The original inhabitants of Arizona include the people who own the gila bend reservation who are of Pima origins. To learn more about the indians who own the Gila Bend Reservation, please read on! These Athabascan people live in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Apache Indians are closely related to the Navajo, and in fact, some even suggest that the most westerly Apaches are in fact Navajo. They claim the western Apache language is more closely related to the language of the Navajo. Since there are Athabascan tribes who have a totemic system, that leads me to believe that all Athabascan tribes are closely related to the Anishinabe (the Chippewa's or Ojibwa's), and all other Algonquian tribes of the eastern United States, where the totemic system was a major part of daily life. Since the Algonquians were once very, very long ago civilized (they are the Atlanteans), that leads me to believe that the Apache Indians were civilized long ago as well. Both the Apache Indians and Navajo, have every reason to claim that the ancient civilized ruins located in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah are the ruins of their ancestors civilized settlements. Of course, that means that the Apache Indians and the Navajo are closely related to the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico.
After the white Spaniards invaded and conquered the civilized Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States (around 1600), the Pueblo Indian population was decimated by the diseases brought over by the invading whites.It could have been possible that groups of Pueblo Indians fled into the nearby rugged terrain after the whites conquered the civilized Pueblo Indians, and they became the well known Apache Indians and Navajo Indians. Anyway, the defiant Pueblo Indians (the Apache and Navajo) took to the surrounding rugged terrain and fiercely fought the invading whites and the Indians who had been subjugated by the whites, or allied with the whites. This war of resistance against the invading Spanish whites lasted up til Mexico gained independence from Spain. Though Mexico did gain independence from Spain, the defiant Pueblo Indians (the Apache and Navajo) continued their war against Mexico. After the Mexican War concluded, Mexico lost a lot of land to the Americans, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
In Arizona, the Spanish conquered the Pima Indians, including the Papago and other Pima civilized Indians, of southern and central Arizona, and northern Mexico. Like the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, the civilized Pima Indians rose up to overthrow white Spanish rule, but their success was only momentarily. It is also likely that many of the civilized Pima Indians fled into the rugged terrain of northern Arizona and New Mexico, and into the central and southern mountains of those two States, and also into the mountainous and rugged terrain of northern Mexico. They had to resort to living a nomadic way of life, which was very much unlike their highly civilized way of life, but they were stubborn and proud.
With the United States now in control, the defiant Pueblo Indians (the Apache and Navajo) still continued to fiercely defend their freedom and land, and in fact, the Apache Indians would only increase their raids on the invading white Americans as time progressed on. As for the Pueblo Indians who had been conquered and subjugated by the white Spaniards, they rose up in the late 17th century to gain their independence briefly, but the white Spaniards returned and brought the defiant Pueblo Indians back under white subjugation. It may have been during the Pueblo Rebellion of the late 17th century, when the population of the Apache Indians and Navajo Indians greatly increased. After Mexico and the United States assumed control over the Pueblo Indian Kingdoms, the subjugated Pueblo Indians peacefully agreed to the terms set down by the Mexicans and Americans.
By the 1860s, the invading American whites had started to settle down in Arizona and New Mexico, but their numbers were small (most white Americans were going to California), yet would increase after the Civil War. With the increasing numbers of white Americans starting to settle down in Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas, the defiant Pueblo Indians (the Apache and Navajo) became very concerned about their freedom and land, and started to send large numbers of their brave warriors out to wage war on white American civilians and white American military troops. In Mexico, the Lipan Apache were prone to make raids on the whites of western Texas and northern Mexico. Mexico responded to the Lipan Apache raids by requesting of the Cherokee, Chippewa's, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa's, Potawatomi and Seminole who fled to Mexico in the 1830s and 1840s, for their military aid against the Lipan Apache, which they willingly agreed to.
However, by the 1860s the Lipan Apache and Cherokee, Chippewa's, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa's, Potawatomi and Seminole, and Mexico (to a degree - it likely happened some time after the Mexican War ended), changed their attentions to the American whites. The Cherokee, Chippewa's, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa's, Potawatomi and Seminole had already been waging war on the American whites of Texas by 1860, and probably since 1848, and they likely started to merge with the Lipan Apache to make raids on the American whites of Texas. During the early 1860s, the Americans started to eradicate the Indian Reservations they created in Kansas, and that led to the Kansan Indians (the Chippewa's, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa's and Potawatomi) agreeing to flee to Mexico to join up with the Chippewa's, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa's and Potawatomi already long established in Mexico.
With larger numbers of Kansan Indians now living in Mexico, the war already occurring in Texas increased. The Apache, Cherokee, Chippewa's, Delaware, Kickapoo, Ottawa's, Potawatomi, Seminole and Mexican bandits repeatedly sent their brave warriors into Texas to kill, rape, rob and steal what they could. Anywhere from 500 to more than 2,000 Texans were killed and large numbers of livestock were stolen. By the early 1880s that war was over, but the Apache Indians were still on the offensive over in Arizona, Mexico, New Mexico and western Texas.
