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The Akimel O'odham ( O'odham for "river people"), also called the Pima, are an
Indigenous people of the Americas In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...
living in the United States in central and southern Arizona and northwestern
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
in the states of
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...
and Chihuahua. The majority population of the two current bands of the Akimel O'odham in the United States is based in two reservations: the Keli Akimel Oʼodham on the
Gila River Indian Community The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) ( O'odham language: Keli Akimel Oʼotham, meaning "Gila River People", Maricopa language: Piipash) is an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona, lying adjacent to the south side of the cities of ...
(GRIC) and the On'k Akimel O'odham on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC). The Akimel O'odham are closely related to the Ak-Chin O'odham, now forming the Ak-Chin Indian Community. They are also related to the
Sobaipuri The Sobaipuri were one of many Indigenous groups occupying Sonora and what is now Arizona at the time Europeans first entered the American Southwest. They were a Piman or O'odham group who occupied southern Arizona and northern Sonora (the Pimer� ...
, whose descendants reside on the San Xavier Indian Reservation or Wa꞉k (together with the Tohono O'odham), and in the Salt River Indian Community. Together with the related Tohono O'odham ("Desert People") and the Hia C-ed O'odham ("Sand Dune People"), the Akimel O'odham form the Upper O'odham.


Name

The short name, ''Pima'', is believed to have come from the phrase ''pi 'añi mac'' or ''pi mac,'' meaning "I don't know," which they used repeatedly in their initial meetings with Spanish colonists. The Spanish referred to them as the Pima. English-speaking traders, explorers, and settlers adopted this term. The Akimel O'odham called themselves ''Othama'' until the first account of interaction with non-Native Americans was recorded.


History prior to 1688

Spanish missionaries recorded Pima villages known as Kina, Equituni, and Uturituc.
European Americans European Americans are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes both people who descend from the first European settlers in the area of the present-day United States and people who descend from more recent European arrivals. Since th ...
later corrupted the miscommunication into Pimos, which was adapted to Pima river people. The Akimel Oʼodham people today call their villages: * District #1 – U's kehk (Blackwater) * District #2 – Hashan Kehk (Saguaro Stand) * District #3 – Gu꞉U Ki (Sacaton) * District #4 – Santan * District #5 – Vah Ki (Casa Blanca) * District #6 – Komatke ( Sierra Estrella Mountains) * District #7 – Maricopa Colony The territory of the Upper O'odham, also called Upper Pima or Pima Alto, was called
Pimería Alta The ''Pimería Alta'' (translated to 'Upper Pima Land'/'Land of the Upper Pima' in English) was an area of the 18th century Sonora y Sinaloa, Sonora y Sinaloa Province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, that encompassed parts of what are today south ...
by the Spanish. The Akimel O'odham had lived along the Gila,
Salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
,
Yaqui The Yaqui, Hiaki, or Yoeme, are an Indigenous people of Mexico and Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe, who speak the Yaqui language, a Uto-Aztecan language. Their primary homelands are in Río Yaqui valley in the no ...
, and
Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...
rivers in
ranchería The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, native villages or bunkhouses. Anglo-Americans adopted the term with both these meaning ...
-style villages. The villages were set up as a loose group of houses with familial groups sharing a central ramada and kitchen area. Brush "Olas Ki:ki" (round houses) were built around this central area. The Oʼodham are
matrilocal In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Description Frequently, visiting marriage ...
, with daughters and their husbands living with and near the daughter's mother. Familial groups tended to consist of extended families. The Akimel Oʼodham also lived seasonally in temporary field houses in order to tend their crops. The O'odham language, variously called ''O'odham ñeʼokĭ'', ''O'odham ñiʼokĭ'' or ''Oʼotham ñiok,'' is spoken by all O'odham groups. There are certain dialectal differences, but they are mutually intelligible and all O'odham groups can understand one another. Lexicographical differences have arisen among the different groups, especially in reference to newer technologies and innovations. The ancient economy of the Akimel O'odham was primarily subsistence, based on farming, hunting and gathering. They also conducted extensive trading. The prehistoric peoples built an extensive
irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
system to compensate for arid conditions. It remains in use today. Over time the communities built and altered canal systems according to their changing needs. The Akimel Oʼodham were experts in the area of textiles and produced intricate baskets as well as woven cloth. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, their primary military rivals were the
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
and Yavapai, who raided their villages at times due to competition for resources. The latter tribes were more nomadic, depending primarily on hunting and gathering, and would raid the more settled groups who cultivated foods. They established some friendly relations with the Apache.


