page_title: Irataba
section_title: Colorado River Indian Reservation
hierarchical_section_title: Irataba / Colorado River Indian Reservation
caption_attribution_description: English: Location Map of the Colorado River's Indian (Indigenous peoples/Native American) Reservations' areas. Boundaries verified in comparison to figure 2 of [1]: "STATUS OF MINERAL RESOURCE INFORMATION FOR THE COLORADO RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION ARIZONA AND CALIFORNIA", Administrative Report BIA-50 1978, Jocelyn A. Peterson U.S. Geological Survey; L. G. Nonini U.S. Bureau of Mines, Prepared by U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Mines for U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Road positions verified via [2] at Colorado River Indian Tribes website
context_page_description: Irataba was a leader of the Mohave Nation, known as a mediator between the Mohave and the United States. He was born near the Colorado River in present-day Arizona. Irataba was a renowned orator and one of the first Mohave to speak English, a skill he used to develop relations with the United States.
  Irataba first encountered European Americans in 1851, when he assisted the Sitgreaves Expedition. In 1854, he met Amiel Whipple, then leading an expedition crossing the Colorado. Several Mohave aided the group, and Irataba agreed to escort them through the territory of the Paiute to the Old Spanish Trail, which would take them to southern California. Noted for his large physical size and gentle demeanor, he later helped and protected other expeditions, earning him a reputation among whites as the most important native leader in the region.
  Against Irataba's advice, in 1858 Mohave warriors attacked the first emigrant wagon train to use Beale's Wagon Road through Mohave country. As a result, the U.S. War Department sent a detachment under Colonel William Hoffman to pacify the tribe.
context_section_description: The completion of Fort Mohave began the process of military subjugation of the Mohave, and the next step was the establishment of reservations. In 1863, Charles Debrille Poston, the first Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the Arizona Territory, called a conference between the Chemehuevi and Irataba's faction of the Mohave, in which he convinced them to form an alliance with the US against the Apache. The treaty was never ratified by the US Congress but formed an important step in establishing friendly relations between the Mohave and the US government following the military campaigns and the establishment of Fort Mohave.
  Poston promoted the idea of establishing a reservation in the southern portion of Mohave country. Many Mohave opposed the proposed location and instead argued for a smaller parcel further north in the Mohave Valley, which had more fertile land. With Irataba and an engineer, Poston traveled down the Colorado River to survey a location. In August 1864 the post commander at Fort Mohave, Captain Charles Atchisson, stated that Irataba was against the proposed location. In September 1864, Poston gave the impression that Irataba was in favor of it. In a letter to General Richard C. Drum, Atchisson reported that Irataba and four Mohave leaders were unhappy with how Poston was handling the situation:
  Mr. Poston had marked out a reservation for the Mojave Indians in the upper part of the La Paz valley on the East side of the Colorado River ... Iratabu says this reservation is covered with sand and unfit for cultivation and the Indians are opposed to giving up their good lands in the Mojave Valley and moving to it ... Iratabu says if he can have the valley below the Fort Mojave reserved for the home of the Indians, he is willing to give up all claims to lands on other parts of the river, and bring his Indians from La Paz and other points to this valley ... I have full confidence in the friendship of Iratabu towards white men, but not in his tribe, if troubles with any other Indians should occur, while he has more influence over them than any other chief, his control over them is not complete, and they are as likely to lead him (as he is them).
  Faced with Irataba's disagreement, Poston promised that the US government would assist the Mohave with installing an irrigation system at the Colorado that would make most of the reservation arable. This apparently convinced Irataba, who traveled to the Colorado River Valley with about 800 people, almost a fifth of the entire Mohave Nation. General James Henry Carleton thought a reservation was unnecessary, and engineer Herman Ehrenberg disagreed with Poston's proposed location on the basis that the soil was too alkaline for farming, the need for irrigation too great, and the task of raising the river too insurmountable. Nonetheless, on March 3, 1865,  Congress established the Colorado River Indian Reservation at Poston's proposed location. Ehrenberg's concerns proved valid, and neither Poston nor any subsequent US authority was willing to dedicate the considerable resources required to make the location suitable for farming. The reservation was established without a treaty having been established between the Mohave and the US government.   The boundaries were expanded and clarified by executive orders issued by  President Grant in 1873, 1874 and 1867.
  Most of the Mohave refused to leave their ancestral homelands for the reservation, but Irataba's conviction that the reservation was their best option marked the beginning of a rift between his group and those who stayed behind to follow Homoseh quahote, the nation's hereditary leader. According to an eyewitness account by Chooksa homar, Irataba explained his decision to move:
  "You get angry sometimes; I know you are brave men and think you can beat anybody. You thought you could beat the whites: you said so. I told you you could not; the whites have beaten all tribes; all are friends to them now. You did not listen to what I said when I told you that. You did what you thought, and many have got killed. If the soldiers come, 
caption: The Colorado River Indian Reservation
exif: {}