MENU ABOUT ABOUT > HISTORY HISTORY Pre History First there was the land and the river – the Gila River, which flowed westward across south-central Arizona and the surprisingly fertile Sonoran Desert. Some 6,000 years ago, various cultural groups collectively labeled the Archaic peoples, who lived by hunting and gathering along the river’s banks and adjoining up land terrain, wandered into this realm. Circa 300 B.C., these early inhabitants were joined by peoples from central Mexico, transformed by concepts and technology introduced from the south. From this merger arose the Huhugam people-our ancestors-who conducted trade over great distances and became superb farmers. Fed by waters of the Gila River, they constructed some 500 miles of large canals (on average 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide!) linked to smaller ditches, so watering thousands of acres of farmland. Transforming the desert into gardens, the Huhugam grew cotton for clothing, rugs and other textile products, and crops of corn, melons, beans, fruits, tobacco and other foods. They supplemented these crops with game, mesquite beans, agave, cactus fruit and other foods gathered locally from the wilds or in trade, enabling them to settle into large population centers. Here their arts flourished, including production of fine pottery and jewelry, the latter worked with imported shell and other materials. During the Huhugam’s “Classic Period” (circaA.D.1150-1450), this lifestyle apparently supported between 50,000 and 60,000 people, with some villages holding several thousand residents and containing large public buildings (formed largely of adobe), religious centers and sunken clay courts where an exciting, ritualistic ball game was played. But around A.D.1450, for unknown reasons, the urban centers were abandoned. Perhaps there was an extended drought, or pressures brought by the arrival of new Native peoples to the region -foremost the fierce, nomadic Apache-or a loss of public faith in leadership. At any rate, the Huhugam culture dispersed. Early Contact The missionaries converted many of our people to the Roman Catholic faith, and introduced new crops, cattle, horses, sheep and goats, and new technologies – which were quick to adapt to our own uses. But we were largely ignored, and life largely went on little changed, during the Spanish era and in the period following Mexico’s break from Spain 1821.The situation, however, took a radical turn in the next historical phase. 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES ABOUT THE TRIBE 300 B.C. to Today > DISCOVER OUR CULTURE A Proud Heritage > GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY P.O. Box 97 | Sacaton, AZ 85147 info@gilariver.org GILA RIVER GOVERNANCE CENTER 525 West Gu U Ki | Sacaton, AZ 85147 WWW.MYGILARIVER.COM GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS DISTRICTS ENTERPRISES OPPORTUNITIES ABOUT CONTACT | PARTNERS | TERMS | PRIVACY | SITE MAP © 2015 Gila River Indian Community. All rights reserved..