History after 1694

Initially, the Akimel O'odham experienced little intensive colonial contact. Early encounters were limited to parties traveling through the territory or community members visiting settlements to the south. The Hispanic era (AD 1694–1853) of the Historic period began with the first visit by Father Kino to their
villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...
in 1694. The Pima Revolt, also known as the O'odham Uprising or the Pima Outbreak, was a revolt of Akimel O'odham people in 1751 against colonial forces in Spanish Arizona and one of the major northern frontier conflicts in early
New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...
. Contact was infrequent with the Mexicans during their rule of southern Arizona between 1821 and 1853. The Akimel Oʼodham were affected by introduced European elements, such as infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, new crops (such as wheat), livestock, and use of metal tools and trade goods. Euroamerican contacts with the Akimel Oʼodham in the middle Gila Valley increased after 1846 as a result of the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
. The Akimel Oʼodham traded and gave aid to the expeditions of Stephen Watts Kearny and Philip St. George Cooke on their way to California. After Mexico's defeat, it ceded the territory of what is now Arizona to the United States, with the exception of the land south of the Gila River. Soon thereafter the
California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
began, drawing Americans to travel to California through the Mexican territory between Mesilla and the
Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...
crossings near Yuma, on what became known as the Southern Emigrant Trail. Travelers used the villages of the Akimel Oʼodham as oases to recover from the crossing of unfamiliar deserts. They also bought new supplies and livestock to support the journey across the remaining deserts to the west. The American era (A.D. 1853–1950), began in 1853 with the
Gadsden Purchase The Gadsden Purchase ( "La Mesilla sale") is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla, which took effect on June 8, 1854. The purchase included lan ...
, when the US acquired southern Arizona. New markets were developed, initially to supply immigrants heading for California. Grain was needed for horses of the
Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...
and for the military during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. As a result, the Akimel Oʼodham experienced a period of prosperity. The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) was established in 1859. The 1860 census records the Akimel O'odham villages as Agua Raiz, Arenal, Casa Blanca, Cachanillo, Cerrito, Cerro Chiquito, El Llano, and Hormiguero. After the American Civil War, numerous Euroamerican migrants came to settle upstream locations along the Gila, as well as along the lower Salt River. Due to their encroachment and competition for scarce resources, interaction between Native American groups and the Euro-American settlers became increasingly tense. The U.S. government adopted a policy of pacification and confinement of Native Americans to reservations. Uncertainty and variable crop yields led to major settlement reorganizations. The establishment of agency headquarters, churches and schools, and trading posts at Vahki (Casa Blanca) and Gu U ki (Sacaton) during the 1870s and 1880s led to the growth of these towns as administrative and commercial centers, at the expense of others. By 1898 agriculture had nearly ceased within the GRIC. Although some Akimel Oʼodham drew rations, their principal means of livelihood was woodcutting. The first allotments of land within Gila River were established in 1914, in an attempt to break up communal land. Each individual was assigned a parcel of irrigable land located within districts irrigated by the Santan, Agency, Blackwater, and Casa Blanca projects on the eastern half of the reservation. In 1917, the allotment size was doubled to include a primary lot of irrigable land and a secondary, usually non-contiguous tract of grazing land. The most ambitious effort to rectify the economic plight of the Akimel Oʼodham was the San Carlos Project Act of 1924, which authorized the construction of a water storage dam on the Gila River. It provided for the irrigation of of Indian and of non-Indian land. For a variety of reasons, the San Carlos Project failed to revitalize the Oʼodham farming economy. In effect the project halted the Gila river waters, and the Akimel O'odham no longer had a source of water for farming. This began the
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
years. Many Oʼodham have believed these wrong and misguided government policies were an attempt of mass
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
. Over the decades, the U.S. government promoted assimilation, forcing changes on to the Akimel Oʼodham in nearly every aspect of their lives. Since World War II, however, the Akimel Oʼodham have experienced a resurgence of interest in tribal sovereignty and economic development. The community has regained its self-government and are recognized as a tribe. In addition, they have developed several profitable enterprises in fields such as agriculture and telecommunications, and built several gaming casinos to generate revenues. They have begun to construct a water delivery system across the reservation in order to revive their farming economy.


