The Pima Indians/History/Villages

by Frank Russell

HISTORY

Villages

During the early part of the nineteenth century there were eight Pima villages on the Gila according to statements made by Kâʼmâl tkâk and other old men of the tribe. The numerous accounts by travelers and explorers contain mention of from five to ten pueblos or villages. The names are usually those bestowed by the Spanish missionaries or unrecognizable renderings of the native terms. The villages were principally upon the south bank of the river, along which they extended for a distance of about 30 miles.^[1] Some have been abandoned; in other cases the name has been retained, but the site has been moved. The first villages named by Kino were Equituni, Uturituc, and Sutaquison. The last two were situated near the present agency of Sacaton (pl. I). The first may have been the village of Pimas and Kwahadkʽs, which was situated west of Picacho on the border of the sink of the Santa Cruz river (fig. 1), which was abandoned about a century ago and was known as Akûtcĭny, Creek Mouth. The site of this settlement was visited by the writer in April, 1902. It is marked by several acres of potsherds that are scattered about the sand dunes on the south side of the dry river bottom that is scarcely lower than the level of the plain. A few Mexican families have lived in the vicinity for many years, pumping water from a depth of a hundred feet and depending upon crops of corn and beans raised in the summer when a few showers fall upon their fields. These Mexicans plow out stone implements and bits of pottery, but have never found any burial places.^[2] There are two medium-sized adobe ruins on the flat river bottom; one of these has walls of the same pisé type that is exhibited by the Casa Grande ruin (pl. III), situated 25 miles to the northward.

The villages known to the oldest Pimas are as follows:

1.	Petâʼĭkuk, Where the Petai (ash tree?) Stands.
2.	Tcupatäk, Mortar Stone.
3.	Tcuʼwutukawutûk, Earth Hill.
4.	Os Kâʼkûmûk Tcoʼtcikäm, Arrow-bush Standing.
5.	Koʼ-okûp Vanʼsĭk, Medicine Paraphernalia.
6.	Kâʼmĭt, Back.
7.	Tcoʼûtĭk Wuʼtcĭk, Charcoal Laying.
8 and 9. Akûtcĭny, Creek Mouth. One 5 miles west of Picacho and another southwest of Maricopa station. Both depended upon flood waters.

Fig. 1. Map of Pima reservation.

There are two Maricopa villages: Hiʼnămâ, Hina Head (hina, a kind of fish) and Tcoʼûtcĭk Wuʼtcĭk, which is included among the Pima villages, as it was occupied by them after the Maricopas moved down the river to their present location below Gila Crossing. The Hiʼnămâ people now reside on the south bank of the Salt, east of the Mormon settlement of Lehi.

The Pimas have a tradition relating the circumstances of the coming of the band of Sobaipuris,^[3] whom they call Rsaʼrsavinâ, Spotted, from the San Pedro. They are said to have drunk naʼvait or cactus liquor together with a village of Pimas of forgotten name, on the north side of the Gila, near the present Blackwater and the Picacho village of Akûtcĭny, before the time when the Apaches forced them to leave their homes on the San Pedro.

Since the settlement of the Gila and Salt river valleys by the whites and the establishment of peace with the Apaches, the Pimas have again manifested a disposition to extend their settlements, principally owing, however, to the scarcity of water on the Gila River reservation. The present villages are as follows:

Os Kuk, Tree Standing, known as Blackwater.

Weʼtcu(r)t, Opposite, North Blackwater.

Haʼrsanykuk, Saguaro Standing, Sacaton Flats.

Sʽaʼopuk, Many Trees, The Cottonwoods.

Tatʼsĭtûkʽ, Place of Fright, the settlement about Cruz's store.

Kuʼ-u Ki, Big House, Sacaton.

Ʌoʼpohiûm, (?), Santan.

Huʼtcĭlttcĭk, Round Clearing, village below Santan on north bank of river.

Vaʼ-aki, Ruin or Ancient House, Casa Blanca.

Stâʼtânnyĭk, Many Ants, a village between the two last preceding, on south bank of Gila.

Pe-epʼtcĭltʽkʽ, Concave (from a family with noses of that shape), northeast of Casa Blanca.

Rsoʼtûkʽ, Water Standing, northwest of Casa Blanca.

