Pima

Pima, like other peoples of the Oodham group, speak the Oodham language. There are some dialectical differences, including vocabulary (especially neologisms regarding contemporary phenomena), however, all native speakers understand each other freely.

The Akimel-Oodham tribe is included in the group of closely related Oodham tribes (lit. "people"). All these tribes are supposedly descended from carriers of the Hohokam archaeological culture, whose name in the Oodham language literally means “ancestors”.

Akimel-oodham lived along the rivers Hila, Salty (Arizona), Yaki and Sonora in ranch settlements. Usually the main family house with a kitchen was in the center, and round reed houses were grouped around it. Pima lived matrilocally. Pima sometimes also lived in seasonal dwellings to care for crops.

The Akimel-Oodham tribe lived a mixed subsistence economy, combining agriculture with hunting, gathering and trade with other tribes. Agriculture depended on a large-scale system of irrigation facilities, built back in the pre-Columbian period and existing for many centuries.

Pima were skilled textile workers, made complex baskets and woven clothes.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the main enemies of the Pima tribe were Apaches , who raided Pimanian villages because of competition for natural resources, although sometimes Apaches concluded a truce. Despite periodic conflicts with the Apaches and other tribes, in general Pima were peaceful people.

For the first time, the Spanish missionary Marcos de Nisa met the Pima tribe in 1539, and later the missionaries Eusebio Cino and Francisco Garces visited the tribe. In the second half of the 17th century, the Spaniards founded forts, ranches and mines in the Pima. The cruel treatment of the Spaniards with the local population led to unsuccessful uprisings that took place between 1695-1751.

In the middle of the 19th century, English-speaking settlers arrived in the Hila River valley, displacing the Pima people on a reservation that made up only a small part of their former lands, spread over 1.4 million hectares. Since the reservation territory could not feed the Pima tribe, some migrated to the north and settled along the Salt River. Later, the Pima-Maricopa Salt River Indians Community was formed there.

Currently, most Pima Indians live in the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). In addition, in historical times, a large group of pimas migrated north and populated the coast of the Salt River; in those places, the Indian community of the pima marikopa of the Salt River formed over time. Both communities are confederations of two different cultures - Pima and Marikopa .

Currently, the Hila River Native American Community is a sovereign tribe covering over 2,200 km in central Arizona. The community is divided into several districts, each of which has a local administration. The community is governed by an elected governor (currently Bill Rhodes), a lieutenant governor (deputy governor, currently Jennifer Ellison Ray) and a tribal council of 18 members.

The community’s economy is dominated by the entertainment industry — a casino (three in total), golf courses, a resort, a Wild West-style theme park, as well as industrial parks, landfills, and the supply of building materials. In addition, the community has developed agriculture; It has its own farms and develops agricultural projects.

The Native American community of the Pima Maricopa Salt River is smaller. It is governed by an elected president and tribal council. The local economy is also dominated by entertainment, industrial projects, landfills and the supply of building materials.

Among the Pima Indians living in the United States recorded the highest percentage of type 2 diabetes in the world. This problem is only partially due to genetics, since the incidence of this type of diabetes is practically absent among the Pima Indians living in Mexico. The trigger for this disease was the destruction of the traditional tribal economy and the transition to a new diet. ^[3]

• Ira Hayes is a Marine, a participant in World War II .

• Pima // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes . New York: Checkmark, 1999. ISBN 0-8160-3964-X
• Smithsonian. "Handbook of North American Indians. v. 10 Southwest. ”Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1983.
• Pritzker, Barry. A Native American Encyclopedia . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-513877-5 .

• Gila River Indian Community , official website