Akimel O'odham and the Salt River

The Akimel O'odham ("River People") have lived on the banks of the Gila and Salt Rivers since long before European contact. Their way of life (''himdagĭ'', sometimes rendered in English as ''Him-dag'') was and is centered on the river, which is holy. The term Him-dag should be clarified, as it does not have a direct translation into the English language, and is not limited to reverence of the river. It encompasses a great deal because O'odham him-dag intertwines religion, morals, values, philosophy, and general world view which are all interconnected. Their worldview and religious beliefs focus on the natural world. The Gila and Salt Rivers are currently dry, due to the ( San Carlos Irrigation project) upstream dams that block the flow and the diversion of water by non-native farmers. This has been a cause of great upset among all of the Oʼodham. The upstream diversion in combination with periods of drought, led to lengthy periods of famine that were a devastating change from the documented prosperity the people had experienced until non-native settlers engaged in more aggressive farming in areas that were traditionally used by the Akimel Oʼodham and Apache in Eastern Arizona. This abuse of water rights was the impetus for a nearly century long legal battle between the Gila River Indian Community and the United States government, which was settled in favor of the Akimel Oʼodham and signed into law by George W. Bush in December 2005. As a side note, at times during the monsoon season the Salt River runs, albeit at low levels. In the weeks after December 29, 2004, when an unexpected winter rainstorm flooded areas much further upstream (in Northern Arizona), water was released through dams on the river at rates higher than at any time since the filling of Tempe Town Lake in 1998, and was a cause for minor celebration in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. The diversion of the water and the introduction of non-native diet is said to have been the leading contributing factor in the high rate of diabetes among the Akimel Oʼodham tribe.


