The Pima Indians of Arizona say that the father of all men and animals was the butterfly, Cherwit Make (earth-maker), who fluttered down from the clouds to the Blue Cliffs at the junction of the Verde and Salt Rivers, and from his own sweat made men. As the people multiplied, they grew selfish and quarrelsome, so that Cherwit Make was disgusted with his handiwork and resolved to drown them all. But, first, he told them, in the voice of the north wind, to be honest and to live at peace. The prophet Suha, who interpreted this voice, was called a fool for listening to the wind, but next night came the east wind and repeated the command, with an added threat that the ruler of heaven would destroy them all if they did not reform.
But the evil was not all gone. There was one Hauk, a devil of the mountains, who stole their daughters and slew their sons. One day, while the women were spinning flax and cactus fiber and the men were gathering maize, Hauk descended into the settlement and stole another of Suha’s daughters. The patriarch, whose patience had been taxed to its limit, then made a vow to slay the devil. He watched to see by what way he entered the valley. He silently followed him into the Superstition Mountains; he drugged the cactus wine that his daughter was to serve to him; then, when he had drunk it, Suha emerged from his place of hiding and beat out the brains of the stupefied fiend.
Some of the devil’s brains were scattered and became the seed for other evil, but there was less wickedness in the world after Hauk had been disposed of than there had been before. Suha taught his people to build adobe houses, dig with shovels, irrigate their land, weave cloth, and avoid wars. But on his deathbed, he foretold to them that they would grow arrogant with wealth, covetous of the lands of others, and would wage wars for gain. When that time came, there would be another flood and not one should be saved–the bad should vanish, and the good would leave the earth and live in the sun. So firmly do the Pimas rely on this prophecy that they will not cross the Superstition Mountains, for there sits Cherwit Make–awaiting the culmination of their wickedness to let loose on the earth a mighty sea that lies dammed behind the range.
First called the Pima Indians by exploring Spaniards who encountered them in the 1600s, these early Americans called themselves “Akimel O’odham,” meaning the River People. The Piman peoples, who live in the Sonoran Desert region of Arizona are descendants of the prehistoric Hohokan Culture. First called the Pima Indians by exploring Spaniards who encountered them in the 1600s, these early Americans called themselves “Akimel O’odham,” meaning the River People. The Piman peoples, who live in the Senoran Desert region are descendants of the prehistoric Hohokan Culture.
The Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham (“Sand Dune People”), also known as Areneños or Sand Papagos are a Native American peoples whose traditional homeland lies between the Ajo Range, the Gila River, the Colorado River, and the Gulf of California. They are currently unrecognized at both the state and federal level in the United States and Mexico, although the Tohono Oʼodham Nation has a committee for issues related to them and has land held in trust for them. They are represented by a community organization known as the Hia-Ced Oʼodham Alliance. The Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham are no longer nomadic, and the majority today live in or near Ajo, Arizona, or the small settlements of Blaisdell and Dome near Yuma. They have often been considered a “Papago subtribe” by anthropologists, along with the Tohono Oʼodham and several groups that vanished or merged with the Tohono Oʼodham. Anybody who can prove Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham ancestry meeting Tohono Oʼodham Nation blood quantum can apply for membership in the Tohono Oʼodham Nation. Some Hia Ced Oʼodham people are enrolled in the Ak-Chin Indian Community.
First called the Pima Indians by exploring Spaniards who encountered them in the 1600s, these early Americans called themselves “Akimel O’odham,” meaning the River People. The Piman peoples, who live in the Senoran Desert region are descendants of the prehistoric Hohokan Culture. The Pima lived along the Gila, Salt, Yaqui, and Sonora Rivers in ranchería-style villages, where family groups shared a central ramada and kitchen area. Their homes consisted of oval lodges covered in grass and mud over a superstructure of poles. The O’odham are matrilineal, with daughters and their husbands living with and near the daughter’s mother. Each village had a chief who was responsible for overseeing cultivation and defense, mainly against raids by the Apache. The tribal chief was elected by the people.
Pima, North American Indians who traditionally lived along the Gila and Salt rivers in Arizona, U.S., in what was the core area of the prehistoric Hohokam culture. The Pima, who speak a Uto-Aztecan language and call themselves the “River People,” are usually considered to be the descendants of the Hohokam. Like their presumed ancestors, the Pima were traditionally sedentary farmers who lived in one-room houses and utilized the rivers for irrigation. Some hunting and gathering were done to supplement the diet, and in drought years, which occurred on the average of one year in five, crop failure made hunting and gathering the sole mode of subsistence. During these dry years jackrabbits and mesquite beans became the group’s dietary staples. The intensive farming of the Pima made possible larger villages than were feasible for their neighbours and relatives, the Tohono O’odham (Papago). With larger communities came a stronger and more complex political organization. In the early Spanish colonial period the Pima possessed a strong tribal organization, with a tribal chief elected by the chiefs of the various villages. The tribal and local chiefs attained their status through their personal qualities rather than through birth. The village chief, aided by a council of all adult males, had the responsibilities of directing the communal irrigation projects and of protecting the village against alien tribes, notably the Apache. Planting and harvesting crops were handled as a cooperative venture.
World Mythology 