The Yuma Indians are a Native American tribe who lived in the Colorado River Valley. Their creation mythology involves their cultural hero, Kukumat, and his son Kumastamxo. They believed in dream power and guardian spirits. Their traditional homes were made of logs, seaweed, and sand. The tribe had contact with Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza, but also fought against Spanish settlers. The Fort Yuma-Quechan Indian Reservation is now home to many members of the Yuma and related tribes.
The Yuma Indians are a Native American tribe related to the Quechan, Yuman, Kwtsan, and Kwtsaan American Indian tribes. The Yuma Indians have traditionally resided in and around the Colorado River Valley in the southwestern region of the United States. Many members of these Indian nations live on the Fort Yuma-Quechan Indian Reservation. The reservation is located north of the Mexican border and encompasses more than 45,000 acres in parts of Arizona, Baja California, and California.
The Quechan and Yuma Indian creation mythology stems from their cultural hero, Kukumat. Legend says that Kukumat’s son Kumastamxo led the tribe to a sacred mountain called Avikwame in California. There he presented them with bows and arrows and instructed them in ways to cure diseases. The Yuma, Quechan, and other Arizona tribes descended from the mountain and settled an area south of the Mojave Desert along the Colorado River.
Some other basic religious beliefs of the Yuma tribe involve spiritual power coming to them in their dreams and through interaction with the souls of the dead. This dream power is said to have been created by Kukumat and endowed with spiritual authority by Kumastamxo. The Yuma Indians and their related tribes believed they had guardian spirits that used special voices to manifest. These guardian spirits were said to live on the sacred mountain Avikwame or one of the many sacred grounds in the area.
The Yuma Indians lived in a very hot region of the U.S. To try to keep their homes cool, the door always faced south and the relative coolness of the ground was used as a kind of air conditioner. A traditional home for the mainly agricultural Yuma Indians consisted of a frame of logs and posts, a roof woven of seaweed or some other readily available substance, and topped with a layer of sand. These structures were about 20 by 25 feet (about 6 by 7.5 meters) in size and mostly conformed to a rectangular or square shape. It was customary for several members of a family to live in one of these houses.
Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza was the first European to have notable contact with the Yuma Indians, in the winter of 1774. Anza, the Quechan chief, and three other tribe members traveled to Mexico City in 1776 in an ultimately successful effort to get the viceroy of New Spain to establish a mission on the tribe’s land. However, not all Spanish settlers received a warm welcome in the territory of the Yuma Indians. In July 1781, members of the tribe attacked and killed four priests and 30 soldiers. The Yuma Indian Tribe regained control of the area and held it until the early 1850s. During that time, the United States Army fought and defeated the tribe and established Fort Yuma.
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