Maricopa

By Teferi Abate Adem

Cocomaricopa, Pi-Posh (Pee-Posh, Piipash), Halchidhoma (Halchidoma, Lehi Maricopa, Xalychidom Piipaash), Kaveltcadom (Kavelchadom), Halyikwamai, Kohuana (Kahwan)

The Maricopa are an American Indian group traditionally living on or near the Gila River in what is now southern Arizona. As a culture group, the Maricopa people include three previously distinct, but historically incorporated, cultures groups: Halchidhoma, Halyikwamai, and Kohuana.

Most Maricopa presently live with members of the Pima people on and near the Gila River and Salt River Indian Reservations (Communities) in Arizona.

In the late 1700s the Maricopa numbered about 3000. By the middle of the following century, that figure was probably less than 700, and by the time of a 1910 census count there were 386 Maricopa on the Gila River Reservation, with little change into the middle of the century. In 1977 there were 607 individuals in the predominantly Maricopa portion of that reservation, and the 1990 national census tallied 744 Maricopa throughout the country, with 710 in Arizona. A 1997 estimate put the number of ethnic Maricopa at 400, with 160 retaining the language. The 2000 census produced a count of 255 Maricopa among 7295 Yumans nationally. Proportionally, there would have been 270 Maricopa out of the 7727 Yumans enumerated in a preliminary 2010 census report.

The Maricopa language is classified in the Yuman group of the Yuman-Cochimí

language family. Together with the closely related Quechan and Mohave languages, Maricopa belongs to the River branch of the Yuman language group.

Both local tradition and scholarly accounts suggest that the Maricopa migrated into the lower Gila Valley area from Colorado. The first to move was a Pi-Posh (Maricopa proper) chief who in 1825 settled his people along the south side of the Estrella Mountain Range. The Halchidhoma chief followed in 1830 as he felt that, in the absence of the Pi-Posh, his people would be defenseless against Mohave and Quechan attacks. Elements of Kohuana and Halyikwamai communities joined in 1838.

The United States began taking control of the area in the 1850s, and the Maricopa were relocated to the Gila River Indian Reservation in 1859, with the Salt River Reservation added in 1879. They continue to live on both, along with the Pima.

Aboriginally, the Maricopa lived in a cluster of villages consisting of the houses of a few related families. Village sites constantly shifted because of the practice of burning a house when the owner dies.

Traditional Maricopa “earth houses” had a flattened dome supported by a rectangular frame laid across four upright pillars. The roof and walls were packed with sandy soil.

The Maricopa built a number of other structures including semi-subterranean granaries and circular ceremonial huts. The latter category includes larger meeting houses, small sweathouses and women's shelters used during birth and first menstruation rituals.

Traditional Maricopa economy was based on hunting and gathering, supplemented by intensive agriculture. Since the mid 1980s the Maricopa have relied on income primarily derived from the leasing of agricultural lands and business properties. Additional income comes from growing maize, beans, pumpkins, and cotton. Other gainful pursuits include gathering nuts and berries, fishing, and hunting rabbits.

Traditional Maricopa crafts included pottery, basket making, weaving and a wide variety wooden and stone tools and utensils.

The Maricopa traded articles and crafts among themselves and with neighboring groups. They also bartered horses acquired through inter-group raids.

Men and women farmed together. Women collected seed-bearing pods from mesquite trees while men hunted or fished nearby, ready to protect the women. Pottery was made by women, while weaving was done by both sexes.

Traditionally, each of the constituting bands of Maricopa society occupied and controlled the use of a specific territory for hunting and gathering.

Descent was traced through male ancestors, but female links were also critical in establishing relations. Patrilineal clans functioned as corporate groups that regulated marriages, sponsored ceremonies, and organized ritual feasts.

Maricopa clans were exogamous. Family genealogies reflected serial marriage for both men and women, suggesting that both marriages and divorces were common. Polygyny, particularly of the sororal type, was allowed.

Training of children centered on the informal learning of adult family tasks. Boys and girls were encouraged to endure pain, both as an important personal virtue and as a useful life skill.

The basic building blocks of traditional Maricopa society were family groups or bands self-identified by area of origin. Each band constituted a residence community with a headman (pipa-vtay, literally "big man").

The village headman commanded respect for his maturity and experience. His duties ranged from organizing defense and raids to supervising public works and arbitrating disputes. In most cases, the headman was also a clan chief whose position was sometimes inherited through the male line.

The post-reservation tribal government consists of a seventeen-member popularly elected tribal council governed by a constitution adopted and approved in accordance with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

Maricopa migration stories tell of territorial war and raiding against the culturally and linguistically related Mohave and Quechan. Other foes included the Yavapai and Apache. The main cause of conflicts in the region were droughts and food shortages. Hostilities reportedly ceased only in the 1860s when the United States government took effective control of the area.

The Maricopa relied on a wide variety of sprits believed to guide people to special ability by revealing themselves through dreams. To this effect, the Maricopa say, "Everyone who is prosperous or successful must have dreamed of something" (Harwell and Kelly 1983: 81). These include power to cure, bewitch, foretell the future, sing ritual songs, and even conceive children.

The Maricopa recognized a number of traditional religious practitioners who collectively provided direction and coherence to people in need. These included prophets, curers, calendar-stick keepers, and potters. They also recognized ceremonial specialists who built funeral pyres, led dances, and sang at public events.

One major Maricopa ceremony involved a public dance in a young woman's honor following her first menstrual seclusion. The ceremony also involved tattooing the girl’s face, a practice that reportedly continued among some families well into the 1970s.

The Maricopa attributed common illnesses to "bad dreams." Curers possessed special powers revealed in dreams. They also employed intense heat, typically in sweat lodges and meeting houses, believed to cleanse the mind while healing physical ailments.

A major aspect of traditional Maricopa visual arts were the beautiful designs made on pottery, baskets, wooden utensils, and stone tools. Maricopa artists also included story tellers and singers. Artists typically claimed that their special talents were originally revealed to them through dreams, indicating direct links between Maricopa art and religiosity.

The house and belongings of a deceased household head were burned after cremation of the body. In addition to relocating surviving family members, Maricopa custom required that a horse be slain to enable the deceased to ride westward into the land of the dead.

Drawing on information in the Maricopa collection of eHRAF World Cultures, Teferi Abate Adem wrote this culture summary in January 2014. Population figures were updated by Leon G. Doyon in March 2014.

Cameron, Leroy, et. al 1994.

"Estrella Dawn: The Origin of the Maricopa." Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 36 (1), pp. 54-75.

Curtis, Edward S., 1908. "The Maricopa: Customs, Arts and Beliefs." In The North American Indians, Vol. 2, pp. 81-87. Seattle: E. S. Curtis.

Frisch, Jack A., 1968. "Maricopa Foods: A Native Taxonomic System." International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 34 (1), pp. 16-20.

Harwell, O. Henry and Marsha C. S. Kelly, 1983. "Maricopa." In Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 10, Southwest, edited by Alfonso Ortiz and William C. Sturtevant, 71-85. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

Kelly, Marsha C. S., 1972. "The society that did not die." Ethnohistory, Vol. 19 (3), pp. 261-265).

Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com. Accessed March 17, 2014.

Spier, Leslie, 1933. Yuman Tribes of the Gila River. University of Chicago Publications in Anthropology, Ethnological Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

United States Census Bureau. "American Indian and Alaska Native Main." Accessed March 17, 2014. http://www.census.gov/aian/.