Gila River
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The Gila /'hilə/ River (O'odham [Pima]: Hila Akimel) is a tributary of the Colorado River, 630 mile (1,014 km) long, in the southwestern United States.
It rises in western New Mexico, in Sierra County on the western slope of continental divide in the Black Range. It flows southwest to the Gila National Forest and Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, then westward into Arizona, past the city of Safford, and along the southern slope of the Gila Mountains. It emerges from the mountains into the valley southeast of Phoenix, where it crosses the Gila River Indian Reservation as an intermittent stream, due to its use as a water source. West of Phoenix, it turns abruptly southward along the Gila Bend Mountains, then abruptly westward again near the town of Gila Bend, Arizona. It flows southwestward and joins the Colorado near Yuma, Arizona.
The Gila is one of the largest desert rivers in the world. It and its chief tributary, the Salt River, would both be perennial streams carrying large volumes of water, but irrigation and municipal water diversions turn both into largely dry rivers. Below Phoenix to the Colorado River, the Gila is largely a trickle or dry, as is the lower Salt from Granite Reef Diversion Dam downstream to the Gila. The natural mean flow of the Gila is 6130 ft³/s (174 m³/s) at its mouth with the Colorado. The Gila used to be navigable by small craft from its mouth to near the Arizona - New Mexico border. The width varied from 150 - 1200 feet with a depth from 2 - 40 feet.
After the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, the river served as the border between the United States and Mexico until the 1853 Gadsden Purchase extended U.S. territory south of the Gila.
The Gila River is dammed by the Coolidge Dam 31 miles east of Globe, AZ.
[edit] Hila Akimel O'odham
A band of Pima (autonym "Akimel O'odham", river people), the Hila Akimel O'odham (Gila River People), have lived on the banks of the Gila River since before the arrival of Spanish explorers.
Their traditional way of life (himdagĭ, sometimes rendered in English as Him-dak) was and is centered at the river, which is considered holy. Traditionally, sand from the banks of the river is used as an exfoliant when bathing (often in rainstorms, especially during the monsoon).
In the GRIC, the traditional way of life has generally been better preserved than in the SRPMIC. Some speculate this may be due to the fact that the Gila River, a central aspect of the traditional way of life, still flows through the reservation year-round (although at times as an intermittent stream), while the Salt River does not.
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