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MOJAVE ETHNOGRAPHY & ETHNOHISTORY Military and Pioneer Period The United States Takes Over. The United States acquired the Southwest from Mexico by treaty in 1848, but this transfer of ownership was not meaningful at the time to the Mojave, who had not considered their territory to be owned by Mexico. From their point of view, it had belonged to them and continued to be their property. The citizens of the U.S., however, urgently demanded that their new territory be explored and mapped. It was not until 1850 that arrangements could be made to send the first expedition westward across the lower Colorado River north of the Quechan area, an expedition headed by Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Passing through what became Union Pass to the Colorado River after a difficult trip through a desert parched as a result of a drought, the Sitgreaves party reached the Colorado River someplace west of present-day Kingman, Arizona. Following a well-worn trail down the river the party found Indian signs experienced men of the party interpreted as warnings against proceeding further, but when they finally encountered Mojaves, they found them inclined to be friendly, eager to run alongside them, talking and laughing. In the evening, they brought "small quantities of pumpkins, beans, corn, and sometimes wheat to barter, and indicated they would like to set up a market to trade more extensively. Unfortunately for the continuance of such good relations, Sitgreaves' men, being somewhat frightened of the Mojave, tried to eject the Indians from the camp. Elderly women among the Mojave vociferously protested, and in the morning the doctor in the party was shot in the leg by an arrow (which did no harm), and several other arrows fell among the mules. They were allowed to depart in the morning without incident, except for "yells of defiance" from a distance (Sitgreaves 1854, cited in Sherer 1994:33-36). A week later, the Sitgreaves expedition had a friendly reception at the next Mojave settlement, where they were told by a Spanish-speaking Mojave that they were eight days' journey from the mouth of the Gila. They were also given a description of Camp Yuma. The expedition members gave gifts to some of the older men, but remained vigilant, a precaution that proved fortunate when a soldier lagging in the rear was attacked and killed by a band of 50 to 60 Mojaves, who then attacked the party as a whole with arrows. Four were killed and several wounded by firearms in the short battle that followed, and they left, taking with them the "musketoon" of the soldier they had killed (Sitgreaves 1854, cited in Sherer 1994:36). The Sitgreaves expedition encountered no further Mojaves by the time they reached Camp Yuma, near the mouth of the Gila River, but they were near starvation by the time they arrived, having at the end only the most exhausted of their few remaining mules for food, and having had to abandon most of their supplies and equipment. At Camp Yuma, provisions to last them until they reached San Diego were waiting for them (Sitgreaves 1854, cited in Sherer 1994:36-37). As Sherer notes, the Mojave now "knew that a small band of half-starved white soldiers had refused their proffered friendship and the foodstuff they were willing to share in a lean year, and that the starving men had later paid for the rudeness by having to eat their bony mules before they reached Camp Yuma" (1994:41). The Whipple Expedition, a large scientific expedition led by Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple, Brevet Lt. J. C. Ives, and 2nd Lt. D. S. Stanley, which was the next official expedition to come through, was more fortunate in that the years 1852-1853 preceding their trip had been bountiful in the desert, and that the expedition was better equipped than its predecessors to begin with. It was to leave a better impression. This expedition was sent out to find a "practical route for a railroad along the 35th parallel from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean" (Sherer 1994:41). The expedition included scientists interested in astronomy, meteorology, biology, and minerals. It also included H. Baldwin Mollhausen, a German who was not only a topographer, but also an artist and something of an ethnographer, whose drawings, paintings, and text make his diary of the expedition a treasure trove of information about the Mojave and their country. Whipple's official report (1856) gives additional details (Sherer 1994:40-44). This expedition reached the Colorado River via the Bill Williams Fork, and thus came upon it near the place where the Parker Dam would later be built. The western valley of the river was occupied by the Chemehuevi, who tried in vain to get the expedition, which was ascending the eastern side of the river, to cross the river to trade with them, but the western side was Mojave territory, and the expedition waited to trade with the Mojave, who met it, on February 23, 1854, at a place 1 I or 12 miles up the valley. They left Mojave territory on March 2, 1854, after more than a week of intermingling with the Mojaves in both formal and informal modes. They were met, as they entered Mojave territory by a Mojave chief and some of his band, who offered to trade a basket of maize for two strings of white porcelain beads. After