Halchidhoma
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The Halchidhoma were an Indian tribe living along the lower Colorado River in California and Arizona when first contacted by Europeans. In the early nineteenth century, under pressure from their hostile Mohave and Quechan neighbors, they moved to the middle Gila River, merging with the Maricopa.
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[edit] Language
The Halchidhoma spoke a Yuman language. It apparently belonged to the River branch of the Yuman family, together with the Mohave, Quechan, and Maricopa languages.
[edit] History
The Halchidhoma entered written history in 1604-1605, when a Spanish expedition coming overland from New Mexico under Juan de Oñate encountered the "Alebdoma" on the lower Colorado River, below its junction with the Gila River. When the Jesuit missionary-explorer Eusebio Francisco Kino returned to the river in 1700, the Halchidhoma had moved to a portion of the river 100 miles farther north.
A system of military alliances and traditional hostilities seems to have prevailed among the relatively warlike tribes of the lower Colorado and Gila rivers. This may account for the Halchidhoma's move during the seventeenth century. The Halchidhoma were part of an alliance that also included the Maricopa and Cocopa, among others, and was opposed by the Quechan and Mohave. In the 1820s, the Halchidhoma were finally driven from the Colorado River. They took refuge with the Maricopa on the middle Gila River and became incorporated culturally into that group. The territory on the Colorado River vacated by the Halchidhoma was subsequently occupied by the Chemehuevi.
[edit] Population
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) The Franciscan missionary-explorer Francisco Garcés estimated the Halchidhoma population in 1776 as 2,500. Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Halchidhoma at 1,000.
[edit] Population
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) The Franciscan missionary-explorer Francisco Garcés estimated the Halchidhoma population in 1776 as 2,500. Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Halchidhoma at 1,000.
[edit] References
- Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
- Spier, Leslie. 1933. Yuman Tribes of the Gila River. University of Chicago Press.