Skâʼkâĭk, Many Rattlesnakes, on north side of Gila, opposite Rsoʼtûkʽ.

Rsâʼnûk, Beginning, about a mile east of Sacaton station on Maricopa and Phoenix railroad.

Kaʼwoltûkʽ Wutca, Hill Below, west of railroad.

Hiʼatam, Sea Sand Place, from Hiʼakatcĭk, where the people of this village formerly lived. Hiʼatam was just north of Maricopa station.

Kâʼmatûk Wuʼtcâ, Kâʼmatûk Below, Gila Crossing. Kâʼmatûk is the Pima name of the Sierra Estrella.

Hermʼho, Once, or Âʼmu Âʼkimûlt, Salt River, known by last name. This is the settlement on the north side of the river, 3 miles from Mesa.

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1. The Rudo Ensayo states that "between these Casas Grandes, the Pimas, called Gileños, inhabit both banks of the river Gila, occupying ranches on beautiful bottom land for 10 leagues farther down, which, as well as some islands, are fruitful and suitable for wheat, Indian corn, etc." Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, v, 128.
   "The most important of these ranches are, on this side, Tusonimó, and on the other, Sudacson or the Incarnation, where the principal of their chiefs, called Tavanimó, lived, and farther down, Santa Theresa, where there is a very copious spring." (Ibid., 129.) This "spring" was probably above the present Gila Crossing where the river, after running for many miles underground in the dry season, rises with a strong flow of water that supplies extensive irrigating ditches.
   Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner, writing in 1855, enumerate the following Pima villages: San Juan Capistrano, Sutaquison, Atison, Tubuscabor, and San Seferino de Napgub (see Pacific Railroad Reports, III, pt. 3, 123).

   In 1858 Lieut. A.B. Chapman, First Dragoons, U.S. Army, completed a census of the Pimas and Maricopas. The names of the villages, leaders, and the population of both tribes are here reprinted from S. Ex. Doc. 1, pt. 1, 559, 35th Cong., 2d sess., 1859. The number of Maricopas is included that the comparatively small importance of that tribe may be appreciated.

   MARICOPAS [Head chief, Juan Chevereah.]
   Villages.	Chiefs.	Warriors.		Women and children.	Total.
   El Juez Tarado	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$Juan Jose	$\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$	116	198	314
   Sacaton	76		128	204
   		192	326	518

   PIMAS [Head chief, Antonio Soule [Azul].]
   Buen Llano	Ojo de Buro and Yiela del Arispe	132	259	391
   Ormejera No.1	Miguel and Xavier	140	503	643
   Ormejera No. 2	Cabeza del Aquila	37	175	212
   Casa Blanca	Chelan	110	425	535
   Chemisez	Tabacaro	102	210	312
   El Juez Tarado	Cadrillo del Mundo and Ariba Aqua Bolando	105	158	263
   Arizo del Aqua	Francisco	235	535	770
   Aranca No. 1	La Mano del Mundo	291	700	991
   Aranca No. 2	Boca Dulce
   		1,152	2,965	4,117

   Mr Browne, a member of Commissioner Poston’s party that visited the villages in January, 1864, wrote: "The number of Pima villages is 10; Maricopas, 2; separate inclosures, 1,000." (J. Ross Browne, Adventures in the Apache Country, 110.) On a later page (290) he gives the population by villages, of which he names but seven:

   Aqua Baiz	533	Herringuen	514
   Cerrito	259	Llano	392
   Arenal	616	———
   Cachunilia	438	Total	3,067
   Casa Blanca	315

   "There are 1,200 laboring Pimas and 1,000 warriors."

   James F. Rueling (The Great West and the Pacific Coast, 369), who visited the Pimas in 1867, also states that there were then ten Pima villages.

2. Font mentions a Pima-Papago village in this vicinity, called "Cuitoa." Manuscript Diary, 35.
3. "The most warlike among all the Pimas are those we call the Sobiarpuris, for they are born and reared on the border of the Apaches; but they have become tired of living in constant warfare, and have, during the present year of 1762, abandoned their beautiful and fertile valley, retiring, some to Santa Maria Soanca, and some to San Xavier del Bac and to Tucson, thus leaving to the enemies a free entrance to the high region of the Pimas." Rudo Ensayo, translated by Eusebio Guitéras, Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, v, 192.