this exchange was completed, general trading commenced. The entire nine days spent with the Mojaves were characterized by constant close comingling of the two groups, except that the Indians were not allowed in camp at night. Trading was active and constant. The assistance of the Mojaves proved to be invaluable to the surveyors, as well as to the scientists who were gathering information about plants, animals, and minerals. More than once the leaders of the expedition were formally introduced to various Mojave chiefs. At length, the chiefs held a National Council and (1) "approved a proposed plan for a road for travel and trade through their country; (2) they decided to show Whipple their secret trail to the ocean," along which "there was water and grass; (3) and they elected a high-ranking Mojave to guide the expedition over the route" (Sherer 1994:54). The Whipple Expedition's visit appears to stand out in Mojave tribal memory as a time when the people met "government-to-government" with the United States, and jointly made plans for an accommodation with each other. The Mojaves, always great traders, were optimistic about having a great route for travel and trade pass through their country. The facts gathered by the Whipple Expedition showed that a railroad to the Pacific Ocean along the 35th parallel was feasible. The first step toward building the railroad was building a wagon road along which people and supplies could be moved. An expedition under the leadership of Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California, a man who had a long acquaintance with California and travel between there and the east coast, was organized. It had a two-fold purpose: to survey a wagon road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to the Colorado River and to test the efficacy of camels as a means of military transport in the deserts of the American Southwest. As the expedition moved across the desert, it not only surveyed a possible route, but left wagon tracks and campsites that wagon trains could use in the immediate future, before any official road building commenced (Sherer 1994:65-67). Although Beale had his men light fire signals in the mountains overlooking the Colorado Mountains overlooking the river to tell the Mojaves he was coming, his men held themselves prepared to fight when they arrived on October 18, 1857, and camped on the riverside. The Mojaves, who regarded the establishment of a wagon road as a fulfillment of the agreement made with Whipple that a trade route be established through their territory, made no move to stop them as they passed through Mojave territory and crossed the river on October 19, except that the Mojave blocked them from going downriver. On October 20, the river crossing successfully completed, the Mojave came into Beale's camp to trade (Sherer 1994:68-69). Beale's expedition left none of the warm memories with the Mojaves that Whipple's expedition had. Mojave elder Frances Stillman commented that the Mojave wanted to be friends, but like Sitgreaves before him Beale wanted nothing to do with them. He "came right in and looked like he owned the place, and didn't bother to talk to anybody, or ask if he might cross or anything. That's what our people didn't like about Beale. He acted as though he owned the whole world" and the expedition crossed "right in the middle of their land and their river" (Stillman 1989, cited in Sherer 1994:69). Beale took his expedition as far west as Tejon, let it rest for several months, and then headed back to Fort Defiance in early 1858. In the meantime, several circumstances made the Mojaves uncertain about the good intentions of the United States. War was brewing between the United States and the Utah Territory, which had been settled ten years earlier by members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, popularly known as Mormons. Both the U.S. War Department and the Mormons saw control of the lower Colorado River as an important military advantage, and soon the War Department had word that the Mormons had sent men to infiltrate the Mojaves, spreading alarm and suspicion. The War Department was principally represented in the area by the temporary commander of Fort Yuma, Lt. William A. Winder (Sherer 1994:71-72, 74). With war clouds gathering, there was considerable interest in the question of how far upstream the Colorado River was navigable, a question best solved by sending a steamboat up the river to find out. As it happened, there was a boat in the vicinity that could be used for the purposes, the General Jessup, owned by Captain George Alonzo Johnson, which was used to make trips up the river as far as Fort Yuma. When, under orders from the Secretary of War, Lt. Joseph C. Ives, earlier with the Whipple Expedition, arrived at the mouth of the Colorado River with the makings of a smaller steamboat, the Explorer, that needed to be put together in order for Ives to take it up the Colorado River to see if it were navigable, Johnson offered to take the General Jessup up the river at once to explore it, and requested a detachment of troops for protection. Winder assigned a detachment under Lt. James A. White to accompany Johnson and assigned them the task of finding out the attitude of the Mojaves. Beaver trapper Pauline Weaver also accompanied the detachment. Captain Johnson took his big steamboat