During the late 1860s, the Americans created Reservations for the defiant Pueblo Indians (the Apache and Navajo) in Arizona and New Mexico, and for the most part it worked out, excepting certain groups of Apache and Navajo who refused to follow the orders of their leaders. Those defiant Pueblo Indian leaders were Cochise, Geronimo and Victoria. They led their brave warriors out on raids against the invading American whites, killing large numbers of them, and stealing large numbers of their livestock. By 1886 Geronimo surrendered and the last defiant Pueblo Indian resistance gave in. It will be very important for the current Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, to recognize the Apache Indians and Navajo Indians as being the defiant Pueblo Indians who refused to be subjugated by the whites, because after the first whites (the Spanish) subjugated the highly civilized Pueblo Indians, we know that there had to be defiant Pueblo Indians, and since the surrounding terrain was rugged, it offered to them, protection.
Of all known Native American civilizations in the America's, it is the highly advanced Pueblo Indian civilization that is the one that stands out. Those Pueblo kivas were in all likelihood bath houses which had indoor plumbing. There are so many Pueblo buildings which were constructed in a circle manner, it can only leave you in awe. Their architecture is in my opinon unequaled in the America's. Just looking at all the circlular constructed Pueblo buildings tells experts that the Pueblo Indian civilization was highly advanced. Yet the whites almost totally ignore them. Then the age of the Pueblo Indian civilization is far older than what the whites claim. The Pueblo Indian civilization is at least 11,500 years old or even much older.
Navajo Reservation (Navajo Reservation likely no longer exists) 24,553 sq. mi. - Hopi Reservation 2,436 sq. mi. - Total= 26,989 sq.mi.
Population is Navajo 298,215 (173,987 on Navajo Reservation) - Hopi 6,946 - Total= 306,626
Languages are Navajo and Hopi
The Navajo (western Apaches) Reservations (Arizona)
San Carlos 2,910 sq. mi. - Fort Apache 2,627 sq. mi. - Total= 5,537 sq. mi.
Population is San Carlos 9,385 - Fort Apache 12,429 - Total= 21,814
Language is Navajo
Gila Bend (Arizona)
Gila Bend Reservation 0.7 sq. mi.
Population is 0
Language is Pima
Gila River (Arizona)
Gila River Reservation 584 sq. mi.
Population is 9,540
Language is Pima
Papago (Arizona)
Papago Reservation 4,342 sq. mi.
Population is 8,730
Language is Pima
Pasqua Yaqui (Arizona)
Pasqua Yaqui Reservation 1 sq. mi.
Population is 2,412
Language is Pima
Payson (Arizona)
Payson Yavapai/Apache Reservation 0.1 sq. mi.
Population is 102
Languages are Pima and Navajo
Salt River (Arizona)
Salt River Reservation 80 sq. mi.
Population is 4,852
Language is Pima
San Xavier (Arizona)
San Xavier Reservation 111 sq. mi.
Population is 1,172
Language is Pima
Jicarilla Apache (New Mexico)
Jicarilla Reservation 1,286 sq. mi.
Population is 2,617
Language is Apache
Mescalero Apache (New Mexico)
Mescalero Reservation 719 sq. mi.
Population is 2,695
Language is Apache
Acoma Pueblo (New Mexico)
Acoma Reservation 416 sq. mi.
Population 2,590
Language Acoma
Cochiti Pueblo (New Mexico)
Cochiti Reservation 80 sq. mi.
Population 1,342
Language Keresan
Isleta Pueblo (New Mexico)
Isleta Reservation 328 sq. mi.
Population is 2,915
Language is Tiwa
Jemez Pueblo (New Mexico)
Jemez Reservation 138 sq. mi.
Population 1,750
Language is Towa
Laguna Pueblo (New Mexico)
Laguna Reservation 761 sq. mi.
Population is 3,731
Language is Keresan
Nambe Pueblo (New Mexico)
Nambe Reservation 32 sq. mi.
Population is 1,402
Language is Tewa
Picuris Pueblo (New Mexico)
Picuris Reservation 27 sq. mi.
Population is 1,882
Language is Tiwa
Pojoaque Pueblo (New Mexico)
Pojoaque Reservation 21 sq. mi.
Population is 2,556
Language is Tewa
Sandia Pueblo (New Mexico)
Sandia Reservation 39 sq. mi.
Population is 3,971
Language is Tiwa
San Felipe Pueblo (New Mexico)
San Felipe Reservation 79 sq. mi.
Population is 2,434
Language is Keresan
San Ildefonso Pueblo (New Mexico)
San Ildefonso Reservation 43 sq. mi.
Population is 1,499
Language is Tewa
San Juan Pueblo (New Mexico)
San Juan Reservation 26 sq. mi.
Population is 5,209
Language is Tewa
Santa Ana Pueblo (New Mexico)
Santa Ana Reservation 101 sq. mi.
Population is 593
Language is Keresan
Santa Clara Pueblo (New Mexico)
Santa Clara Reservation 77 sq. mi.
Population is 10,193
Language is Tewa
Santo Domingo Pueblo (New Mexico)
Santo Domingo Reservation 107 sq. mi.
Population is 2,992
Language is Keresan
Taos Pueblo (New Mexico)
Taos Reservation 156 sq. mi.
Population is 4,745
Language is Tiwa
Tesuque Pueblo (New Mexico)
Tesuque Reservation 27 sq. mi.
Population is 697
Language is Tewa
Zia Pueblo (New Mexico)
Zia Reservation 190 sq. mi.
Population is 637
Language is Keresan
Zuni Pueblo (Arizona and New Mexico)
Zuni Reservation 654 sq. mi.
Population is 7,412
Language is Zuni
Isleta Del Sur Pueblo (Texas)
Isleta Del Sur Reservation 0.2 sq. mi.
Population is 292
Language is Tiwa