Oral History of the Yavapai by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780816549191
Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Saguaro blossoms hold promise of fruit, food for the Yavapai. 2011. Photo by Elias Butler.

In 1918 there was a big flu. People in Clarkdale pray to push it away. They sing and that’s how they pray to push it away. That time an old man told us, “Lots of people are going to die. Mexicans and Whites and everybody. But there is going to be only one Yavapai with it. Only one Yavapai lady is going to be with it.” And it is true. At Clarkdale and Cottonwood lots of Mexicans and Whites died. But only one Yavapai died there. This lady’s name was Lara. At Fort McDowell many Yavapai died. But at Clarkdale only one.

That old man, John Urki, he knew how to sing and he pushed the disease away from us. His Indian name is Ichiquama. He sings to the people all the time.

Ima, that means “dancing.” Sometimes we dance for fun, but sometimes people dance for something. They ask something, pray for something. They make a dance and it is kind of praying. To ask things from God. We pray from the dance.

For anything that comes out, we dance for that. For the rain, for the crop, for deer. Food comes up good when we dance. Aqua paya, that means “something comes up.” That’s how we call the dance to make food grow good. Cactus fruit will come up big when we dance. Mesquite beans will be thick. Now there is nothing. People don’t know how to ask for it.

Aquaka ima, that’s what we call the deer dance. They used to hold two sticks in the front and use them like legs. Jump like deer. They have a good song for that, too. Pakakaya, he still knew how to dance that. I think he was the last one who do that.

They also had a dance for the buffaloes. Before the White people came around, there were lots of big buffaloes down in the desert. Not up in the mountains, but down there. People hunted the buffaloes with a spear. They had their own dance for that.

Sometimes my people made the Crown Dance. Kakaka ima, we call that. The crown dance, the first time, the Kakaka teach the people. The Kakaka are just like Indians. But little, tiny Indians. They live in the mountains. Four Peaks, Superstition Mountain, Granite Mountain up there in Prescott. They can get in and out the mountain. They are just like the wind, like air. You can’t see them all the time. But it can happen sometimes that you see them. But quick like that and you can see them no more. They talk Yavapai. But they don’t talk to everybody. Just to the teacher, the leader. Like medicine men. The Kakaka never die. They are 2000 or 3000 years old. They were around before us. The Kakaka were first. They were first in this country here. I think the Kakaka are here before Sakarakaamche. They are around all the time. All the tribes know about the Little People.

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