Cocopa

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Map of Cocopah Indian Territory
Territory at the time of European contact.

The Cocopa , in the United States usually Cocopah and in Mexico Cucapá called, belong together with seven neighboring tribes - among them the mighty Quechan (Kwtsaan or Kwtsan) , Mohave ( 'Aha Makhav or Pipa Aha makav) and Maricopa (Piipaash or Pee-Posh ) - linguistically, culturally and geographically to the River Yuma . At the time of the first Spanish contact, Cocopa, who numbered around 3,000 tribesmen, lived in the delta area of the Colorado River and in the adjacent Sonoran Desert and the adjacent mountains in the southeast ofCalifornia and southwest Arizona in the United States and northeast Baja California and northwest Sonora in Mexico.

The etymology of the tribal name Cocopa used today is controversial. It is most likely derived from the Cocopa word Kwapa or the alternative name of the Mohave as Kwi-ka-Pa , which both literally means "cloud people" and refers to the fog on the lower reaches of the Colorado River . Their autonym , however, is Xawiƚƚ kwñchawaay or "Those who live along the river, ie the Colorado River". Today they are mostly known simply as the "River People".

language

Their language, the Cocopa or Kwikapa , belongs to the Delta Yuma or Cocopa branch of the California Delta Yuma or the Diegueño-Cocopa subgroup of the Yuma languages ​​of the Cochimí-Yuma language family , which is often counted among the Hoka languages . Their language was divided into three dialects - the actual Cocopa of Cocopa (Kwapa), the Halyikwamai dialect (†) and the Kahwan or Kohuana dialect (†). The last two dialect variants are now extinct, the Halyikwamai and Kohuana (Cajuenche) have lost their independent identity as a tribe and are now part of the Maricopa .

The actual Cocopa was again divided into two subdialects - the Mountain Cocopa and the Delta or River Cocopa . Today around 350 Cocopa (Kwapa) still speak their language, 200 of them in Mexico and 150 in the USA. (Golla 2007)

residential area

In the years 1604-1605 they lived in nine rancherias on the Colorado River (Spanish Rio Colorado), a few kilometers above the estuary. Later they even extended their residential area into the mountains of California , which is now part of Mexico ( Baja California ). The present reserve is only about 17 km² (4,200 acres) and is located 20 km south of the city of Yuma, Arizona on the Colorado River.

history

The Cocopa were a river people who rafted down the Colorado on driftwood to gather wild wheat. They were seen as less bellicose than the Yuma and Mohave, but often fought alongside these tribes in land disputes. They had friendly relations with the other neighboring tribes and traded pinon nuts , acorns, animal skins and tobacco. Occasional opponents caught in combat were traded with the Spaniards for horses, while children were usually adopted by childless couples.

The contacts with the Spaniards were very limited and the tribe remained largely outside their sphere of influence. With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the Gadsden purchase in 1853, the Cocopa came under American jurisdiction. The Indians resisted the white invaders who followed, but their method of warfare was powerless against the gun-armed US Army. Although the Cocopa had not signed a treaty with the American government, reservations were established in the early 1860s. The loss of tribal land lasted until 1940 when the Fort Mohave reservation was opened to white settlement.

Way of life and culture

With the Cocopa, the extended family, rather than the village, formed the basic social unit. Each family owned a house and had fields scattered along the banks of the river, up to a kilometer apart. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of a settlement saw themselves as a community and a community center in the center of each settlement symbolized this unity. They often had several villages that they visited at different times of the year. The Cocopa had a keen interest in social gatherings, but despised display of wealth. When dealing with one another, they paid attention to custom and form. The main religious leaders were shamans rather than priests, and the political leaders were older men who had proven influential speakers.

Dreams were of great importance in predicting the future and as a source of power. Dreaming about water meant success as a warrior; a nightingale in a dream promised a future as a speaker; the appearance of an owl heralded death. When a dream predicted something other than success, one was silent about it. The common thorn apple (Datura stramonium, a poisonous nightshade plant ) was used to create dreams that brought luck to the game.

They burned their dead along with their personal belongings, a custom that scared the early white settlers. The Bureau of Indian Affairs then tried to change this practice in favor of a "more civilized burial".

The Cocopa used to cultivate less crops than other Yuma tribes and were therefore more dependent on edible wild desert plants. Small animals and fish supplemented their nutritional needs. Today the Cocopa grow cotton and farm for a living, which is their main source of income.

Demographics

When Don Juan de Onate and Padre Escobar sailed the Colorado River, there were probably 6,000–7,000 Cocopa, in 1776 Francisco Garcés estimated their population at 3,000 and in 1857 Heintzelmann gave the number of about 300 warriors. According to census of 2000, the reserve of 800 tribal members will be inhabited.

literature

Alfonso Ortiz (Ed.): Southwest Vol. 9, 1979 ISBN 0-16004-577-0
Alfonso Ortiz (Ed.): Southwest Vol. 10, 1983 ISBN 0-16004-579-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alan Campbell Wares, A Comparative Study of Yuman Consonantism, 1968, 14
  2. ^ Daily Kos - The Migrations of the Yuman-Speaking Tribes
  3. Cocopah Indian Tribe ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cocopah.com

See also