Irataba

Irataba
Irataba, c. 1864
Mohave leader
Preceded by	Cairook
Personal details
Born	c. 1814 Alta California, New Spain
Died	May 3 or 4, 1874 Colorado River Indian Reservation, Arizona Territory, United States
Cause of death	Uncertain
Known for	Irataba was the last independent head chief of the Mohave.

Irataba (also known as Yara tav, from eecheeyara tav; c. 1814 – May 3 or 4, 1874) was the last independent head chief of the Mohave Nation of Native Americans. He was born near the Colorado River in present-day Arizona. Renowned for his physical size and strength, Irataba was a great orator and one of the first Mohave to speak English, which he put to productive use in developing relations with the United States.

Irataba first encountered European Americans in 1849, when he and the Mohave head chief, Cairook met Captain Amiel Whipple, who was leading an expedition up the Colorado. Several Mohave assisted the group as they crossed, and Cairook and Irataba agreed to escort them though the territory of the Paiute to the Old Spanish Trail, which would take them to southern California. Irataba later helped other expeditions to pass through the territory while protecting them from the Paiutes. This earned him a reputation amongst whites living near the Colorado as the most important native leader in the region.

In 1858, the Mohave attacked the Rose-Baley Party, the first emigrant wagon train to traverse Beale's Wagon Road though Mohave country; Irataba was believed to have distanced himself from the encounter. The US War Department responded by building Fort Mohave near the site of the battle in 1859. They also imprisoned several Mohave leaders, including Chief Cairook. In June, Cairook was killed during an escape attempt, and Irataba was made principal chief of the Mohave Nation.

Irataba traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1864, for an official visit with members of the United States military and its government, including President Abraham Lincoln. In doing so, he became the first Native American from the Southwestern United States to meet a US president. He received considerable attention during his tours of the US capital, New York City, and Philadelphia, when he was given gifts such as medals, swords, photographs, and a silver-headed cane from Lincoln. When Irataba returned home and reported what he had seen, the Mohave did not believe him, and they accused him of lying. Soon afterward, an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Paiutes further eroded his influence. The Mohave never replaced Irataba as head chief; he was their last, and was mourned for a prolonged period after his death in 1874. The Irataba Society, a non-profit charity run by the Colorado River Indian Tribes, was established in 1970 in Parker, Arizona, where a sports venue, Irataba Hall, is also named after him.

Early life and background

Irataba or Yara tav, from the Mohave eecheeyara tav (meaning "beautiful bird"), also rendered as Irateba, Arateve, and Yiratewa, was born into the Neolge, or Sun Fire clan of the Mohave Nation of Native Americans c. 1814. He lived in present-day Arizona, near the Nevada and California border, in the Mohave Valley by a group of sharply pointed rocks known as the Needles, south of where the Grand Canyon empties into the Mohave Canyon. Irataba was the hereditary chief of the Huttoh Pah group of Mohave, who lived near the east bank of the Colorado River.

[Irataba] is a big Indian, literally as well as figuratively ... granitic in appearance as one of the Lower Coast mountains, with a head only less in size to a buffalo's and a lower jaw massive enough to crush nuts or crush quartz.

 —Daily Evening Bulletin, December 2, 1863

The Mohave caught fish in the Colorado and hunted game, such as rabbits and beaver, using bow and arrow or traps. In the spring, when the river flooded the bottomlands, they cultivated corn, watermelons, beans, gourds, tobacco, and pumpkins. The Mohave lived in groups of houses along the riverbank, and eschewed centralized villages. During the winter, they lived in half-buried dwellings built with cottonwood logs and arrowweed covered in earth. In the summer they lived in open-air flat-roofed houses known as ramadas, which provided shade. Higher status Mohave would cover their body in goose fat to help alleviate the summer heat.

According to Leanne Hinton, an expert in American Indian linguistics, Irataba was a great orator who was "an unusually eloquent and persuasive speaker" in his own language. She states that Irataba was "probably the first Mojave to learn English". Like many Mohave men, Irataba grew to be very tall, particularly by 19th-century standards; the United States Army estimated his height at approximately 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) in 1861. American author Albert S. Evans, writing in The Overland Monthly, referred to him as "the old desert giant". Irataba was appointed one of the tribe's sub-chiefs, serving under Chief Cairook, a man even taller than himself with a barefoot height of nearly 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm). Edward Carlson, a soldier based at Fort Mohave who knew Irataba well in the 1860s, described him as having a "very powerful frame, but very gentle and kind in demeanor", noting that he was "a staunch friend of the whites". According to anthropologist Lorraine M. Sherer, Irataba was what the Mohave called, kwanami, which means brave or fearless. In the opinion of anthropologist Kenneth M. Stewart, the Mohave were fierce warriors who were frequently the aggressors, particularly against the Chemehuevi, Paiute, and Maricopa peoples. Although they did not plunder their enemy's possessions, they took prisoners and scalps.

