Maricopa people: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Native American tribe}}

{{Mergefrom|Xalychidom|date=February 2007}}

{{About|the Piipaash people||Maricopa (disambiguation){{!}}Maricopa}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}

{{infobox ethnic group

| group = Maricopa

| image = Pakit, Maricopa, by Edward S. Curtis, 1907.jpg

| image_caption = Pakit, a young Maricopa woman, 1907

| population = 805 (2015 census)

| popplace = {{Flag|United States}} ({{flag|Arizona}})

| langs = [[Maricopa language|Maricopa]], English

| religions = Traditional tribal religion<ref name=reg>Pritzker, ''A Native American Encyclopedia,'' p. 57.</ref>

| related = [[Yuman languages|Yuman peoples]]

}}

[[File:Wohngebiet Maricopa.png|thumb|Maricopa]]

{{otheruses}}

The '''Maricopa''', or '''Piipaash''', are a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] [[ethnic group]] who live in the [[Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community]] and [[Gila River Indian Community]] along with the [[Pima]], a tribe with whom the Maricopa have long held a positive relationship. They formerly consisted of small groups of people situated on the banks of the [[Colorado River]] that came together in the [[19th century]].

The '''Maricopa''' or '''Piipaash'''<ref name=p56>Barry Pritzker, ''A Native American Encyclopedia.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998; p. 56</ref> are a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American tribe]], who live in the [[Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community]] and [[Gila River Indian Community]] (both in [[Arizona]]) along with the [[Akimel O'odham|Akimel O'odham (Pima)]], a tribe with whom the Maricopa have long held a positive relationship. The Maricopa at the [[Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community]] consist mostly of Xalychidom Piipaash members and are concentrated in [[Lehi, Arizona|Lehi]].<ref>[http://www.srpmic-nsn.gov/history_culture/maricopa.asp "Xalychidom Piipaash (Maricopa) People."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805082906/http://www.srpmic-nsn.gov/history_culture/maricopa.asp |date=August 5, 2018 }} ''Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community.'' (retrieved March 29, 2010)</ref> The Maricopa at the [[Gila River Indian Community]] are concentrated in [[Maricopa Colony, Arizona|Maricopa Colony]]. The Maricopa are a River Yuman group, formerly living along the banks of the [[Colorado River]].

== Names ==

The neighboring [[Akimel O'odham]] (Pima) and future allies, called these people the '''Kokmalik'op''' ('enemies in the big mountains'),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.legendsofamerica.com/maricopa-tribe/|title=Maricopa Tribe of Arizona}}</ref>. The Spanish transliterated this to '''''Maricopa'''''. They call themselves '''Piipaa''', '''Piipaash''' or '''Pee-Posh''' (″people″).

The "Maricopa"{{refn|Alternate spellings in Spanish accounts include: Cocomaricopa, Opa, Cocomaripopa, Cocomarizopa, Comariapa, Comaricopa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnes |first1=Thomas C. |last2=Naylor |first2=Thomas H. |last3=Polzer |first3=Charles W. |title=Northern New Spain: A Research Guide |publisher=University of Arizona |url=https://open.uapress.arizona.edu/read/northern-new-spain-a-research-guide/section/1f21260b-5632-4c85-a79f-dde8198f2c5c |access-date=10 May 2024}}</ref>}} of the American explorers of the 19th century at this time consisted of descendants of five (possibly six) originally independent River Yuma tribes (see Spier, 1933: 1-41):<ref>the "Piipaash" and "Halchidhoma" often consider the "Kavelchadom" and "Opa/Piipaa Nyaa" to be Halchidhoma bands</ref> the ''"[[Maricopa language|Maricopa/Piipaash]]"''-speaking original "Piipaash" together with the "Halchidhoma", "Kavelchadom" and "Opa/Piipaa Nyaa" as well as the ''"[[Cocopah language|Delta Yuma/Cocopa]]"''-speaking "Halyikwamai" and "Kohuana/Kahwan".

Since in the 19th century the two originally "Delta Yuma/Cocopa"-speaking "Halyikwamai" and "Kohuana/Kahwan" lived together with four "Maricopa/Piipaash"-speaking "Piipaash", "Halchidhoma", "Kavelchadom" and "Opa/Piipaa Nyaa" along the Gila and Salt Rivers in several villages for mutual protection, these river Yuma groups and their languages/dialects used to be mistakenly referred to by Spaniards and Mexicans as ''"Cocomaricopa"'' and ''"Opa"'' respectively.

Only the descendants of the "Piipaash" and "[[Halchidhoma]]" (''Xalychidom Piipaa / Xalychidom Piipaash'' - ″people who live toward the water″) were able to preserve their own tribal identity and refer to themselves in English as '''''"Maricopa"''''' or '''''"Maricopa of Lehi"''''', the descendants of the other three (possibly four) River Yuma tribes, which found shelter on the Gila River and Salt River under the "Piipaash" in the 19th century - the "Kavelchadom" (''Kavelchadom Piipaash / Kavelchidom Piipaash'' - "downstream person/people", "river people in the west"), "Opa/Piipaa Nyaa" (''Piipaa Nyaa / Thxpaa Nyaa'' - "eastern people"), "Halyikwamai" (''Xalykawaam'') and "Kohuana/Kahwan" (''Kaxwaan'' - "river people") – however, have not been able to preserve their own language as well as their separate identity and now generally identify themselves as '''''"Maricopa"'''''.

