The Havasupai are a Yuman-speaking group who are best known as the indigenous occupants of the Grand Canyon. The designation Havasupai is from their native name Havasuwaipaa which means “Blue Water People.”
Migrations
Havasupai oral tradition tells of a migration from Moon Mountain, near present-day Blythe, California, on the Colorado River. The people settled for a while near present-day Peach Springs, Arizona. However, a dispute broke out and the groups who were settled there scattered to new homes. One group, the ancestors of the present-day Havasupai, came to Havasu Creek where they remained for many generations. When the population became too great for the canyon, a large group under the leadership of Mud Head left and continued their migration east.
There is another Havasupai oral tradition which tells that the people once lived near the Little Colorado River. However, conflicts with the Whaje (Apache) drove them from their home and they crossed the desert to the San Francisco Mountains. They did not find peace here, and so they continued their journey westward. They came to a canyon that cut across their path and they worked their way down to the floor where they found an oasis of green cut by a stream of blue water.
Agriculture
Like other Southwestern Indian nations, the Havasupai were farmers. In the bottom of Cataract Canyon (part of the Grand Canyon), the Havasupai raised corn, beans, melons, sunflowers, and squash. The fields were watered with a network of irrigation ditches. With regard to the irrigation ditches, Stephen Hirst, in his book I Am The Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People, reports:
“At least two—and perhaps as many as seven—centuries ago the Havasupai began constructing the irrigation ditches that now run along the base of the cliffs on each side of the creek. Many laterals branch in from these main ditches to feed the fields, especially on the west side of the creek where most of the farming land lies.”
Planting traditionally began in mid-April and harvesting started in June and continued until fall.
The Havasupai also farmed other springs along the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. These included Indian Garden (located below the present-day Grand Canyon Village), Santa Maria Spring (below Hermits Rest), Mohawk Canyon, and National Canyon.
Havasupai farms were considered private property belonging to the men, but if the field was not cultivated for a few years, then another family could claim the field.
Hunting and Gathering
The Havasupai were traditionally involved in agriculture during the summer and then in the fall they would move out of the canyon and onto the plateau. Here they would hunt deer, antelope, raccoon, squirrel, mountain sheep, and rabbit. Stephen Hirst reports:
“By the first snows the game would be fat, and the Havasupai say this is the only time one should kill a deer. Most families would kill but two or three deer and live on dried venison, rabbits, porcupines the rest of the winter.”
In hunting, Havasupai hunters would often use dogs. Among the birds hunted by the Havasupai, turkey, quail, and dove were considered the favorite.
The Havasupai gathered a number of wild plants, including mescal, juniper berries, yucca, mesquite pods, and pine nuts. They would also collect wild honey.
Trade
The Indian nations of the American Southwest did not live in isolation: trade routes used for millennia allowed for the free flow of goods both within the region and from distant Indian nations. The Havasupai traded basketry, foodstuffs, and skins to the Hopi, Navajo, Walapai, and Mohave. In return they received cotton goods, horses, pottery, jewelry, and buffalo hides. They also obtained seashells from the Pacific Ocean which they traded to other tribes. Stephen Hirst reports:
“Havasupai red paint was held sacred by many Indian people for ceremonial body painting and often found its way as far east as the Mississippi River.”
Housing
The Havasupai built two types of houses: a circular house and a rectangular house. The circular house used a framework of poles with the sides and dome-shaped roof thatched with bundles of willow branches. The rectangular house was built by placing four posts in the ground, then connecting these poles at the top with stringers. As with the circular house, the roof and sides would be thatched with willows.
Basketry and Pottery
Among the Havasupai basketry was an important craft. They made burden baskets, parching trays (flat baskets for winnowing and parching seeds), water bottles (smeared with pitch to make them waterproof), and containers for boiling food. In boiling food, the baskets were filled with water which was brought to a boil by adding hot rocks. The baskets were made with coiling and twining techniques. With regard to Havasupai baskets, anthropologist Bertha Dutton, in her book The Ranchería, Ute, and Southern Paiute Peoples: Indians of the American Southwest, reports:
“The burden baskets and water jugs had loops for carrying; these baskets were decorated with simple designs achieved by varieties of twining and the use of martynia, or devil’s claw.”
Havasupai women made pottery by coiling the wet clay, then smoothing it with a paddle and anvil. The pots were sun-dried for a day before being fired. Anthropologist Bertha Dutton reports:
“The vessels were brown, predominantly globular pots of course texture, unslipped and unpainted.”
Family and Children
One of the most important elements in the social organization of all societies is the family. With regard to the Havasupai, anthropologist Douglas Schwartz, in his chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians, reports:
“The sole component group in Havasupai society was the family, either nuclear or extended, which functioned as both an independent economic unit and a local residential group.”
The most common form of the Havasupai family was the patrilocal extended family, which included the married couple, their unmarried children, and their married sons and families.
There was no formal marriage among the Havasupai: when the couple wished to marry, the man would simply take up residence with the girl’s family. They would then live with her parents until they had a child or two. Then they would build a home near the man’s parents.
Havasupai infants were bound into cradleboards until they were four to six months old. Stephen Hirst writes:
“The cradleboard has a hoop that surrounds the infant’s head with flexible woven wands; if the cradleboard should fall forward when leaned against something, the hoop takes up the shock and protects the child.”
When the child was a year old, the parents would traditionally mix the child’s dried umbilicus with red ochre. This mixture would then be used to symbolically paint the child. According to Stephen Hirst:
“This ritual coating with the umbilicus helps link the child symbolically to his ancestry and ensures that he will follow the Havasupai way on his journey through life.”
In all societies, children acquire language without formal instruction. With regard to language acquisition among the Havasupai, Stephen Hirst reports:
“Adults do not use baby talk but speak to children in quite adult terms; as a result, Havasupai children of five or six display unusual maturity and sophistication in their conversation.”
While growing up, Havasupai children are admonished to follow the Havasupai way of generosity and respect. Children are not punished physically.
Among the Havasupai, children were usually not given names until they were between the ages of three and seven. These names usually referred to an amusing incident or a peculiar trait. A Havasupai girl’s ears are pierced shortly after birth.
Political Leadership
Among the Havasupai, six men were traditionally recognized as chiefs. Stephen Hirst writes:
“No one elected such leaders to their status in any formal sense; they simply had a following that took them seriously.”
All of these chiefs had equal status, but one would usually be selected to serve as tribal spokesman and discussion leader. With regard to the power of the Havasupai chiefs, anthropologist Bertha Dutton reports:
“They had little power, their principal duty being to give advice and to lead discussions.”
Indians 101
Twice each week Indians 101 looks at American Indian topics. Other tribal profiles from this series:
Indians 101: A Very Brief Overview of California's Achumawi Indians
Indians 101: A Short Overview of the Western Apache
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Caddo Indians
Indians 101: A very short overview of the Hualapai Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Mohave Indians
Indians 101: A Brief Overview of the Omaha Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the O'odham Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Ottawa Indians
