Deverenx] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 107 



Thougli I had been told beforehand that one of her hands had been amputated, 

 she concealed her crippled arm so unobtrusively that not until she herself 

 mentioned her amputation did I notice it. Originally I had hoped to obtain 

 only a brief account of her psychiatric illness. O : otc spoke so freely, however, 

 that it was easy to rearrange her statements into an autobiography. All state- 

 ments preceded by (Q), or by a question in brackets, were made in reply to a 

 direct question, none of which was resented. Remarks in parentheses are either 

 explanatory comments or else data obtained later on from informants Pulyi : k 

 and Hama : Utce :. 



Autohlography of 0:otc: 



My name is O : otc and I belong to the O : otc gens. I am about 27 years old 

 and my present age-grade is thinyeak, which means "woman who has borne 

 children." I am a fullblood Mohave Indian. 



I was born on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, near Parker, Ariz. 

 My mother died 12 months after I was born. I was not nursed, but fed on 

 "tea." (This statement may refer to the period after her mother's death.) 

 After my mother's death I went to live with a childless couple at Needles, Calif., 

 both of whom were related to me. Except for the time I spent in boarding 

 schools, I lived with them until I was about 12 or 13 years old. Both of my 

 foster parents have died since then. I did not grow up with my father C. M., 

 and my relations with him are indifferent. I don't bother him and he does 

 not bother me. We meet only once in a while. (Pulyi :k stated that 0:otc 

 did not live with her father because they had "fights" — i. e., did not agree.) 



I have quite a few siblings and half-siblings on my father's side, the oldest 

 of whom is my half sister A. She lives at Needles and is married to F, W. 

 I am very fond of her and she does everything she can for me. Then there 

 are two older full siblings: my older brother P. and my older sister F., who 

 is the one I see most frequently. She is married to Kamtoska Huanyeily (who 

 was present during this conversation). Then there are my two half sisters by 

 my father's third wife: Es. and El. I get along all right with my sister El. 

 She is married to N. S., who, like Kamtoska Huanyeily, is a grandnephew of your 

 old friend Tcatc. Before marrying N. S. she bore a girl child to someone else — 

 to some fellow at Los Angeles, a Cherokee Indian. Now she Is man-led to N. S. 

 and her daughter stays with her. [Knowing that her half sister Es. Is reputed 

 to be a kamalo : y, and is alleged to have helped her husband to kill a witch 

 (Devereux, 1948 f, and Case 104), I made a point of inquiring how she got along 

 with Es. The reply was somewhat curt.] I get along all right with Es. too. Last 

 of all, there are the three children of my father's present wife : my half sisters 

 R. and F. and my half brother C. All my siblings are alive. 



(Q) When I was a child I never played with my siblings or half -siblings. They 

 were raised by different people. The people who raised me had no children of 

 their own and I was pretty much brought up among adults, all the time. How- 

 ever, I did play, now and then, with the children of various neighbors. 



(Q) The first thing I remember about myself is that I went with my foster 

 parents to look for mesquite nuts. 



(Q) My second earliest memory is about a carnival at Needles. Or maybe 

 It was a circus. The noise frightened me, so I began to cry and got spanked 

 for crying. I was still pretty smaU at that time. 



I went to the Fort Mohave boarding school. The only time I was really 

 ill was when my hand was caught in a mangle and had to be amputated. I was 

 only a small girl at that time. After I hurt my arm, my father wanted me 

 to come to Parker. I came and stayed with him for 3 or 4 years and went 



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