all the way up the river to Cottonwood Island, thus proving that the Colorado River was navigable this far, and then turned back, and on January 22, 1858, anchored it at the place on the river's eastern bank from which Beale's expedition had crossed the river earlier in the fall. The Mojaves, whom the Mormons had succeeded in alarming about the intentions of the United States, met the boat's crew with friendliness, although they found the fact that their land could be invaded via the river upsetting. Lt. White assured them of the government's good intentions toward them, and, by the time the boat anchored, felt reasonably sure they would side with the United States should any armed conflict with the Mormons arise (Sherer 1994:72-75). The Mojaves' suspicions were raised again when Beale's expedition arrived at the crossing place on the western side later the same day. Although a happenstance, the coincident arrivals appeared to have been arranged beforehand (1994:75). The General Jessup ferried Beale's men and their baggage across the river, and then returned to the river mouth, 350 miles to the south. Beale, upon the completion of his expedition, ended his report with the recommendation that a military post be established where the wagon road he had been surveying crossed the river to protect emigrant trains from the Mojave (1994:77-78). Too impatient to wait for the new road to be completed, two wagon trains of emigrants left Santa Fe in 1858 to try it out, one headed by L. R. Rose, and following it another led by Gillum Bailey. One member of the Bailey train, John Udell, who had had previous experience traveling in the west, opposed the choice of route, but was overruled. The trains' leaders unfortunately hired as guide a man who had guided both Whipple's and Beale's expeditions and had been found incompetent by both (1994:80). It was late August and the heat was intense. By the time the two wagon trains had reached the summit of Sitgreaves Pass in the Black Mountains, they were exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, and had been harassed for some time by Yavapai and Havasupai in the Peach Springs area. One small group of them, including L. R. Rose, who wrote the only eyewitness account of the next few days, pushed onward to the river, which they could see from the mountain tops. On the way to the river, the party encountered Mojaves, who seemed friendly, and at first gave the party directions and other help; however, when the wagon train reached the river, set up camp about a mile from it, and drove the livestock to the river to drink, the Mojaves, who had learned that yet another party would be coming through, began to kill and drive off cattle, cook and eat them, and "when caught in the act would laugh and treat the matter as a huge joke" (Rose 1859). According to Chooksa Homar,6 the Mojaves had been undecided as to a course of action. Aratêve, the high chief of the southern group of Mojaves, and five "brave men" or sub-chiefs had been involved some years before in a Quechan war with the Cocopa and the latter's allies. At its end, they promised the commander of Fort Yuma not to fight against other Indians, and were given written papers confirming their agreement not to. Now that the emigrants had violated their territory, the five sub-chiefs were tempted to attack them, anticipating that if they allowed the whites to stay in their area, the intruders would take their wives, enslave their children, and put all the Mojave to work. They had heard that in areas to the east, the whites had taken over the country, penned up animals rather than letting them run free, and might do the same to the Indians. Tribal elders urged peace on the grounds that these leaders had the papers showing that they had agreed not to fight, but in the face of the emigrants' abuse of Mojave hospitality, the militant sub-chiefs decided to defend their territory and their property (Kroeber and Kroeber 1973:11-12). 6In 1903, a Mojave known as Jo Nelson, whose Mojave name was Chooksa Homar, narrated to anthropologist A. L. Kroeber through an interpreter an account of Mojave wars between 1854 and 1880. Kroeber's son, Clifton Kroeber, an ethnohistorian, edited the manuscript his father had begun, and had it published by the University of California Press in 1973. In the meantime, on August 27, the Bailey party had passed through Sitgreaves Pass in its turn and had camped at the edge of the valley. The young men in the party drove the party's cattle down to the river to drink, intending to return later for the wagons. When the Rose party moved to the banks of the River on August 29, two Mojave chiefs, probably Cairook and Sickahot, visited the camps in turn with their retinues. Gifts were exchanged. The chiefs asked if the travelers were planning to settle on the river, and were told that the emigrants intended to go to California (Rose 1859). On August 30, the Rose party moved its camp down the river about a mile to the crossing place, noting with pleasure the "grass" for grazing, and the cottonwood trees that would be useful for constructing their camp and building rafts for crossing the river. They apparently did not realize that the cottonwoods were considered valuable property by the Mojave. The trees provided shade from the sun, lumber essential for house poles, and material for clothing (the inside of the bark was used for women's clothing). Moreover, the grass that the emigrants' cattle tramped over and grazed on constituted Mojave fields, which were, of course, not laid out in rectangles nor surrounded by fences. Many Mojaves began to appear in the vicinity. Because they thus far had been friendly, the Rose party took no alarm as the afternoon wore on, but in the evening the Mojaves attacked, surrounding the camp, and coming within 15 feet of the wagons to discharge their arrows. Of the 25 men in the party, one was killed in the battle at the camp, and 11 were wounded. The Mojaves, subjected to bullets rather than arrows, lost 17 within sight of the emigrant camp, and possibly more (Sherer 1994:82-85, Rose 1859). Panic struck the emigrants. Added to their distress over the results of the battle, was the fact that in the midst of their own battle, Rose got word that Miss Bentner, a member of a family from his party who had stayed in the mountains, had been killed. The emigrants had lost all but 17 of 400 head of cattle, and all but 10 of 37 horses in the battle by the river. They also retained two mules, but they had lost their equipment and supplies, and they feared that all their friends left in the mountains had been killed. Despite the fact that San Bernardino was only 200 miles away and Albuquerque, 560 miles, they decided to turn back (Sherer 1994:85). Fortunately, the Bailey party had not been killed and turned back with them, and they met two other westbound parties following behind who also turned back and shared supplies with them. Before the combined parties reached Albuquerque, they were in a destitute state, but managed to get word to Major Backus, in command of the U.S. Army post there, who sent them sufficient food and supplies that they were able to reach the city (Sherer 1994:85-86). All four members of the Bentner family been killed by Walapais, among whom were seven renegade Mojaves. The murder of this family was interpreted as a massacre, and news of it touched off a round of misunderstanding that resulted in the establishment of Fort Mojave and the U.S. military control of the Mojave (1994:86). News of these events in late August, 1858, spread across the continent, first as exaggerated rumor, later in published versions. The eyewitness account written by L. J. Rose on October 28, 1858, was published by the Missouri Republican on November 29, 1859, more than a year later. 7 Colonel Bonneville, the officer in charge of the U.S. Army's Department in New Mexico reported to the General of the Army in Washington, and probably sent word to General N. S. Clarke, commander of the Military Department in San Francisco. General Clarke reacted promptly by sending Lieutenant Colonel William Hoffman and an escort to the Colorado River to arrange for a military post at "Beale's Crossing" to protect emigrants as they came through. Troops were to follow. The Secretary of War's instructions to do much the same thing arrived after Hoffman was already well into the desert, and did not reach Hoffman until after he had had a decidedly unfriendly encounter with the northern group of Mohaves at Beaver Lake. Each side was suspicious of the other, and each expressed the suspicion in a characteristic manner, but misinterpreted the actions of the other. For example, Hoffman's party, although its members interacted with the Paiutes and Mojaves they met in the daytime, declared their camp closed to more than 15 at a time, and to all Indians at night-an indication of hostility to the Mojaves, to whom open hospitality was only polite. The Mojaves in turn shot four arrows into Hoffman's camp, mocked the behavior of the strangers, and otherwise tested the intentions of the visitors. In the end, Hoffman made preparations to return the way he had come, but had not left when his party was surrounded by Mojaves coming closer and closer. He sent the pack and wagon ahead and then ordered one of his platoons to dismount and fire at the Indians. He reported that 10 or 12 were seen to fall. Then, as he and the platoon marched to catch up with the rest of their party, some 250 to 300 Mojaves started to follow, but fell back after "a few well-directed shots on some scattering ones" (Sherer 1994:87-94). Chooksa Homar reported that three Mojaves were hit, but none killed. A. L. Kroeber noted that to the Indians, Hoffman's visit seemed unmotivated (Kroeber and Kroeber 1973:20). 7John Udell, who was a member of the expedition who had not gone down to the river, wrote an account of it in his journal (1859), but it was not published until considerably later. Hoffman reported that the route he had taken across the Mojave Desert was too difficult to send troops through in larger numbers. General Clarke followed his advice and sent him to Fort Yuma to organize incoming troops and establish a supply line, preparatory to establishing a post at the place from which Beale had crossed the Mojave in 1857. Hoffman, whose report of his encounter at Beaver Lake was interpreted by Clarke as the report of an attack by the Mojaves, was given orders in accord with this view. He was to march against the Mojaves and Chemehuevis, and if they declined to engage in combat, to demand the chiefs who had made the attack on his party and take them hostage. If the hostages were not forthcoming, Mojave fields were to be