Description
The Yavapai are an Apache tribe of the Yuman Family, they were popularly known as Apache Mohave and Mohave Apache, meaning “hostile or warlike Mohave.” Before their removal to the Rio Verde Agency in May 1873, the Yavapai claimed as its range, the Rio Verde Valley and the Black Mesa from the Salt River, as far as Bill Williams Mountains in western Arizona. They then numbered about 1,000. According to their creation story, the Yavapai believe that their people originated "in the beginning," or "many years ago."
Language
Upland Yuman
Culture
Before being confined to reservations, the Yavapai were mainly hunter-gatherers, following an annual round, migrating to different areas to follow the ripening of different edible plants and movement of game. Some tribes supplemented this diet with small-scale cultivation of the "three sisters" – maize, squash, and beans. They had to work to cultivate crops, as their land was also less supportive of agriculture. The main plant foods gathered were walnuts, saguaro fruits, juniper berries, acorns, sunflower seeds, manzanita berries and apples, hackberries.