History of Colorado River Indian Tribes

The Colorado River Indian Reservation stretches over 400 square miles of fertile river bottom, low desert mountain ranges and mesas. The land covers the Arizona border extending to eastern California along the Colorado River. It is here that the Mohave Indians have dwelt for centuries, planting crops in the flood plain of the Colorado and gathering mesquite beans.

According to Alfred Kroeber and other anthropologists, the Mohave are classified among the Yuman-speaking peoples including the Quechan, Cocopas and Maricopas. The Mohave traditionally lived in line villages stretching along the river. They considered themselves a nation, were excellent warriors, and traveled extensively—as far as the Hopi Reservation to the east and west to the Pacific Ocean. Garces, a Spanish explorer found them living in the area when he came through in 1776. He took Mohave guides and followed well-established trails into California. Tall and large-boned people, the Mohave used these same routes to run sometimes a hundred miles a day without stopping—visiting other tribes to trade. Because they had a reputation as fierce in battle, the travelers were treated with respect, lest their brethren hear of mistreatment and come for revenge. Children were included in most aspects of daily life through observation and formal teaching. They casually acquired most tribal lore and custom while still young.

The Chemehuevi, a branch of the Southern Paiute and semi-nomadic were said to have moved in to their inhabited area in the 1800’s. Both of these original tribes were faced with threats from the influx of White Americans seeking gold in California. In 1864, the chiefs of the Mohaves and Chemehuevis, along with those of the Quechans, Yavapais and Hulapais, met with Colonel Charles Poston, the Superintendent of Arizona’s Indian Agency, to negotiate for a reservation. The town of Poston, established in 1942, bears his name. The chiefs agreed to the present said site after receiving the promise from the government to build an irrigation system sufficient to irrigate the acreage in exchange for the aboriginal lands being relinquished. In 1865, the Colorado River Indian reservation was established by an Act of Congress and approved by President Abraham Lincoln as a homeland for Indians of the Colorado River and its tributaries.

Congress delayed appropriations until 1867. Whooping cough took the lives of over 200 Mohaves in 1869 while miners were depleting gold mines in the area. By 1870, only 300 acres of land had been cultivated and, according to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Arizona, the Indians were “fast disappearing” due to disease and famine. A post office was established near the present town of Parker, named after a Seneca Indian, Eli Parker, who had been Commissioner for Indian Affairs during President Grant’s administration. In 1881, the local school opened with 36 pupils and two teachers. The first 25 years of the reservation were characterized by economic failures, epidemics, famine and exodus, with only surviving Mohaves and a few Chemehuevis left.

During the first years of the 20th century, the policies of cultural extinction were exercised in the Indian schools. A Senate report describes the curriculum as “designed to separate a child from his reservation and family, strip him of his tribal lore and force the complete abandonment of his native language.” The strong pull of the tribes to their homeland and traditions helped their struggle for cultural survival. It was not helped by another government policy of prohibiting traditional Indian ceremonies. This ban was justified as an economic necessity.
Construction of an efficient 40-horse steam-powered pumping station at the turn of the century, which irrigated several thousand acres, brought the Colorado River Indian Reservation agricultural recognition. The fluctuations of the Colorado’s alluvial flood cycle were controlled by the construction of Parker dam, completed in 1935. Among the serious consequences was the demise of the Chemehuevi Reservation at Chemehuevi valley as the waters of Lake Havasu swallowed the Reservation. The completion of Headgate Rock dam in 1941 insured a steady supply of water sufficient to irrigate the 104,000 undeveloped acres of reservation land available for agriculture.

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Printable version of Colorado River Indian Reservation historical summary by Jay Cravath, Ph.D. Education Program Manager, CRIT Education Department