ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of the long-term, recurrent relocation experiences of a North American Indian tribe, the Yavapai of Arizona and discusses the nature of Yavapai resistance to such relocation. The Yavapai, a Yuman-speaking tribe, originally occupied all of central and most of western Arizona, covering an area of almost ten million acres. Kweyokopaya, or southeastern Yavapai, ranged from the Mogollon Rim to the Verde River south of the East Fork to the Pinal Mountains. Tolkopaya, or western Yavapai, occupied the huge area between Prescott and the Colorado River as far south as Yuma. The exact nature of the social and political organization of the Yavapai in precontact and early contact times is open to much speculation. Fort McDowell was a military post that had lost significance after all the Yavapai had been sent to San Carlos, and in 1890 it had been abandoned.