==History==

[[File:Edward S. Curtis, Saguaro gatherers, Maricopa, Arizona, 1907.jpg|thumb|Saguaro gatherers, Maricopa, Arizona, 1907]]

They formerly consisted of small groups of people who lived for generations along the banks of the [[Colorado River]]. In the 16th century, they migrated to the area around the [[Gila River]], to avoid attacks by the [[Quechan]] and [[Mojave people]]s.

During the 1840s, [[epidemics]] of new infectious diseases took a toll on the tribe.

In 1825 a party of American trappers, [[James Ohio Pattie]] among them, massacred a group of 200 Maricopa in revenge for an earlier attack.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lewismicropublishing.com/Publications/Robidoux/RobidouxMichel.htm |title=Michael Robidoux – Paragon of the Mountain Man|author=Hugh M. Lewis|access-date=October 18, 2017 |archive-date=January 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120043202/http://www.lewismicropublishing.com/Publications/Robidoux/RobidouxMichel.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the 19th century, the Maricopa formed a confederation with the Akimel O'odham, and in 1857 they successfully defeated the Quechan and Mojave at the [[Battle of Pima Butte]] near Maricopa Wells. They became successful farmers, and in 1870, they produced three million pounds of wheat. Drought and water diversion by non-Indians brought widespread crop failures.<ref name=p56/>

In the 19th and the 20th centuries, the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] implemented policies to try to assimilate the Maricopa into mainstream European-American society, and they brought [[Presbyterian]] missionaries into the communities. In 1914, the US federal government broke up communal tribal landholdings for distribution as individual allotments in order to encourage subsistence farming according to the European-American model. It was not appropriate for the geography and climate here. The Pima Advisory Council was formed by the BIA in 1926 to speak on behalf of the Akimel O'odham and Maricopa communities. Following congressional passage of the [[Indian Reorganization Act]] of 1934, in 1936 the Akimel O'odham and Maricopa agreed on a constitution to restore some measure of self-governance.<ref name=p56/>

Through the 1930s, surface flow on the Gila River was reduced to nothing, and the tribe suffered greatly due to the loss of their river. But the BIA ignored water issues. The tribe resorted to using brackish well water, but it would not support growing edible crops. They began to cultivate cotton as a commodity crop.<ref name=p56/>

==Language==

Their heritage language are/were dialects of the [[Maricopa language|Maricopa]] and [[Cocopah language]], which belong to the [[Yuman languages|Yuman language family]].<ref name=p56/>

==Arts==

[[File:Piipaash redware.jpg|thumb|Redware pot by Piipaash (Maricopa) artist Barbara Johnson]]

The Maricopa are known for their basket weaving and textiles,<ref name=reg/> in particular, for their highly burnished red-on-redware pottery. Their traditional pottery practices enjoyed a revival from 1937 to 1940. Elizabeth Hart, a US Home Extension Agent, worked with a leading Maricopa potter, Ida Redbird, to form the Maricopa Pottery Cooperative. Redbird served as president of the cooperative, which had 17 to 19 master potters. Hart encouraged members to sign their work. [[Swastika]]s were a common traditional motif that was abandoned in the 1940s, due to the Nazi usurpation of the symbol. The paddle and anvil method of construction is used, and, while utilitarian cookware is tempered, decorative Maricopa pottery has no temper.<ref name=pot>[http://www.rarepottery.info/protect/MaricopaPotters.htm "Maricopa Potters."] August 21, 2009 (retrieved September 9, 2010)</ref>

==Notable Maricopa==

* [[Ida Redbird]] (1892–1971) – Master potter of the Maricopa; instrumental in the 1937–1940 Maricopa pottery revival; first president of Maricopa Pottery Makers Association;<ref name=pot/> translator and [[Informant (linguistics)|informant]] for Leslie Spier's Yuma Tribes of the Gila River, thus helping to preserve her American Indian heritage.

*[[Robert "Tree" Cody]], Native American flautist

* [[Robert "Tree" Cody]] – flutist. He is also an enrolled member of the [[Hunkpapa]] tribe.

==See also==

{{Portal|Arizona|Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

*[[Maricopa language]]

* [[Halchidhoma]], a band that joined the Maricopa

*Gordon, Lynn. 1986. ''Maricopa syntax and morphology''. (University of California publications in linguistics; 108). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520099656

==External linksFootnotes==

{{reflist}}

*[http://www.saltriver.pima-maricopa.nsn.us/history_culture/index.htm Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community page on the Maricopa people]

==Further reading==

{{MEA-expand}}

* Pritzker, Barry. ''A Native American Encyclopedia''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. {{ISBN|978-0195138771}}

* Zappia, Natale A. ''Traders and Raiders: The Indigenous World of the Colorado Basin, 1540–1859.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. {{ISBN|978-1469615844

}}

* Vogel, Lindsey Lianne [https://keep.lib.asu.edu/_flysystem/fedora/c7/29275/Vogel_asu_0010N_10178.pdf ''Forty Years Later: A Reexamination of Maricopa Pottery''] Arizona State University, 2010.

==External links==

[[Category:Native American tribes in Arizona]]

{{Commons category|Maricopa}}

[[Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest]]

* [http://www.saltriver.pimasrpmic-maricopa.nsn.usgov/history_culture/index.htmcommunity Salt River Pima-MaricopaPima–Maricopa Indian Community page on the Maricopa people]

{{Indigenous People of AZ}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maricopa people}}

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[[Category:Native American tribes in Arizona]]

{{NorthAm-native-stub}}

*[[Category:Maricopa| language]]

[[ca:Maricopa]]

[[de:Maricopa]]

[[es:Maricopa]]

[[hr:Maricopa]]