Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
Maricopa people were small bands living along the lower Gila and
Colorado rivers. Each of these bands migrated eastward at different
times. The Xalichidom (Maricopa of Lehi), left around 1825-1830. The
last of these bands is said to have left the Colorado River in the
late 1830's. Eventually these bands came together and became
collectively known as the Maricopa. As they migrated eastward, they
came upon the Pima tribe and established a relationship. Both tribes
provided protection against the Yuman and Apache tribes.
Some Maricopa's (mostly Xalychidom Piipaash) began migrating to the
area now known as Lehi on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian
Community, because water from the Gila River was becoming scarce. When
the Salt River Indian Community was established in 1879, the
reservation included both tribes within these boundaries.
Though contemporary southwestern
pottery styles are diverse, their production is rooted in cultural
traditions unchanged since prehistoric times. As long as 2000 years
ago, the Hohokam inhabited much of what is now south central
Arizona. They prospered here through about AD 1450. By the late 1600s,
according to Spanish accounts, this area was home to other people.
Little is known from the archaeological record about the intervening
years. However, oral traditions of the O’odham speak of ties to the
ancient Hohokam. Examination of prehistoric Hohokam pottery lends
support to these oral traditions. Although artistic forms have
changed, it appears that the methods of pottery manufacture have not
changed much in nearly 2000 years.
By the 1700s, south-central Arizona was
home to the Akimel O’odham, (Pima) along the Gila River, the Tohono
O’odham (Papago) to the south, and the different tribes of Yuman-speaking
people to the southwest. Some of these Yuman people, the Piipash
(Maricopa), moved steadily eastward along the Gila, settling among the
Akimel O’odham by the mid-1800s. The two tribes, although separated by
language, were united in their mutual defense, and in many aspects of
their culture. The pottery produced by Piipash and O'odham artisans
during the rest of the century is correspondingly similar.
Through the 1800's, Southwestern
potters invested most of their time and skill in making pottery for
everyday use. Ceramic containers were needed for water and food
storage, and for cooking. Later, as commercially produced containers
came into southwestern markets, potters needed to make fewer
functional vessels. They began to explore new vessel forms, some
designed for commercial sale to tourists.
New pottery forms and styles continue
to be explored. Artistic traditions, passed down through the
generations, are represented today at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa
Indian Community, the Gila River Indian Community, the Ak-Chin Indian
Community, and the Tohono O’odham Nation.
The Halchidhoma Maricopa or Pi-posh
women near Lehi, Arizona constructed clay pottery for sale to Anglo
settlers, and eventually these items evolved into popular tourist
souvenir items. The styles and forms of pottery underwent several
revivals, as standards for design and techniques of production
improved to meet consumer tastes. Today, the resulting red and black
designs combined with cream slip and scroll line pots are recognized
as the distinctive Maricopa style. Other pottery styles include human
effigy pots and animal effigy pots reflecting the desert fauna of the
Salt River landscape.
Between 1937-1940, regional and local museums along with concerned
supporters worked with the local Maricopa potters to establish the
Maricopa Pottery Cooperative. The potters included Ida Redbird, their
spokeswoman, and approximately nineteen other women. Their goal was to
build a retail market for their work by establishing a cooperative
relationship with brokers, dealers, and buyers of their work. Despite
strong support for the work, the tradition of Maricopa pottery making
has not flourished, unlike the Pueblo pottery market in New Mexico.
Maricopa pottery is again in danger of disappearing as a living
cultural art form.