Contact with Americans

Amiel Weeks Whipple

In 1849, Irataba, Chief Cairook, and other Mohave people encountered a large group of European Americans, including Captain Amiel Whipple and Lieutenant J.C. Ives, who were leading an expedition up the Colorado. According to historical archeologist Arthur Woodward, they taught the explorers a traditional game played with a hoop and pole, and the two groups entertained themselves with target practice, the Mohave using bows and arrows and the whites firing pistols and rifles. When the expedition had difficulty crossing the Colorado on February 27, several Mohave jumped into the water and helped salvage the supplies. He documents that Irataba and Cairook agreed to escort the group across the hostile territory of the Paiute to the Old Spanish Trail that would take them to southern California. German artist Balduin Möllhausen accompanied the Whipple expedition, and made drawings of several Mohave including Irataba, whose rendering was featured in Ives's 1861 congressional report. According to anthropologist and author Albert B. Elsasser, Irataba "was surely among the first named likenesses of California Indians ever published". Irataba later assisted Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves during his 1851 exploration of the Colorado.

On March 19, 1851, most of the Oatman family, traveling by wagon train in what is now Arizona, were killed by what is believed to have been members of the Tolkepaya tribe of Western Yavapai. The Indians killed Royse Oatman, his wife and four of the children during the Oatman massacre, but spared the lives of 14-year-old Olive Oatman and her 7-year-old sister. They were captured and enslaved and sold to Irataba and the Mohave in return for two horses and three blankets. Although Olive was forcibly tattooed on the chin during her time with the tribe, the Mohave treated Oatman and her sister well, and she remarked of the experience, "To the honor of those savages, let it be said they never offered the least unchaste abuse to me." The girls were freed in early 1856 to Fort Yuma carpenter Henry Grinnell in return for two horses and some blankets and beads.

Two Mohave men next to the Colorado River, 1871

In October 1857, an expedition led by Edward Fitzgerald Beale was tasked with establishing a trade route along the 35th parallel from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Los Angeles, California. From Fort Smith, his journey continued through Fort Defiance, Arizona, before crossing the Colorado near Needles, California. This route became known as Beale's Wagon Road and the location where Beale crossed the river, Beale's Crossing. Beale's journal and subsequent report to the United States Secretary of War did not mention any problems with Irataba and the Mohave, but an assistant named Humphrey Stacy recorded that the Mohave had prevented Beale from traveling downriver.

In February 1858, Irataba and Cairook noticed a paddle steamer heading up the Mohave Canyon. When the boat stopped and its crew revealed themselves, Irataba quickly realized that their leader was his old friend, Lieutenant Ives. Ives was leading an expedition to the Grand Canyon in a steamship named the Explorer, and he asked Irataba to guide them into the canyon. Cairook agreed to this, and he and a Mohave boy named Nahvahroopa joined them. Möllhausen again accompanied the expedition, and was impressed with the Mohave guides, later noting his enthusiastic handshake with Irataba, lamenting that their only form of communication was sign language. He also noted that Irataba and the Mohave quickly took to wearing clothes given to them by members of the expedition, and had shown a growing interest in smoking tobacco, "if Irataba had allowed it, they would have traveled with us to the ends of the earth."

A report by Ives in 1861 documented that Irataba guided his party into the Mohave Canyon, indicating the location of sandbars and rapids and advising the Explorer's pilot regarding convenient places to anchor while camping for the night. As the expedition progressed, the rapids grew in strength and intensity, and the rock walls increasingly towered above them. When they reached the entrance to the Black Canyon of the Colorado, the ship crashed against a submerged rock, throwing several men overboard, dislodging the boiler, and damaging the wheelhouse. Ives explained how, using their skiff, they towed the Explorer to shore, where they camped for three days while making repairs to the badly damaged vessel. The expedition had relied on beans and corn provided by the Mohave during the previous weeks; as their supplies dwindled they grew increasingly anxious about the arrival of a resupply pack train en route from Fort Yuma. Irataba volunteered to hike towards the Mohave Valley to try to locate the supplies that had been requested several days earlier. He also warned that the expedition was being watched by Paiutes.

