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SAGA OF THE YAVASUPAI
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ADAPTING TO A HARSH ENVIRONMENT

The story of Northern Arizona's Yavasupai people is a moving saga of remarkable resilience and undaunted determination in the face of overwhelming challenges to their way of life.  Over the centuries, the Yavasupai have been resourceful in developing approaches for contending with a harsh environment and the incursion of settlers seeking land for ranching, agriculture and mining.  The ancestors of the Yavasupai, the Pai, were organized into numerous local groups that had complete independence from each other.  Some of these groups had as few as twelve members, while others would have as many as sixty.  This local autonomy could be transformed into a nomadic existence in response to environmental exigencies.  The local groups eventually developed regional groups or bands.  By the 19th Century, fifty local groups and thirteen regional bands divided into two tribes.  The largest and easternmost tribe was known as the Yavasupai.  The Yavasupai carried on a relatively democratic tradition of decentralized authority and responsive tribal interaction.  The custom of local group autonomy encouraged individual participation and informal councils were established for the discussion of tribal concerns.  The tribal leader would develop a consensus for decisions and then speak for the council.  Goodwill prevailed as the informal councils fostered a sense of individual initiative and responsibility.

WESTWARD EXPANSION

In 1858, U.S. Army Lieutenant Joseph Ives arrived in the Arizona Territory and established a presence to the southwest of the Yavasupai.  In 1865, gold was discovered in the Cerbat and Hualapai Mountains, home to the western Pai.  A wagon road was built to transport supplies from the steamer port of Hardyville to Fort Whipple near Prescott.  Conflicts began along the road and around the gold field, resulting in the Hualapai-Anglo American War of 1866-69.  The Yavasupai, who lived to the north, were not involved in the war but were placed on a reservation eleven years after the other Pai tribes were defeated.  One year later, in 1881, the Army conducted a survey and in 1882 the Yavasupai reservation boundaries were redrawn to include only a small area (518 acres) within Havasu Canyon.   From the 1860's onward, the original Yavasupai lands were gradually settled and fenced in by ranchers and there was increasing tension arising from competition over watering holes which were vital to survival in this arid region. In 1881-82, a railroad was built and towns emerged throughout the area.   By 1900, the Yavasupai were completely restricted to their reservation in Havasu Canyon.  They had lost 90 percent of their winter hunting and gathering area, three quarters of their subsistence and seventy percent of their economic base.

TRADITION AND INNOVATION

Rather than resign to calamity, the tribe drew on the flexibility and resourcefulness that enabled their ancestors to overcome harsh environmental conditions. The Yavasupai intensified their agricultural production to cultivate crops that would provide more adequate food on limited land areas.  They learned trades and earned substantial income in nearby communities.  They constructed buildings and irrigation systems, delivered mail, served on local police forces and worked for the National Park Service at the Grand Canyon.  Tribal members also became involved in ranching.  The mobility, individual autonomy and family cohesion which had served the Yavasupai well in earlier centuries has been applied to new challenges arising over the last hundred and fifty years.  At the Grand Canyon, about ten families formed one group.  A larger group of families stayed on the reservation at Havasu Canyon, while other groups moved around Arizona with seasonal work.  The Yavasupai are a small tribe in one of the most remote areas of the Southwest.  The Yavasupai people have survived epidemics and overcome extensive poverty.  In recent decades, the tribe has extended the independence of its government and expanded the reservation's boundaries by 185,000 acres.  As the Yavasupai people begin life in the early 21st century, there is a new appreciation for the wisdom of invoking tradition and innovation for adapting to the challenges of contemporary life.