Modern life

As of 2014, the majority of the population lives in the federally recognized
Gila River Indian Community The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) ( O'odham language: Keli Akimel Oʼotham, meaning "Gila River People", Maricopa language: Piipash) is an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona, lying adjacent to the south side of the cities of ...
(GRIC). In historic times a large number of Akimel O'odham migrated north to occupy the banks of the Salt River, where they formed the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC). Both tribes are confederations of two distinct ethnicities, which include the Maricopa. Within the O'odham people, four federally recognized tribes in the Southwest speak the same language: they are called the
Gila River Indian Community The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) ( O'odham language: Keli Akimel Oʼotham, meaning "Gila River People", Maricopa language: Piipash) is an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona, lying adjacent to the south side of the cities of ...
(''Keli Akimel O'odham'' – "
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 ...
People"); the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (''Onk Akimel O'odham'' – " Salt River People"); the Ak-Chin Indian Community (''Ak-Chin O'odham''); and the Tohono O'odham Nation (''Tohono O'odham'' – "Desert People"). The remaining band, the Hia C-ed O'odham ("Sand Dune People"), are not federally recognized, but reside throughout southwestern Arizona. Today the GRIC is a sovereign tribe residing on more than of land in central Arizona. The community is divided into seven districts (similar to states) with a council representing individual subgovernments. It is self-governed by an elected Governor (currently Gregory Mendoza), Lieutenant Governor (currently Stephen Roe-Lewis) and 18-member Tribal Council. The council is elected by district with the number of electees determined by district population. There are more than 19,000 enrolled members overall. The Gila River Indian Community is involved in various economic development enterprises that provide entertainment and recreation: three gaming casinos, associated golf courses, a luxury resort, and a western-themed amusement park. In addition, they manage various industrial parks, landfills, and construction supply. The GRIC is also involved in agriculture and runs its own farms and other agricultural projects. The Gila River Indian Reservation is home of Maricopa (''Piipaa, Piipaash'' or ''Pee-Posh'' – "People") and ''Keli Akimel O'odham'' (also ''Keli Akimel Au-Authm'' – "Gila River People", a division of the Akimel O'odham – "River People"). The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is smaller in size. It also has a government of an elected President and tribal council. They operate tribal gaming, industrial projects, landfills and construction supply. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community ( SRPMIC) is home of the ''Onk Akimel O'odham'' (also ''On'k Akimel Au-Authm'' – "Salt River People", a division of the Akimel O'odham – "River People"), the ''Maricopa of Lehi'' (call themselves ''Xalychidom Piipaa or Xalychidom Piipaash'' – "People who live toward the water", descendants of the refugee Halchidhoma), the Tohono O'odham ("Desert People") and some ''Keli Akimel O'odham'' (also ''Keli Akimel Au-Authm'' – "Gila River People", another division of the Akimel O'odham – "River People"). The Ak-Chin Indian Community is located in the Santa Cruz Valley in Arizona. The community is composed mainly of Ak-Chin O'odham (''Ak-Chin Au-Authm'', also called ''Pima'', another division of the Akimel O'odham – "River People") and Tohono O'odham, as well as some Yoeme. As of 2000, the population living in the community was 742. Ak-Chin is an O'odham word that means the "mouth of the arroyo" or "place where the wash loses itself in the sand or ground." The Keli Akimel O'odham and the Onk Akimel O'odham have various environmentally based health issues related to the decline of their traditional economy and farming. They have the highest prevalence of
type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent ...
in the world, much more than is observed in other U.S. populations. While they do not have a greater risk than other tribes, the Akimel O'odham people have been the subject of intensive study of diabetes, in part because they form a homogeneous group.''The Human Genome Project and Diabetes: Genetics of Type II Diabetes''. New Mexico State University. 1997. June 1, 2006. The general increased diabetes prevalence among Native Americans has been hypothesized as the result of the interaction of genetic predisposition (the
thrifty phenotype Thrifty phenotype refers to the correlation between low birth weight of neonates and the increased risk of developing metabolic syndromes later in life, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Although early life undernutrition is t ...
or thrifty genotype), as suggested by anthropologist Robert Ferrell in 1984 and a sudden shift in diet during the last century from traditional agricultural crops to processed foods, together with a decline in physical activity. For comparison, genetically similar O'odham in Mexico have only a slighter higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes than non-O'odham Mexicans.


Customs

Personal names are particularly important in Akimel O'odham society. From age ten until the time of marriage, neither boys nor girls were allowed to speak their own names out loud. Doing so can invoke bad luck to the children and their future. Similarly, people in the tribe do not say aloud the names of deceased people, in order to allow them to move on and to call their spirits back among the living. The people gave their children careful verbal instruction in moral, religious, and other matters. Akimel O'odham ceremonies often included set speeches, in which the speaker would recite portions of their cosmic myth. Such a recounting was especially important in the preparation for war. These speeches were adapted for each occasion but the general context was the same. Traditionally, the Akimel O'odham lived in a thatched wattle-and-daub houses, as seen by the early European-American settlers who ventured into their country:


See also

* Pima Indian Revolt * O'odham language * Man in the Maze * List of dwellings of Pueblo peoples


Footnotes


Further reading

* * Gil-Osle, Juan Pablo. "Cabeza de Vaca’s Primahaitu Pidgin, O’odham Nation, and euskaldunak." ''Journal of the Southwest'' 60.1 (2018): 252–68. * Gil-Osle, Juan Pablo. "Early Map-Making of the Pimería Alta (1597–1770) in Arizona and Sonora: A Transborder Case Study." ''Journal of the Southwest'' 63.1 (2021): 39–74. * Ortiz, Alfonzo, volume editor. ''Handbook of North American Indians''. Vol. 10 ''Southwest''. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1983. * Pritzker, Barry. ''A Native American Encyclopedia''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. . * Shaw, Anna Moore. ''A Pima Past''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1974. . * Smith-Morris, Carolyn. ''Diabetes Among the Pima: Stories of Survival''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2006. . * Waldman, Carl. ''Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes''. New York: Checkmark, 1999. * Zappia, Natale A. ''Traders and Raiders: The Indigenous World of the Colorado Basin, 1540–1859''. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.


External links


Gila River Indian Community Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akimel O'odham Indigenous peoples in Mexico Native American history of Arizona Native American tribes in Arizona