RUSSELL] NAME 1 9 



(lays of transcontinental railroads often owed their lives to the friendly 

 bnnvn-skinned fanners whom they met upon the Gila." This tribe 

 rendered notable assistance as scouts in the long contest with the 

 Apaches. Even had tlu'\- remainetl neutral, they would have deserved 

 friendly consideration on the part of the wliit(>s, l)ut ns tli(\v fought 

 bravely in the latter's behalf justice rc(|uires that their services be 

 accoriled proper recognition. 



The Pimas live in two river valleys that are strewn with the ruins of 

 prehistoric buildings and other evidences of the presence of a consider- 

 able population that had attained probal)lythe liighest degree of civil- 

 ization or culture to be found north of Mexico. The present race has 

 been variously regarded as the descendants of the one that has disa|)- 

 peared, as having anuilgamated with it, and as being entirely inde- 

 pendent of it. The determination of the exact relationsliip of the two 

 groups has been held constantly in mind during the course of these 

 investigations. Clo.sely connected with this principal problem are 

 those problems of the extent and chrection of the migrations of men 

 and culture toward the Sierra Madre, the Rio Grande, the Pacific, and 

 the plateau to the northward. Was this a center of culture or was it 

 a halting place in the march of clans? 



HISTORY 



Name 



The tribe knoA\'n as the Pimas was so named by the Spaniards 

 early in the liistory of tlie relations of the latter with them. The 

 oldest reference to the name witliin the writer's knowledge is that by 

 Velarde: "The Pima nation, the name of wliich has been adopted t)y 

 the Spaniards from the native idiom, call themselves Otama or in the 

 plural Ohotoma; the word pima is repeated by them to ex])rcss 

 negation."* Tliis "negacion" is expressed by such words as pia, 

 "none," piatc, "none remaining," pimatc, "I do not know" or "I 

 do not understand." In the last the .soimd of tc is often reduced to a 

 faint click. The Americans comipted this to "Pimos," and while this 

 form of the word is now used only by the illiterate living in the neigh- 

 borhood of the tribe, it is fairly common in the literature referring to 

 them. They call themselves A'-a'tam, "men" or "the people," and 

 when they wish to distinguish themselves from the Papago and other 



o Sylvester Mowry, lieutenant in the Third .\rtiUery, in an address before the American Geographical 

 Society, in New York, February .3, 1859 (Arizona and Sonora. .Id ed., 30). said: "Much as we pride our- 

 selves upon our superior government, no measures [the I'nited States Government have [sic] since, 

 under urgent pressure of the writer, made some small appropriations for the Pima Indians] have I>een 

 taken to continue our friendly relations with the rinios; and to our shame l>e it said, it is only to the 

 forbearance of these Indians that we owe the safety of the life of a single American citizen in central or 

 western .\rizona. or the carriage of the mails overland to the Pacific." 



6 ''La nacion pima.cuyo nonibre han tornado los espafioles en su nativo idioma, se llama Otama y en 

 plural Ohotoma, de la palabra Pima repctida en ellos per ser su negacion." Documentos para la 

 Historic de Mexico, 4th ser., i, 345. 



