Akimel O'odham
Traditional Territory
Central and southern Arizona and Northwestern Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, along the Gila, Salt, Yaqui, and Sonora rivers. The territory was called Pimería Alta by the Spanish.
Overview
The Akimel Oʼodham are an Indigenous people of the Americas living in the United States in central and southern Arizona and Northwestern Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua. The majority population of the two current bands lives in two reservations: the Gila River Indian Community and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Together with the related Tohono Oʼodham and Hia C-ed Oʼodham, they form the Upper Oʼodham.
Historical Notes
The article states the Akimel Oʼodham 'have lived on the banks of the Gila and Salt Rivers since long before European contact' and that Spanish missionaries recorded Pima villages in the region before 1688. First documented contact with non-Native Americans was recorded when they called themselves Othama. Father Kino visited their villages in 1694.
Federal Recognition
The Akimel O'odham hold federal recognition from the United States government, administered through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Federally recognized tribes have a government-to-government relationship with the United States and are eligible for services and protections under federal Indian law. There are currently 574 federally recognized tribal nations in the United States.
Indigenous peoples had inhabited North America for at least 15,000 years before European contact, developing complex societies across every region of the continent. The Mississippian culture, centered on the city of Cahokia near present-day St. Louis, reached its peak around 1100 AD with a population estimated at 10,000 to 20,000 — larger than contemporary London. The Ancestral Puebloans built multi-story stone complexes at Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde between the 9th and 13th centuries. The Iroquois Confederacy, formed between roughly 1450 and 1600, united five nations under a constitution that influenced later American democratic thinking. Across the eastern woodlands, the Great Plains, the Pacific Coast, and the Southwest, hundreds of distinct nations maintained sophisticated trade networks, agricultural systems, and governance structures. European contact beginning in the late 15th century introduced epidemic disease — smallpox, measles, influenza — which devastated Indigenous populations by an estimated 50 to 90 percent within a century.
Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia.
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