ABSTRACT
The Yuma are an Amerindian people residing in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. They divide into several subgroups with common cultural traits. The Yuma who occupy Mexican territory include the Cucapá (136 persons), the Kumiai (96), the Pai-pai (360), and the Kiliwa (41); all four groups have been in existence for hundreds of years. That each group’s language has words and names for the other groups shows that intergroup communication has occurred for generations. Joseph Greenberg (1987:381) places the Esselen-Yuman language in the Hokan family of the Northern Amerind phylum. Data from colonial chroniclers to present-day ethnographers confirms that the Yuma groups have maintained similar cultures. In the beginning, they were hunter-gatherers with a militaristic tradition that made their colonization difficult. Today, they are farmers, cattlemen, and laborers.
