GENTES
Descent is traced in the male line and there are five groups that may be called gentes, though they exert no influence upon marriage laws nor do they manifest any evidences of organization so far as ascertained. The names of these groups have lost all meaning. They are called Â’kol, A’pap, A’pŭkĭ, Ma’-am, and Va’-af.
The first three are known as the Vulture or Red People, the last two as the Coyote or White People. However, they are spoken of as the Sûwû’kĭ O’himal and Sto’am O’himal, or Red Ants and White Ants.[1] In the Pima creation myth presented in full in this memoir reference is made to black ants, tcotcĭk tâtâny, and to the termite, hiapĭtc, but no connection is supposed to exist between them and the o’himal.
The Red People are said to have been in possession of the country when Elder Brother brought the White People from the nether world and conquered them as described on page 226. There were more than two gentes of the White People, but Coyote laughed too soon at them and the earth closed before the others got through. The author suspects that this division signifies that the tribe was formed by the junction of two peoples, the only trace of the original groups being the names and the maintenance of the laws of vengeance.
SLAVES
The slaves taken by the Pimas were chiefly from the ranks of the Apaches or their allies.[2] Though war was waged for many years against the Yumas it was not of a character to enable them to capture many Yuma children. When captured, Apache children were not killed; they were soon forwarded to Tucson, Altar, or Guaymas and sold to the Spaniards or Mexicans, These captives were well treated, but their origin was never forgotten and the fear and suspicion of the tribe found expression at times in the decrees of the medicine-men that certain misfortunes were caused by the presence of the aliens. Somewhat rarely the girls were married into the tribe and an appreciable amount of foreign blood was introduced in this way which doubtless had its effect upon the vigor of the race.
SOCIAL MORALS
It would be a more agreeable task to write of the morality of primitive Pimas than of that which developed as a result of contact with Spaniards and Americans. To the honesty and virtue of the tribe a
- ↑ The same divisions exist among the Papagos, and José Lewis, the Papago who interpreted for Professor McGee, submitted specimens of the ant as examples of the insect referred to as "o’himal."
- ↑ "Que los Cocomaricopas apressan los muchachos Nijoras (que todos son gentiles) y tos venden por esclavos á los mas, y estos á los Españoles, que los compran en cortas cantidades." Villa-Señor, y Sanchez, Theatro Americano, 1748, pt. 2, I, 396.
