Quechan
- Not to be confused with Quechua, South American language.
 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 United States(  Arizona,  California) | |
| Languages | |
| Quechan, English | |
| Religion | |
| traditional tribal religion, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Maricopa, Mojave, Kumeyaay |
The Quechan (also Yuma, Yuman, Kwtsan, Kwtsaan) are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the border with Mexico. Members are enrolled into the Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation. The Quechan tribe's main office is located in Fort Yuma, Arizona but has operations, along with the majority of its reservation land located in California.
Prehistory and history
The historic Yuman-speaking peoples in this region were skilled warriors and active traders, maintaining exchange networks with the Pima in southern Arizona and with the Pacific coast.
The term Patayan is used by archaeologists to describe the prehistoric Native American cultures that inhabited parts of modern day Arizona, California and Baja California, including areas near the Colorado River Valley, the nearby uplands, and north to the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. These prehistoric people may have been ancestral to the Quechan. They practiced floodplain agriculture where possible, but relied heavily on hunting and gathering. Subgroups include the River Yuman, Delta-Californian, and Upland Yuman ("Pai").
The first significant contact of the Quechan with Europeans was with the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and his party in the winter of 1774. Relations were friendly and on Anza's return from his second trip to Alta California in 1776 the chief of the tribe and three others journeyed to Mexico City to petition the Viceroy of New Spain for the establishment of a mission. The chief, Palma and his 3 companions were baptized there on February 13, 1777. Palma was given the name Salvador Carlos Antonio.
Spanish settlement among the Quechan did not go as well as hoped and the tribe rebelled from July 17–19, 1781 and killed 4 priests and 30 soldiers. The Spanish mission settlements of San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer and Puerto de Purísima Concepción were also decimated. The tribe was punished militarily the following year.
The United States engaged the Yuma Indians in warfare during the Yuma Expedition, which was one of many Indian Wars that took place before the American Civil War. The California state government also sponsored the ill fated 1857 Gila Expedition against the Quechan in retribution for the revenge massacre of the John Joel Glanton gang.
Population
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially (see population of Native California). Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Quechan at 2,500. Jack D. Forbes (1965:341-343) compiled historical estimates and suggested that before they were first contacted the Quechan had numbered 4,000 or a few more.
Kroeber estimated the population of the Quechan in 1910 as 750. By 1950, there were reported to be just under 1,000 Quechan living on the reservation and another 1,100+ off it (Forbes 1965:343). The 2000 census reported a resident population of 2,376 persons on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, only 56.8 percent of whom were of solely Native American heritage, and more than 27 percent of whom were white.
Language
The Quechan language is part of the Yuman-Cochimí language family.
Reservation
The Fort Yuma Indian Reservation is a part of the Quechan's traditional lands. Established in 1884, the reservation, at 32°47′04″N 114°38′43″W / 32.78444°N 114.64528°W, has a land area of 178.197 km² (68.802 sq mi) in southeastern Imperial County, California, and western Yuma County, Arizona, near the city of Yuma, Arizona. Both the county and city are named for the tribe.
See also
Notes
- ^ Pritzker, 66
References
- Forbes, Jack D. 1965. Warriors of the Colorado: The Yumas of the Quechan Nation and Their Neighbors. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
- Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
- Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0195138771.
- Yuma Reservation, California/Arizona United States Census Bureau
External links
- Quechan Tribal Council, official website
- Fort Yuma-Quechan Tribe, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona