Note 157 — Chapter VI · {I}[151]

Farnham refers here to tribes of the Yuman stock; see our volume xviii, p. 131, note 65. The Yuma proper are large physically, and finely proportioned. A recent writer declares that their men are nearly all over six feet in height—see Eugene J. Trippel, "Yuma Indians," in Overland Monthly, xiii, xiv. They are an agricultural people and depend largely upon the mesquite harvest, which Farnham refers to as black beans. The Yuma were made known to the Spaniards by the reports of the Franciscan padre, Francisco Garcés, who in 1771 visited them from his mission on the Gila. They received him with joy, and begged for his return; he revisited them in 1774. Shortly after this a Yuman chief called Palma was conveyed to Mexico. Awed by what he saw, he consented to baptism, and requested a mission in his own land. But it was not until 1779 that the foundation of a mission was laid, and in the following year two small colonies were begun—one on the site of Fort Yuma, and the other eight miles lower down. The natives, however, found their new neighbors troublesome and exacting, and rising in revolt July 17, 1781, with clubs massacred almost the entire garrison, including four missionary padres; see Coues, Francisco Garcés, i, pp. 10-24. Hence the appellation, "Club Indians." In 1857 the Yuma suffered a severe defeat from their neighbors, the Pima and Maricopa, wherein over a third of their warriors perished. They have generally been on friendly terms with the United States government, which has recently arranged a system of irrigation for their lands. About fifty-six Yuma still live on their reservation, and have a reputation for industry beyond that of most tribesmen; see U. S. Indian Commissioner's Report, 1904, pp. 158-161.—Ed.