The Gila River Tribe

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The Gila River Indian Community is an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona, lying adjacent to the south side of the city of Phoenix, within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in Pinal and Maricopa counties. Gila River Indian Reservation was established in 1859, and the Gila River Indian Community formally established by Congress in 1939. The community is home for members of both the Akimel O’otham (Pima) and the Pee-Posh (Maricopa) tribes.

The reservation has a land area of 583.749 sq mi (1,511.902 km²) and a 2000 Census population of 11,257. It is made up of seven districts along the Gila River and its largest communities are Sacaton, Komatke, Santan, and Blackwater.

Tribal administrative offices and departments are located in Sacaton. The Community operates its own telecom company, electric utility, industrial park and healthcare clinic, and publishes a monthly newspaper. 

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Gila River Tribal History

In 1846, southern Arizona fell under the influence of the United States following the Mexican-American War. In 1848, gold was discovered in California and tens of thousands of ill prepared men streamed across America heading toward dreams of riches. One of the primary routes was across southern Arizona. Between 1849 and 1851, an estimated 60,000 travelers arrived among our peaceful people, many starving or near death from dehydration and/or wounds inflicted in battle by the warring Apache to the east and the Yuman tribes to the west of our lands. Here the travelers rested and ate well, enjoying our bounty of wheat, corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelon, squash, peas and other foods. Indeed, one grateful member of the Mormon Battalion wrote in his journal in I846, en route from New Mexico to California to secure that state during the Mexican American War, “They are a noble race.” And wrote Lt. Sylvester Mowry in 1857, “Their stores of wheat and corn have supplied many a starved emigrant, and restored his broken down animals.”

We were also hospitable to other tribes as well. In the 1840s (though some sources suggest this occurred as early as the mid 1700s), the Akimel O’otham offered refuge to the Maricopa tribe, a Yuman tribal people who had been driven eastward from the lower Colorado River area by other Yuman tribes. The Maricopa, who called themselves the “Pee Posh,” settled in with the Akimel O’otham, and to this day we share the space and resources of the Gila River lands. In I854, the Gadsden Purchase officially made southern Arizona part of a United States Territory. In appreciation for the important role the Akimel O’otham played in America’s westward expansion, in 1859 Congress established the first reservation in Arizona, encompassing 372,000 acres along the Gila River. In 1862, putting our agricultural skills to work, our people grew more than one million pounds of wheat, most of which we sold. Our prospects looked good.

However, our lifeblood -Gila River water - was cut off in the 1870s and 1880s by construction of upstream diversion structures and dams by non-Native farmers, and our farming was largely wiped out. From 1880 to 1920 or so, we faced mass famine and starvation. The federal government stepped in and doled out canned and processed food by the ton. The change in diet proved disastrous, leading to extremely high rates of obesity and diabetes-a condition we still face today. With almost no jobs available on the reservation, and the loss of our cash crops, our people faced widespread poverty as well. Alcoholism raised its ugly head, and our people experienced the loss of certain cultural and artistic traditions and rituals. It was the darkest moment in our long history.

But, we proved resilient and eked out a marginal existence for several precarious decades. Conditions finally began to improve in the 1930s, when the U.S. government completed Coolidge Dam on the upper Gila River, creating the San Carlos Reservoir. The project included a canal and pipe system to deliver some of this lake water to our reservation, restoring a portion of our farming practices. This was the beginning of a long climb out of the economic trenches. Men began to find work off the reservation following World War I and World War II as the introduction of cars made travel to booming Phoenix possible. Eventually, small businesses began to appear on the reservation as well, launched both by the community and individual tribal members. Schools, health centers and new housing appeared. Income levels slowly grew and famine was erased. These trends continue today as the Gila River Indian Community looks toward a promising future.

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