Havasupai people

The Havsuw ' Baaja ( ' Blue Water People '-' people of the blue - green water ') - also Ahabasugapa, Havasooa Pa'a, Yavasupai called Supai - are a Highland Yuma speaking Native American tribe of the Cochimí - Yuma languages ​​and live in northwestern Arizona, USA. The most common name today Havasupai is an alienation of their proper name Havsuw ' Baaja. The Hualapai and Yavapai are among the kindred tribes, with whom they form the group of Highland Yuma.

Residential area

They live for centuries the Cataract Canyon (now usually called Havasu Canyon ), a tributary of the Grand Canyon. Even today, they are the most isolated tribe in the United States. Your Reservation and the main village of Supai in Havasu Canyon can be reached only on foot or on horseback over two long trails that descend from the edge of the canyon. 1882, the Reserve in Havasu Canyon has been established (2 km ²) for the tribe. The Havasupai refrained from a larger piece of land in the belief that more land would lead to trouble with the Americans; a tiny reserve would not result in the most land-hungry whites into temptation. Then, in 1975 the tribe was awarded his old hunting area of 185,000 acres ( 748 km ²) again.

Relation to the Hualapai

Ethnically, the Havasupai and Hualapai ( Hualapai ) a people (or tribal group ), though - have now both separate form politically independent tribes, and developed their own identity - as a result of the arbitrary concentration of groups in reservations by the U.S. government. The Hualapai ( Pa'a or Pai - 'people' ) consisted of three major groups (or sub- tribes ) - the Middle Mountain People, Platform and People Yavapai Fighters ( McGuire, 1983). These large groups were divided into seven groups (English bands ) ( Kroeber, 1935 Manners, 1974), which in turn consisted of thirteen local groups (English regional bands or localgroups ) ( Dobyns and Euler, 1970). These local groups were composed of several or a large family group (English extended family groups) who lived each in small settlements ( rancherias ). The Havasooa Pa'a - local group was the most north-easterly, most isolated and largest local group of Hualapai, however, was the same as the Yi Kwat Pa'a ( " Peach Springs band") and Ha'kasa Pa'a ( " Pine Springs band") the Nyav - Kapai group ( ' Eastern people ' ) that were part of the sub-tribe of the plateau people. Therefore, the Hualapai often than Western Pai ( ' Western Pai ') and the Havasupai as Eastern Pai ( 'East Pai ') are referred to.

History

In earlier times, the Havasupai inhabited the canyon floor only in the spring and summer months to grow on their tiny gardens of corn, beans, pumpkins (also gourds ), sunflower, cotton and tobacco. After contact with the Spaniards, they also built on melons, watermelons and fruit trees. After the harvest in the fall they moved to their winter quarters on the plateau, where they hunted deer, antelope and desert bighorn sheep. In the winter months, the river valley was cold and misty, because the steep canyon walls do not let in the sunshine. The Havasupai lived in traditional conical thatched Wickiups.

Despite their isolation, the Havasupai trade relations (such as finely woven baskets, which served as a water container ) had to the Hopi, Hualapai, Diné (including Navajo) and Mohave with which it hides, salt and red mineral color against agricultural products, textiles and brown, unpainted earthenware exchanged. Especially close contacts they talked here with the Hopi, of which they took many cultural and religious ceremonies. Traditional allies of the Havasupai were the Hopi and Hualapai, who often acted together against the Yavapai, the various groups of the Western Apache, particularly the Tonto Apache and the Southern Paiute. Father Francisco Garcés was the only Spaniard who visited this tribe in 1776. Plans for the conversion of the tribe were not realized. The contacts with Americans, who only began in the 1850s, were as insignificant. The isolated home of the Havasupai, it seems, no one was desirable.

Since the 1980s, making the Havasupai by its fight against uranium mining on their land talked about. After decades of debate over the use of deposits issued in January 2012, the Ministry of the Interior of the United States a moratorium of uranium mining on an area of ​​around 4000 km ² for 20 years.

Way of life

Life at the Havasupai was easy. A rigorous social and political organization was hardly necessary for a group of less than 300 tribal members. The religious activities were in the hands of medical men who could control the weather and diseases and ensured success in hunting and horticulture. A harvest dance in the fall was more of a social gathering than a religious ceremony. The burning of the dead and the destruction of their personal property ( one of several available at the Yuma customs ) was practiced until 1895, to the Bureau of Indian Affairs this uncivilized custom among said.

Although it is called from the volatile Visitors often as Shangri -la ( Hidden Paradise), the reserve for the people living there is much less idyllic. Agriculture, once the main livelihood of the tribe, now used only as a supplement to wages earned abroad. Some Havasupai earn their livelihood with the transport (horses and mules ) and the supply of the few visitors to their canyons.

In two different techniques made ​​baskets ( twine binding and Wulstflechttechnik ) are still made by the Havasupai in very limited quantities.

Language

Havasupai is expected to Pai- languages ​​of Cochimí - Yuma - language group and is a dialect of Highland Yuma. Today, it is spoken by about 600 people in the Havasupai Indian Reservation, as well as in and around the Grand Canyon and is therefore the only Native American language in the United States of America is, which is spoken 100% of all tribal members. Havasupai differs only minimally from the almost identical Hualapai, and is therefore just another dialect variant of Highland Yuma, although the two tribal groups socially and politically are independent (Kendall 1983:5 ) - also both dialectal variants are played differently in writing. The spokesman of Havasupai and Hualapai consider their languages ​​, despite the great similarities and mutual intelligibility as separate languages. However, larger deviations exist between the Havasupai - Hualapai and also scoring for Highland Yuma four dialect groups of the Yavapai.

Demography

James Mooney estimated the Havasupai in 1680 to about 300 members. Also in 1869 counted 300 members, while it was reported in 1902 by 233, 1905 only 174, 1910 by 174, 1923 by 184 and 1937 by 208 Havasupai. The U.S. census in 2000 counted 634 members, of whom 404 were still dominating the traditional tribal language.