laid waste, and further cultivation of the fields denied them (Sherer 1994:93-94). In the spring of 1859, while Hoffman was still trying to establish a fort at Beale's Crossing, Beale was assembling a road-working party in Albuquerque to build the road he had laid out on his earlier trip. It seemed advisable to send some of the food and supplies they needed from Los Angeles. After due consideration, Beale's associate, Samuel A. Bishop, left Los Angeles on March 1 with 38 men, "ten camels, six 6-mule wagons, and a number of pack mules." At Cave Canyon in the Mojave Desert, they were joined by a "mail party" of the Central Overland Mail Company. This enlarged group was met by an estimated 1,500 Mojave, assembled by the five militant chiefs against the advice of Aratêve, which shot at the whites in such a way as to purposefully miss hitting them. Both sides then retreated, but the five militant chiefs and some others eventually attacked the intruders, who shot two of them, one of them fatally (Kroeber and Kroeber 1973:17-19). Bishop sent most of his party back to Pah-Ute Creek, cached some supplies there, sent his wagons and teams "back to civilization," and pushed on with camels, mules, and some supplies to cross the Colorado north of the Mojave villages, and thereby get some supplies to Beale (Casebier 1975). Hoffman gave notice to the Quechan that he was establishing a military post among the Mojave, but that no peaceful Indian would be harmed. Soldiers poured into Fort Yuma, and two steamers Colorado and General Jessup stood ready to carry them up the river; one command of dragoons marched to the river across the Mojave despite Hoffman's opinion that the trip was too difficult by that route. When these troops arrived together at Beale's Crossing, Hoffman was able to establish a post there without any opposition from the Mojave, who, on April 23, 1859, accepted the terms he had laid down for surrender, which included there being no opposition to the establishment of roads and posts through and in their country, and travel free from harassment; one hostage from each of the six Mojave bands; the chief who commanded the attack on Hoffman as hostage; and three of those who took part in the attack as hostages (Sherer 1994:94-95). The chief who had commanded the attack was Cairook, who willingly gave himself up as a hostage. The eight other hostages comprised two sons of chiefs, four brothers of chiefs, and two nephews of chiefs (1994:95-96). Neither General Clarke nor Colonel Hoffman felt that the new fort would last very long, being situated in such an unfriendly climate and so far from a source of supplies. In fact, they doubted that there would be many emigrants who would undertake the difficult journey across the desert that this route entailed. Brevet Major Lewis A. Armistead, who was left in charge of the new fort, was more optimistic. He thought the fort was in an excellent location, close to sources of wood, water, and grass, and having the river as a route over which supplies could be sent. He thought the post was misnamed, however, and changed its name from Camp Colorado to Fort Mojave (1994:99). The nine hostages held at Fort Yuma found the confinement oppressive, and eventually plotted an escape. In late June 1859, Cairook agreed to seize and hold the sentinel during a period when they were allowed out of jail for fresh air, allowing the rest to escape. Cairook and one other were caught and killed, and the rest escaped, but the army never found out that three made their way back to their people. A mourning ceremony was held for the two who died. Several weeks later, Mojaves stole stock from a mail station that had been established two miles south of Fort Mojave, and attacked it. Mojaves tore up melons planted by the soldiers, and the soldiers shot a Mojave, one of three who were working in a garden. Major L. A. Armistead, commandant at Fort Mojave, frustrated at the escape of the hostages and the difficulty of getting the Mojave to engage in battle, was able to precipitate a battle between about 50 soldiers and hundreds of Indians-the first pitched battle that had been fought. Armistead reported 23 dead Mojave bodies found on the battlefield, and there were probably more. No soldiers were killed, but three were wounded (Casebier 1975:98; Kroeber and Kroeber 1973:27-31). Peace then descended on the Mojave, but their former isolation was brought to an end by the regular supplies that were brought to Fort Mojave on the Mojave Road that Beale and others had forged, following in many places the old Mojave trail that had developed over hundreds of years. Hoffman had been wrong-freight could be economically carried over the road (Casebier 1975:101-106). It became U.S. government policy to reinforce the power of the Mojave leader, Aratêve (Irataba, Iretaba), who led a faction of the Mojave who, recognizing the overwhelming power of the United States, were in favor of peaceful relations. There was an opposing faction, led by traditionalist "strong men," that favored militant opposition to the invading peoples (C. Kroeber 1965; Sherer 1966). When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Fort Mojave was closed down because the troops were needed elsewhere. The Mojaves were asked to guard the buildings (Casebier 1975:131). |
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