Colorado River
I. Colorado River.
A. Includes 'Aha Makhav (Mojave) and Quechan (Yuma), both are Uto-Aztecan speakers.
1. Environment is rich and varies between harsh desert mountains and river flood plains.
a. Monsoon season August until December, severe drought and extreme heat in summer, freezing in winter.
2. Heavy reliance on cultivated crops: Maize, beans, teparies, melons, pumpkins, gourds seed sowed on flooded lands, no additional irrigation needed.
a. Extensive system of canals established to increase productive land.
3. Some reliance on hunting and gathering.
a. Brush fish pens, seine nets, and scoop nets used in river.
b. Spring-pole snares for small game, quail box traps, dead falls.
c. Mesquite and screwbean were staples.
d. Tules pollen and roots used as food.
e. Seeds of annuals: chia.
B. Traditions are loosely associated with the traditions of Kumeyaay, and the Tohono O’odham and Pima.
1. Environment influenced culture.
C. No formal currency except perhaps occasionally olivella shell strings and dice games.
1. Much trading of food, seeds, and materials.
a. Mohave well established middlemen, although no known Kokopelli-type traders.
b. Established trails and trade routes.
D. Ceremonies.
1. Music and dance was used in both sacred and secular situations. Few group ceremonials. All performed out in the open.
a. Ceremony for the dead held at irregular intervals, originally prominent men but later all folks.
i. Special east-facing house made for the dead, corn placed in post holes, thatched roof. Offerings hung on house.
ii. Special image makers made an effigy of wood, danced with by non-kin.
iii. Can recover soul and excise disease object, or kill by black magic.
iv. Faces and bodies painted.
b. Death rites.
i. At death bodies painted and dressed and cremated.
ii. Soul leaves body on death.
iii. Soul begins journey to after world upon cremation.
iv. Instruments included cocoon and deer hoof rattles.
c. Boys puberty rites.
F. Music
1. Instruments.
a. Clapper sticks used for casual music making.
b. Gourd rattles with palm seeds.
c. Notched rasps, baskets scraped as rasps.
d. Wooden or cane whistles and four hole flutes.
i. Bird calls.
ii. Secular entertainment.
2. Birdsongs are pan-tribal music form, most everybody sings.
a. Maybe the most rhythmically complex of the Americas.
b. Several hundred songs. Some are very old and not sung in any recognizable modern Indian language.
c. Every group has songs in their own language.
d. Modern singers use rattles made of gourds.
G Arts and material culture of the Yuma.
1. Clothing.
a. Men’s clothing included a belt and breechcloth of willow-bark fiber, but nudity was preferred.
i. Moccasins usually only worn away from home, made of leather.
ii. Men went bare headed.
iii. Rabbit-skin blanket for sleeping.
b. Women’s clothing consisted of front and back aprons of shredded willow-bark fiber falling to between ankle and knee. In winter a robe of rabbit skins was added.
i. Moccasins worn in dry weather when traveling.
ii. Rabbit-skin blankets used for sleeping.
2. Adornment.
a. Bead necklaces.
b. Ear lobes and nasal septum bored, pendants worn.
c. Nonritual body and face paint applied with fingers.
i. Black around eyes as glare protection.
ii. Red, black and white used for designs and field.
iii. Modern Mojave women bead intricate collars.
d. Face and body tattooing.
i. Slaves tattooed on face. Olive Oatman.
ii. Women tattooed arms.
3. Tules and other fibers.
a. Baskets used made infrequently, mostly traded for.
b. Cordage made by men and women of agave and yucca in 2 and 3 ply.
c. Rabbit skin blankets loom woven.
d. Tump line and carrying net used.
e. Willow bark twined and checker-woven mats.
f. Netted bags for transport.
g. Fiber rings for head loads and water jars.
h. Granaries made by bird’s nest coiling method.
4. Pottery made by paddle and anvil method.
a. Pit fired.
b. Forms include: small mouthed jar, hemispherical with flared rim, spheroid, shallow parching tray, dipper, bowls, pipes, and tops.
i. Mojave make clay effigy figures.
c. Decorated with incised designs, painted designs, fiber cords around neck.
5. Games.
a. Included: Ball or stick relay races, shinny, hoop and pole game, ring and pin, peon, hidden ball, dice, cat’s cradle, pottery tops, juggling, and archery (males).
i. Dice thrown in air, land on painted wooden tablets.
ii. Games frequently bet on.
6. Architecture.
a. Circular houses with flat roofs made of available poles and thatch. Earth covered. Rectangular door opening..
i. Some houses were single family dwellings, some housed several families, each with its own area.
ii. Menstrual hut common.
iii. Ramadas used extensively.
iv. Beams and poles secured with yucca twine.
7. Water craft.
a. Lashed tule balsas used to cross river. Propelled by poles.
b. Babies ferried in ceramic pots.
c. Log rafts.
8. Wood work. Most wood imported some distance or washed downstream.
a. Dice tablets.
b. Spears and clubs (potato masher).
c. Mortars and pestles.
d. Bows are unbacked.
e. Arrows fletched - arrowweed or hardwood arrows with no head or stone point.
i. Arrows for fishing unfletched.
f. Awls.
g. Slings for scaring birds from fields.
9. Horn, bone and shell.
a. Bone scrapers.
b. Shell necklaces.
c. Bird-bone peon pieces.
10. Stone implements.
a. Used obsidian, granite.
b. Stone metates and manos.
c. Stone points, knives, hammers, and scrapers chipped from imported lithics.