Description
The Hualapai are descendants from one people, a group known archaeologically as the Cerbat. The Hwal`bay originally lived in groups composed of fourteen bands. Culturally, the Hualapai consider themselves as part of the “Pai” meaning “the people.” The earliest physical remains of the Pai was found along the Willow Beach bank near the Hoover Dam in the 1960?s and dates back as early as A.D. 600. The total population of the Hualapai Tribe is 1,532 and the median age is 23.6 (1990 U.S. Census). Tribal, public school, state and federal governmental services provide the bulk of current full-time employment.
Language
The Hualapai language is a Pai branch of the Yuman–Cochimí languages, also spoken by the closely related Havasupai, and more distantly to Yavapai people.
Culture
Major traditional ceremonies of the Hualapai include the "Maturity" ceremony and the "Mourning" ceremony. Nowadays the modern Sobriety Festival is also celebrated in June. The souls of the dead are believed to go northwestward to a beautiful land where plentiful harvest grow. This land is believed to be seen only by Hualapai spirits. Traditional Hualapai dress consists of full suits of deerskin and rabbit skin robes. Conical houses formed from cedar boughs using the single slope form called a Wikiup. The Hualapai Reservation was created by executive order in 1883 on lands that just four regional bands considered as part of their home range, like the Yi Kwat Pa'a or Ha'kasa Pa'a. The other Hualapai regional bands (including the Havasupai) lived far away from the current reservation land.