traded and supplied aid to parties of U.S. soldiers Stephen Watts Kearny and Philip St. George Cooke, who passed the Pima territory route to California.
America’s victory in the Mexico-America war led the Mexicans to cede lands inhabited by the Pimas, going as far as present-day Arizona but not including the sources part of the Gila River.
With California Gold Rush, Americans began frequenting the territories of the Pimas.
Their route saw them pass through the Mexican territory of Messilla, through the Colorado River crossings, and down to California.
Americans who were traveling through unfamiliar deserts in a bid to reach California often stopped by the tribe’s village to seek rest.
These parties often purchased livestock and supplies to continue their journey through the desert.
This was the nature of the interaction between the Pimas and the Americans until the start of the American era.
18th- 20th Century
With the Gadsden Purchase, which saw America acquire the territory of present-day Southern Arizona, the dealings between the Pima tribe and the Americans changed.
Markets were established in territories belonging to the Pima tribe to help support immigrants traveling to California.
The market proved useful to U.S. war efforts at the height of the U.S. war, as grains were provided for horses used by the U.S. military and the stagecoach service operating in the U.S., the Butterfield Overland Mail.
The establishment of these markets racked up economic activities in Pima territories, and the economic status of the tribe bolstered. By 1859 the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) was established.
The economic prosperity of the Pima tribe soon began attracting European-American immigrants who settled in the lower Salt River and alongside the Gila River.
The settlement of Americans in Pima territories soon led to increased tension between both parties over the encroachment of lands and competition for scarce resources.
The U.S., however, sorted to control the rising tensions by reserving the Native Americans on reservations but soon reorganized these reservations due to the unpredictable yield of cultivated crops.
Infrastructural development in Pima territories continued, such as the creation of trading posts, hospitals, schools, and churches in Sacaton and Casa Blanca in the 1870s and 1880s.
This led to the rapid development of these towns at the expense of other Pima Territories.
With economic development came a decline in agricultural practice in the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC).
By the early 20th century, the U.S. government extended the individual allotment of land across all Native American tribes to the Pimas.
The allotted lands, however, were irritable, and with the 1924 San Carlos Project Act, water storage dams on the Gila River were authorized to improve farming among tribes.
The dam, which was to provide irrigation for 50,000 acres of the Indigenous Peoples’ lands and 50,000 acres of non-indigenous peoples’ land, failed and led to the stoppage of the Gila River.
This was devastating to the Pimas as they possessed no water source to help to farm, and several tribe members believed these failed policies were a sort of mass genocidal plan by the U.S. government.
With the failed plan of rejuvenating the farming economy of the Pimas, the U.S. government began the forced assimilation of the tribe into civilization.
This period was followed by calls for self-sovereignty by the Pimas, who have since accomplished this goal.
With e inimical development and sovereignty achieved by the tribe, the Pima tribe has boosted their economy with the significant development recorded in telecommunications and agriculture.
A water delivery system has also been erected in the Pima reservation to rejuvenate the farming economy.
The self-governing tribe has employed other supplementary revenue streams, such as the construction of gaming casinos tribe.
Pima Tribe Culture
Names
The Pima tribe associates significant importance with a person’s name.
Right from the age of ten, till a tribe member got married, individuals of both gender were never allowed to call out their names aloud.
The tribe believes calling out names aloud brings back luck to a person’s future and children.
Also, calling out the names of dead people in the tribe is taboo.
Doing so is believed to be calling spirits into the land of the living.
Parenting
The Akimel O’odham culture followed a societal parenting style where individuals gave oral instructions on religion, morals, and other affairs of life to children.
In instructional ceremonies, portions of cosmic myths are recited by speakers.
There was particularly done in preparation for war activities but was often tweaked to suit each occasion, but the general context of the ceremony remains intact.
Dwellings
The Pima tribe resided in jacal, made from reed grasses split in half and constructed as a vault on arched sticks. The top part of the jackal
It is covered with reed-grass mats, which are strong enough to resist the influences of the weather.
Inside the jackals, only bedrolls known as petate and gourds for storing water are kept.
Pima Tribe Facts
1. The tribe’s name Pima came about by European mispronunciation of phrases the tribe often mentioned.
During initial contact with the Spanish, the Akimel O’odham often mentioned pi mac or pi ‘añi mac, which translates to “I don’t know”.
Repeated use of the phrase was soon shortened to Pima by the Spanish, who initially colonized the territories where the Pima resided.
The name soon gained popularity in daily usage by English explorers, traders, and settlers, and thus it survived down to our day.
The tribe’s other name Akimel O’odham means “River people.”
2. There are four Pima tribes recognized federally by the U.S. federal government.
The U.S. government recognizes only four Pima tribes, namely, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (Onk Akimel O’odham meaning Salt River People), the Tohono O’odham Nation (Tohono O’odham meaning Desert people), the Ak-Chin Indian Community (Ak-Chin O’odham, and the Gila River Indian Community (Keli Akimel O’odham).
There exists a Pima tribe that does not have federal recognition, the Hia C-ed O’odham (Sand Dune People), who reside in southeast Arizona.
3. Each Pima tribe is self-sovereign with its own elected leaders.
The federally recognized Pima tribes are self-sovereign, with lands divided into districts (similar to states in countries), and have councils representing the people and a Governor or President that directs the affairs of the tribe.
Though the tribes are sovereign, U.S. laws apply to them. Constitutions guide the structure of governance and laws in Pima tribes.
Conclusion
The Pima tribe’s evolution is a classic tale of the highs and lows of European incursion into North America and how the evolution has produced the nature of the Native American tribes that thrive in the region today.
The history of the Pima tribe and the tribe’s interaction with European shows just how vast the influence the Europeans had on all American Indian tribes, even those with whom they had limited contact.
Their history also points to the economic prosperity enjoyed by the tribe due to European interaction.
