Kâʼvi, Castor canadensis frondator. The beaver was common along the Gila, and was esteemed highly for food.[1]
Kaʼviyo, Equus caballus. The horse is seldom eaten by the Pimas. In times of famine, however, horses are sometimes used, although the more than half-starved condition of the animals suggests anything but nourishing viands.
Ko’-ovĭk, Antilocapra americana mexicana. The antelope is now unknown in Pimería, but the hunters of former centuries suceessfully stalked these animals upon the mesas, particularly upon the higher grassy plains to the eastward.
Maʼkûm. These unidentified worms (?) are plentiful when a rainy season insures a heavy crop of desert plants. They are gathered in large quantities, their heads pulled off, and intestines removed. The women declare that their hands swell and become sore if they come in contact with the skin of the worms. The worms are then put into cooking pets lined with branches of saltbush and boiled. The skins are braided together while yet soft and dried a day or two in the sun. The dry and brittle sticks are eaten at any time without further preparation.
Maʼvĭt, Felis hippotestes aztecus. The puma is yet abundant in the mountain ranges of Arizona, and in former times one was occasionally secured by the Pimas when in quest of other game.
Rsuʼlĭk. There are at least six species of ground squirrels in this region,[2] but in the absence of specimens the writer could not learn if the Pimas distinguished among them. When water was obtainable it was poured into the burrows of these squirrels until they were driven out, whereupon they were killed with clubs or shot with arrows. They were tabued to the women under penalty of nosebleed or deficiency in flow of milk for their babies.
Si’-ĭk, Odocoileus couesi. White-tail deer are yet fairly common in the mountains and two deerskins were seen among the Pimas during the period of six months spent with them. Perhaps one in two or three years would be an excessive estimate of the number killed by the men of the Gila River reservation. The deer figures largely in their traditions and religion.
Taʼmatâlt. During the winter months these birds are caught at nearly every house by means of traps. The trap commonly used is described on page 101.
- ↑ The earliest American invaders of Pimería were beaver trappers who descended the Gila early in the last century. One of the first Americans that the oldest living Pimas remember was Kâ’vi Vâʼnamam, "Beaver Hat," who told the Pimas that the buildings now in ruins along the Gila and Salt rivers were destroyed by waterspouts. He lived several years among the Pimas, and was finally killed near Prescott by Apaches.
- ↑ Eutamias dorsalis (?), Spermophilus canescens, S. grammurus, S. harrisi, S. spilosoma macrospilotus (Oracle), S. tereticaudus (Fort Yuma).
