Mohave people

In the 1930s, George Devereux, a Hungarian-French anthropologist, did fieldwork and lived among the Mohave for an extended period of study. He published extensively about their culture and incorporated psychoanalytic thinking in his interpretation of their culture. Language The Mojave language belongs to the River Yuman branch of the Yuman language family. It is closely related to the Quechan and Maricopa languages. Religion The Mohave creator is Matavilya, who gave Mojave people their clans. Cuisine The Mohave planted corn, melons, beans, pumpkin and seeds of wild grasses. The Mojave Desert yielded various types of cacti that bore edible fruits, along with mesquite. The bean-like pods of the mesquite plant were pounded and crushed to extract the pulp. This pulp was then dried and ground into flour, which was combined with water to create cakes. Additionally, the crushed pods could be soaked in warm water to produce a sweet beverage. Meat was not a prevalent component of the Mohave diet, as there was a scarcity of game available for hunting. Occasionally, hunters ventured to the mountains located east of the river to pursue deer. Rabbits were captured using traps or curved throwing sticks for rabbit meat. More frequently, fish from the Colorado River constituted a significant part of the Mohave diet. A stew made from fish and corn was particularly favored among the tribe. ==History==

' topographical mission across Arizona in 1851. and Cairook, with Mohave woman, by Balduin Möllhausen (1856) Early Mojave history is primarily oral history since the Mojave language was not written in precolonial times. Disease, outside cultures, and white encroachment on their territory disrupted their social organization. Together with having to adapt to a majority culture of another language, this resulted in interrupting the Mojave transmission of their stories and songs to the following generations. The tribal name has been spelled in Spanish and English transliteration in more than 50 variations, such as Hamock avi, Amacava, A-mac-ha ves, A-moc-ha-ve, Jamajabs, and Hamakhav. This has led to misinterpretations of the tribal name, also partly traced to a translation error in Frederick W. Hodge's 1917 Handbook of the American Indians North of Mexico (1917). This incorrectly defined the name Mohave as being derived from hamock, (three), and avi, (mountain). According to this source, the name refers to the mountain peaks known as The Needles in English, located near the Colorado River. (The city of Needles, California is located a few miles north from here). But, the Mojave call these peaks Huukyámpve, which means "where the battle took place," referring to the battle in which the God-son, Mastamho, slew the sea serpent. Ancestral lands The Mojave held lands along the Colorado River, Aha Macav in their language, or to attend other Indian boarding schools far removed from Fort Mojave. The assimilation helped to break up tribal culture and governments. In addition to English, schools taught American culture and customs and insisted that the children follow them; students were required to adopt European-American hairstyles (which included hair cutting), clothing, habits of eating, sleeping, toiletry, manners, industry, and language. Use of their own language or customs was a punishable offense; at Fort Mojave five lashes of the whip were issued for the first offense. Such corporal punishment of children scandalized the Mojave, who did not discipline their children in that way. As part of the assimilation the administrators assigned English names to the children and registered as citizens of one of two tribes, the Mojave Tribe on the Colorado River Reservation and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. These divisions did not reflect the traditional Mojave clan and kinship system. In the late 1960s, 30 years after the end of the assimilation program 18 of the 22 traditional clans still survived. In 1957, the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe ratified its constitution. ==Population==

Estimates of the precontact populations of most Native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Mohave at 3,000 and Francisco Garcés, a Franciscan missionary-explorer, also estimated the population at 3,000 in 1776 (Garcés 1900(2):450). A.L. Kroeber estimate of the population in 1910 was 1,050. By 1963 Lorraine M. Sherer's research revealed the population had shrunk to approximately 988, with 438 at Fort Mojave and 550 at the Colorado River Reservation. ==Current status==

The Mohave, along with the Chemehuevi, some Hopi, and some Navajo, share the Colorado River Indian Reservation and function today as one geopolitical unit known as the federally recognized Colorado River Indian Tribes; each tribe also continues to maintain and observe its individual traditions, distinct religions, and culturally unique identities. The Colorado River Indian Tribes headquarters, library and museum are in Parker, Arizona, about 40 miles (64 km) north of I-10. The Colorado River Indian Tribes Native American Days Fair & Expo is held annually in Parker, from Thursday through Sunday during the first week of October. The Megathrow Traditional Bird Singing & Dancing social event is also celebrated annually, on the third weekend of March. RV facilities are available along the Colorado River. ==See also==