The next group of semicivilized Indians (the Pimas of the Rio Gila) differ from those I have already named, in that they inhabit huts instead of houses. In all other respects they are very similar.
After the Rio Gila has emerged from the succession of deep gorges through which it crosses the Pina-lefio Cordilleras, it waters a rich and fertile valley forty or fifty miles long, between the mountains and the Gila desert. About twenty miles of this valley is occupied by these people. They devote themselves entirely to agriculture and to the arts of peace; but they are brave in war, and maintain a complete military organization for protection against the incursions of their wild neighbours the Apaches. I have often heard it said by western men that there are only two spots in New Mexico and Arizona where you can be certain of absolute safety; the one is in the pueblo of Zuni, the other amongst the Pimas on the Gio Gila. Both these peaceful tribes have been most useful allies of the United States' troops in their expeditions against the Navajos and Apaches; it has, indeed, been only through the assistance of the Pima warriors that any success has ever been gained against the latter sons of plunder.
The valley varies in width from two to four miles; and grouped up and down the stream, usually on ground a little above the level of the low-lying bottom-lands, are seen the cone-shaped huts which compose the villages. The huts are easily built, as they only consist of a framework of willow poles stuck in the ground, and arched over to meet in the centre; these are interlaced with others at right angles, and then covered with wheat-straw, neatly pinned down all round the sides, which may or may not be daubed over with mud, and nicely thatched at the top.
Were we to judge only from their dwellings, we should place these people very low down in the list of Indian tribes; but when we examine the means which they adopt for raising their crops, when we see with what labour and skill they have divided off their lands into little patches of about 200 feet square, and have dug many miles of irrigating canals, each set radiating from the main artery, or " acequia madra," to supply every patch, then when we look at the pottery, the beautiful basket-work, the stores of farm-produce carefully packed away in well-made store-huts, when we see specimens of native weaving, and, perhaps more than all, when we look at the soft intelligent faces of these Indians, we recognize directly the same people, to all intents and purposes, as we met in the Rio Grande valley.
The productions are chiefly maize, wheat, beans, melons, pumpkins, onions, chili Colorado (red pepper), &c.; they own a small quantity of stock, horned cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, mules, and poultry. They rely, however, for support mainly upon agricultural produce, milk, and eggs; and their production is so much in excess of their requirements, that they dispose annually of more than a million bushels of grain to the government agents, at from four to six cents a pound, which, in our money, is nearly twopence. They formerly cultivated cotton, but now they find it far easier to buy the few cloth goods they require than to weave them.
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adapted from A. W. Bell
"On the Native Races of New Mexico"
1869 (Journal of the Ethnological Society of London)
