And Then the White Man Came
From a document bought at the Needles Regional Museum - author unknown
Sometimes friendly, sometimes deadly. That describes the early contact between the
Mojave and the white man.
The search for fortune was what brought the white man to the land of the Mohave. A 1604
expedition in search of silver led New Mexico governor Don Juan Onate through Mojave
territory, but it wasn't until December 1775 that Fray Francisco Garces became the first
white man to meet the Mojave. His writings reveal the Mojave as friendly. He comments that
"the female sex is the most comely along the river, the males very healthy and
robust." The men walked naked the women wore rabbit and beaver skin capes. He called
them Jamajab.
American mountain men led by Jedediah Smith appeared in Mojave territory in 1826, and
though the Mojave welcomed the trappers, death and hatred loomed in the future for the two
groups.
The Mojave believed all living things belonged where they were placed, so it was hard
to understand why the trappers were so brutal, throwing beaver carcasses on the river bank
after skinning the animals.
In 1827 another party of trappers led by James Ohio Pattie marched through Mojave
territory, ignoring Mojave demands for a horse in trade for the beaver taken from the
river. Four days later, two white men and 16 Mojaves lay dead.
Late that year, Jedediah Smith returned and was attacked, losing nine men, and for the
next 20 years violence flared, reaching a peak when trappers from the Canadian Hudson Bay
Co. killed 26 Mojave.
In 1850, territory including Arizona was annexed by the United States, and with it
began increasing encroachment by the U.S. Army.
The parade was led in 1851 by Capt. L. Sitgreaves, a stern regimentarian, and followed
in 1854 by Lt. Amie Weeks Whipple, an amiable man who gained the confidence of the Mohave.
Whipple's company surveyed and mapped a railroad route from Ft. Smith, Arkansas to the
Pacific Ocean, which most Mojaves favored because it meant opportunity for trade.
From 1851 to 1856, the U.S. military was ever present, but it never found out that two
white girls, Olive and Mary Ann Oatman, were living with the Mojave. Captured by the Tonto
Apaches in 1851, they were traded to Mojave Chief Espaniol for two horses, some
vegetables, several pounds of beans and three blankets. The younger, frail Mary Ann died
in 1854, probably from malnutrition. Olive, at 16, was returned to her relatives in 1856.
The story made national headlines and raised a furor among non- Indians. The girls,
from the Mojave viewpoint, were lucky to have fallen into their hands, away from the Tonto
Apaches. Under the circumstances, they were fortunate. The chief attached them to his
household, and they were afforded the best Mojave facilities, seeds for planting, love,
divergence from Mojave customs.
In 1858 the seeds of Ft. Mojave were planted when Lt. Edward F. Beale and a troop of 12
camels cleared and opened a wagon road along Whipple's survey route. He suggested a fort
be built to guard the river crossing near present-day Needles. In August, a wagon train
that lingered too long near the crossing was attacked.
Spurred by public clamor to "Wipe out the Mojave!" 700 Indian fighters led by
Col. William Hoffman were sent in 1859 from San Francisco. Though there was no combat, and
the Mojaves insisted the attack was instigated by the Hualapais, Col. Hoffman on April 24,
threatened to take the Great Chief Homoseh Awahot to Yuma Prison as a hostage to show the
Mojaves the might of the U.S. Government.
The great chief was elderly, so his nephews, along with the sub- chief Cairook, went in
his place. They were told release would be in one year, but a year passed, so an escape
was planned. By holding the lone guard at noon while the other, younger hostages dived
into the river, swimming underwater to escape, Cairook gave his life.
The late 1800's were years of change for the Mojave. In 1861, constraints of the
American Civil War forced the military to abandon Ft. Mojave. Tribal leadership was in
upheaval as the Great Chief Homoseh awahot relinquished his post to Yara tav, who favored
peace with the Americans. He had seen their power, having traveled to Los Angeles, San
Francisco and to Washington, D.C. to visit President Lincoln.
In March 1865 the U.S. Government created the Colorado River Indian Reservation near
Parker, the southern range of the Mojave. Yara tav, though disapproving of the poor
farmland, led 500 to 800 Mojaves to the new reservation at Parker Valley. Homoseh awahot
resumed his post as great chief to lead those who refused to leave the Mojave Valley. The
people were split into two tribes.
Homoseh awahot was succeeded by his son Empote awatacheeech, John Potachecha in 1875,
who when he died two years later was succeeded by his 8-year-old son Hobelia.
Those living around the fort were called Ft. Mojaves when the buildings and 14,000
acres were transferred from the War Department to the Interior Department in 1890. The
fort became an industrial boarding school for the Ft. Mojave and other non- reservation
Indians.
The plan was to eradicate native language and culture. A compulsory education law was
passed, and truant children forcibly returned to school were often whipped and locked in
an attic for days, and given water and a slice of bread for meals.
The Indians were taught Anglo farming methods, but with no land of their own, they
looked elsewhere for work. Many turned to the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (later the
Santa Fe), which came to Needles in 1883. Others worked on river boats, in the mines, some
sold bead work and pottery dolls to train tourists. The Mojave became urban Indians living
in Needles.
The Great Chief Hobelia, now 10 years old, went to school in 1892, his name anglicized
to Pete Lambert. He was the last great chief of the Mojave. In 1905 students were required
to adopt English surnames in place of their traditional clan and individual names.
In 1911, by executive order, the Ft. Mojaves were granted a reservation consisting of
the old military reserve, areas called the hay and wood reserves on the California and
Nevada side of the Colorado River, and adjacent checkerboard land on the Arizona side, a
total of 31,328 acres. The checkerboard arrangement came about because the government gave
the railroad every other section of land.
The boarding school closed in 1931, and children began attending schools in Needles.
The 20th Century was closing in. In 1936 a great flood washed out Mojave homes in Arizona,
Needles too was flooded. To replace those homes, a new village was built outside Needles
in 1947 on land bought by the tribe, and later declared part of the reservation.
The traditional tribal leadership structure was changed forever in 1957 with the
approval of the Ft. Mojave Tribal Constitution, and with it the creation of a seven member
tribal council.
Making up that first council were tribal chairman Frances Stillman, vice chairman
Hubert McCord, and council members Claude Lewis, Joe Davidson, Rudolph Bryan, and husband
and wife Robert and Minerva Jenkins.
