Description
The Mojave people (also referred to as Mohave, Aha Macav, and "People by the River") make up a Native American cultural group originating from the southwest region of North America, within the Mojave Desert, in parts of Arizona, Nevada, and California. The rocks in the Mojave Desert, contain pictures and symbols called petroglyphs told the early history of the Mojave people. Some of these are up to 15,000 years old, originating from as far back as the Paleolithic Era. Much of early Mojave history remains unrecorded in writing, since the Mojave language was not written in precolonial times.
Language
The Mojave language belongs to the River Yuman branch of the Yuman language family.
Culture
The people led a hunter-gatherer and nomadic lifestyle, always moving from place to place and keeping very few permanent homes. In the precolonial era, the Mojave built settlements along the Colorado River. Every year, the river flooded, bringing rich, arable soil onto the land. The Mojave relied on the floods and the soil to help them grow seasonal crops. The Mojave people were masters at creating pottery, adorning their pieces with geometric designs. Traders from the tribe would travel on foot to the Pacific Coast to trade with coastal peoples. The trip was typically over 500 kilometers, and legends say that some traders could run the distance in only a few days.