Marquez said today Yavapai elders are passing quickly. But when she becomes discouraged, she remembers advice she was given. Children are going to dream on the songs. The children are going to bring back the history. Now, Yavapai plan immersion language programs for schools and day camps, where only Yavapai is spoken.
Language is the key.
We were forbidden to speak our language. They forbade us to practice our culture. Vaughn said of the Yavapai language whose root is Yumen, like Havasupai, Hualapai, Colorado River Indian Tribes and others. In recent years, Camp Verde, Fort McDowell and Prescott Yavapai reconnected with Pai Pai relatives in Baja California, Mexico, where land loss and murders in a region of drug trafficking are devastating the people. Yavapai in Arizona funded a new water system for Pai Pai.