SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 199 
ments in the Gila Valley, but some who remained in the general 
region were the ancestors of the Pima, Papago, Yuma, Chemehuevi, 
Mohave, and Maricopa tribes of the present day. 
In the times of the Conquistadores and the missionaries most of the 
sedentary Indians of Papagueria lived on adjacent ranches and in 
villages palisaded for protection against roving Apaches or other 
enemies. It is stated that there were about 6,000 of these Indians 
and 100 rancherias in the lower Gila region in 1742. There was 
constant warfare among the tribes or among allied tribes. For the 
white man there seems to have been a hearty welcome until ill treat- 
ment roused hatred that prevailed for a long time. The Pima In- 
dians, however, have always been friendly to the white settler and 
helped to fight the Apaches, who were hereditary enemies of the 
sedentary tribes, stealing their crops and wives. Now Papago, 
Maricopa, and Pima Indians live in harmony on the reservations 
south of Phoenix. The Pimas and Maricopas have the first rights on 
the irrigation waters of the Gila River, which they use extensively for 
the more common field crops. 
The lower Gila region was never the scene of such extensive and 
bloody Indian warfare as other parts of Arizona, because of the more 
peaceful character of its aboriginal inhabitants and partly because of 
the scarcity and poverty of the white settlers in the early days. 
Two miles north of the Casa Grande ruins the broad bed of the Gila 
River is crossed on a long bridge. In the main channel there is 
usually considerable water, which is allowed to flow from the Coolidge 
Reservoir to sustain irrigation, together with some ground water and 
seepage of local origin. The Gila River is one of the major streams of 
the Southwest, for it drains an area of about 7,200 square miles and is 
about 500 miles long. It rises in western New Mexico and crosses all 
of Arizona to join the Colorado River just above Yuma, receiving 
many large affluents, including the San Simon, San Pedro, and Santa 
Cruz Rivers, which are crossed by the railroad in eastern and central 
Arizona. Up to 1853 (the time of the Gadsden Purchase) the Gila 
River was the boundary between the United States and Mexico. 
The Gadsden Purchase brought into the United States the portion of 
Arizona south of the Gila River, an area of 40,000 square miles (see 
map, p. 151), at a cost of $10,000,000. The international boundary 
was surveyed in 1855, and the United States took possession in 1856 
by sending troops to Tucson. The river was called Rio del Nombre 
de Jestis by Ofiate in 1604. The heroic Father Kino in 1694 applied 
the name Rio Grande de Gila to the river, but generally called it 
Rio Grande. The Indians on its headwaters were called Xila or 
Gila, and this name was applied by the Spaniards to a savory but 
bony fish called matalote by the Indians. It is stated also that 
there is a Yuman word Hila, meaning salty stream. Later, Kino’s 
name was given to the entire stream. 
