Observations on the Indians of the Colorado River, California, by George Gibbs; Accompanying vocabularies of the Yuma and Mohave tribes 1856

These papers detail the lives, practices, and languages of the Yuma and Mohave tribes ca. 1856. Transcribe these notes to learn about the origins of these tribe names, how the tribes referred to themselves, and their social structure in the 1850s. Combining data received from Lts. John J. Milhau and Sylvester Mowry, as well as Olive Oatman who lived as an Apache captive from 1851-55, George Gibbs details the geography and lives of "Indian tribes in the neighborhood of Fort Yuma, California." Gibbs describes the tribes and their geographies and naming systems. A second part of this paper includes notes on the Yuma and "Indians of the Colorado" by Lt. Sylvester Mowry, including a sketch of tribes surrounding Fort Yuma, California. Learn more about the Native American populations and the researchers on the Colorado River from the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution.