Pima People - History After 1694

History After 1694

Initially, the Akimel O’Odham experienced little intensive colonial contact, and early exchanges instead were limited to parties traveling through the territory or community members visiting settlements to the south. The Hispanic era (A.D.1694–1853) of the Historic period began with the first visit by Father Kino in 1694. Contact also was infrequent with the Mexicans during their rule of southern Arizona between 1821 and 1848. Nevertheless, the Akimel O’Odham were affected by introduced European elements such as new cultigens (e.g., wheat), livestock, metal, and especially disease.

The American era (A.D. 1853–1950), began in 1853 with the Gadsden Purchase, when southern Arizona became part of the United States. Euroamerican contacts with the Akimel O’Odham in the middle Gila Valley increased after 1846 as a result of the Mexican-American War. New markets were developed to supply grain to the military as well as to immigrants heading for California, and the Akimel O’Odham experienced a period of prosperity. Thereafter, interaction between Native American groups and Euroamerican settlers became increasingly tense, and the U.S. Government adopted a policy of pacification and reservation confinement of Native Americans. The GRIC was established in 1859.

The following years saw the arrival of large numbers of Euroamerican migrants to upstream locations along the Gila as well as along the lower Salt River. Uncertainty and variable crop yields led to major settlement reorganizations. The establishment of agency headquarters, churches and schools, and trading posts at Casa Blanca and Sacaton during the 1870s and 1880s led to the growth of these towns as administrative and commercial centers at the expense of others. By 1898 agriculture had nearly ceased within the GRIC, and although some Akimel O’Odham drew rations, the principal livelihood was woodcutting. The first allotments within Gila River were established in 1914. Each individual was assigned a 10-acre (40,000 m2) parcel of irrigable land located within districts irrigated by the Santan, Agency, Blackwater and Casa Blanca projects on the eastern half of the reservation. In 1917, the allotment size was doubled to include a primary lot of irrigable land and a secondary, usually non-contiguous 10-acre (40,000 m2) tract of grazing land.

The most ambitious effort to rectify the economic plight of the Akimel O’Odham was the San Carlos Project Act of 1924, which authorized the construction of a water storage dam on the Gila River and provided for the irrigation of 50,000 acres (200 km2) of Indian and 50,000 acres (200 km2) of non-Indian land. For a variety of reasons, the San Carlos Project failed to revitalize the O’Odham farming economy.

Over the years, the U.S. Government placed severe acculturative pressures on the Akimel O’Odham that have affected changes in nearly every aspect of their lives. Since World War II, however, the Akimel O’Odham have experienced a resurgence of interest in tribal sovereignty and economic development, as the community has become a self-governing entity, developed several profitable enterprises in fields such as agriculture and telecommunications, built several casinos, and begun the process of revitalizing their farming economy by constructing a water delivery system across the reservation.