VIM. PIMAN INDIANS OF THE SONORAN DESERT
513
The putative picture of native Piman culture drawn below is based on
these sources, on my own ethnographic and archaeological field studies,
and on other references as cited.
A. WESTERN NOMADS
On February 15, 1694, the Jesuit priests Eusebio Francisco Kino and
Marcos Antonio Kappus, with a military escort commanded by Ensign
Juan Mateo Manje, were traveling in northwestern Sonora very close to
the Gulf of California. They ". . . came upon some squaws who were
filling some tinajas [earthenware jars] with water from a small water
hole. . . . The Indians went about naked, covering their bodies only with
small pieces of hare furs. . . . We gave them a supply of food since they
were poor and hungry, living on roots, locusts and shell fish." And later,
on March 20, 1694, we learn of Indians in the same vicinity who were
". . . poor people who lived by eating roots of wild sweet potatoes, honey,
mesquite beans and other fruits. They traveled about naked; only the
women had their bodies half covered with hare furs" (Manje, 1954, pp.
14, 17, and 30).
In these words, Manje gives the first written description available of
Indians whom the Spaniards called "Sobas," and who came in later times
to be known more commonly as "Sand Papagos." These Piman-speaking
Indians, who probably never numbered more than 500 men, women, and
children, wrested a livelihood from the arid west of Pimeria Alta by hunting wild game, collecting plants and insects, gathering shellfish and other
seafoods from the Gulf of California, and by trading ceremonies and salt
gathered from salt deposits at the head of the Gulf for food and earthenware pottery with the Yuman-speaking Cocopas who lived adjacent to the
Lower Colorado River and its delta.
These Pimans were true nomads. They had no fixed village locations;
"home" was much of the Lower Colorado Valley. Divided into an undetermined number of bands comprised of members of extended families, the
band size was probably never much larger than 80 or 90 people at most,
and then only under optimum conditions, as when people could congregate
at a ripe food source. One band, the so-called Pinacatehos, had its principal "headquarters" near rock tanks in the Sierra del Pinacate where in
1701 the Spaniards ". . . counted 50 persons, poor and naked people,
who sustain themselves by roots, locusts and lizards, which they call
iguanas [Iguanidae, probably Dipsosaurus dorsalis], and some fish"
(Manje, 1954, p. 160; Hayden, 1967, p. 341).
The sparseness of vegetation and other fauna made it necessary for
513
The putative picture of native Piman culture drawn below is based on
these sources, on my own ethnographic and archaeological field studies,
and on other references as cited.
A. WESTERN NOMADS
On February 15, 1694, the Jesuit priests Eusebio Francisco Kino and
Marcos Antonio Kappus, with a military escort commanded by Ensign
Juan Mateo Manje, were traveling in northwestern Sonora very close to
the Gulf of California. They ". . . came upon some squaws who were
filling some tinajas [earthenware jars] with water from a small water
hole. . . . The Indians went about naked, covering their bodies only with
small pieces of hare furs. . . . We gave them a supply of food since they
were poor and hungry, living on roots, locusts and shell fish." And later,
on March 20, 1694, we learn of Indians in the same vicinity who were
". . . poor people who lived by eating roots of wild sweet potatoes, honey,
mesquite beans and other fruits. They traveled about naked; only the
women had their bodies half covered with hare furs" (Manje, 1954, pp.
14, 17, and 30).
In these words, Manje gives the first written description available of
Indians whom the Spaniards called "Sobas," and who came in later times
to be known more commonly as "Sand Papagos." These Piman-speaking
Indians, who probably never numbered more than 500 men, women, and
children, wrested a livelihood from the arid west of Pimeria Alta by hunting wild game, collecting plants and insects, gathering shellfish and other
seafoods from the Gulf of California, and by trading ceremonies and salt
gathered from salt deposits at the head of the Gulf for food and earthenware pottery with the Yuman-speaking Cocopas who lived adjacent to the
Lower Colorado River and its delta.
These Pimans were true nomads. They had no fixed village locations;
"home" was much of the Lower Colorado Valley. Divided into an undetermined number of bands comprised of members of extended families, the
band size was probably never much larger than 80 or 90 people at most,
and then only under optimum conditions, as when people could congregate
at a ripe food source. One band, the so-called Pinacatehos, had its principal "headquarters" near rock tanks in the Sierra del Pinacate where in
1701 the Spaniards ". . . counted 50 persons, poor and naked people,
who sustain themselves by roots, locusts and lizards, which they call
iguanas [Iguanidae, probably Dipsosaurus dorsalis], and some fish"
(Manje, 1954, p. 160; Hayden, 1967, p. 341).
The sparseness of vegetation and other fauna made it necessary for