Hueso Parado, Spanish for “Standing Bone” or El Juez Tarado Spanish for "The Judge Tarado" (1858 census), was the largest

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

of the Maricopa people in the 19th century, in what is now the Gila River Indian Community in

Pinal County, Arizona Pinal County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's third-most populous county. The county seat is Florence. The county was founded in 187 ...

. El Hueso Parado de Pimas y Cocomaricopas, was first mentioned in an 1823 Mexican Army report, as being located 7 leagues (17.5 miles) down the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...

from the Pima Villages. As its name implies it was home to both Pima and Maricopa. Hueso Parado village lay on the west and downstream of the other Pima villages and upstream of the other Maricopa villages. It lay north of

Maricopa Wells Maricopa Wells is a former place ( locale) situated in Pinal County, Arizona. It has an estimated elevation of above sea level. Historically, it was an oasis around a series of watering holes in the Sierra Estrella, eight miles north of present- ...

, above the confluence of the Santa Cruz River with the Gila, on a neck of land between the two rivers. The 1859 survey of the village showed extensive irrigation canals on both the south bank of the Gila and the north bank of the Santa Cruz Rivers, with the village in between them. The 1858 census showed Hueso Parado had a population 314 Maricopa and 263

Pima people The Pima (or Akimel O'odham, also spelled Akimel Oʼotham, "River People," formerly known as ''Pima'') are a group of Native Americans living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona, as well as northwestern Mexico in ...

also. By 1870, water diverted for irrigation above the Pima Reservation by Mexican and American farmers had made the water too alkaline to drink or use for irrigation at Hueso Parado. The Maricopa abandoned it, moving to the Salt River Valley to take up farming there.John P. Wilson, Peoples of the Middle Gila: A Documentary History of the Pimas and Maricopas, 1500s–1945, Researched and Written for the Gila River Indian Community, Sacaton, Arizona, 1999, p. 232

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hueso Parado Gila River Geography of Pinal County, Arizona Native American history of Arizona History of Arizona by location Former populated places in Pinal County, Arizona Gila River Indian Community