When Irataba returned he informed Ives that he would not venture any deeper into the territory of the Hualapais, but agreed to help them locate friendly guides in the region before parting company. According to historian Natale A. Zappia, Irataba was reluctant to venture into the canyon because he feared the party would be ambushed by Paiutes aligned with Mormons. After enlisting three Hualapai guides, Irataba prepared to take his leave from the expedition and return to the Mohave community. On April 4, the Mohave received payment for their services, and according to Möllhausen, their "delight with their gifts reached its climax ... when Lieutenant Ives informed Irataba that he had been authorized by the 'Great Grandfather in Washington' to give him two mules ... for his loyalty and his trustworthiness so that he could take his possessions and those of his companions more conveniently to his home valley." The next morning, as they were preparing to leave: "Irataba was visibly moved ... and in his sincere eyes expressed so much honesty and loyalty as can only be found in an unspoiled nature ... I maintain that there was not one in our expedition who did not feel a certain sadness to see this huge man with ... a harmless soul leave."

Rose-Baley Party skirmish and aftermath

Main article: Mohave War

European American homesteaders, c. late 19th century

In 1858, a wealthy businessman from Iowa, Leonard John Rose, formed an emigrant wagon train that included two dozen horses and two hundred red Durham cattle. The Rose Party left Iowa in early April and were joined by the Baley family while traveling through Kansas in May. The combined Rose-Baley Party traveled with twenty wagons and comprised forty men, fifty to sixty women and children, and five hundred cattle. They reached Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 23, where several more families and their livestock joined them, before traveling to the Colorado by way of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. There they became the first emigrant train to venture onto Beale's Wagon Road.

On August 27, the emigrants reached the Black Mountains and made their crossing at Sitgreaves Pass, where they encountered friendly Mohave. While others stopped to make a mountain camp, the Rose company continued to the Colorado, where they planned to water the train's combined stock and build a raft in preparation for the impending river crossing. The Mohave physically harassed the emigrants, and drove away and slaughtered many of the party's cattle. Around 2 p.m. on August 30, three hundred Mohave warriors attacked the emigrants working near the river. The Mohave uttered war whoops as they fired arrows into the camp. The attack lasted for several hours, and Rose and the others eventually forced the assailants to retreat. Eight members of the party were killed, including five children, and thirteen were wounded. The emigrants killed seventeen Mohave warriors. With the wounded in one wagon, the children in another, and the healthy adults on foot, the party began the journey back to Albuquerque, 500 miles (800 km) away. According to Kroeber, "the event sealed the fate of the Mohave as an independent people."

When news of the attack reached California, the US War Department decided to establish a military fort at Beale's Crossing to protect white travelers, and on December 26, 1858, dispatched Colonel William Hoffman and fifty dragoons from Fort Tejon to cross the desert and confront the Mohave. According to Kroeber, Irataba attempted to arrange a peaceful meeting, but Hoffman ordered his troops to fire on the warriors, who attacked and repelled the force. Hoffman returned in April 1859, by way of Fort Yuma, with four companies of the 6th Infantry Regiment. When they arrived at Beale's Crossing, the Mohave decided against attacking the army of five hundred soldiers. Hoffman arranged for a meeting between him and his officers and Cairook and his sub-chiefs, with Pascual, chief of the Yumas, translating from English to Spanish to Yuman and to Mohave and vice versa.

A sketch of Fort Mohave in the late 19th century

Hoffman demanded that the Mohave agree never again to harm white settlers along the wagon trail. When he asked which chief was responsible for the Rose-Baley Party massacre, Cairook admitted that he had ordered the attack. Hoffman declared that, as punishment, the Mohave were required to surrender six prominent leaders and three warriors who had taken part in the massacre. Cairook offered himself as a hostage, and he and the others were transported in the river steamer, General Jessup, to Fort Yuma. In the opinion of Fulsom Charles Scrivner, author of Mohave People (1970), whereas Cairook helped lead the attack on the Rose-Baley Party, "it appears that Irataba stayed clear of the fracas", arguing that "if Irataba had taken an active part he would have offered himself as prisoner", as did Cairook. Many soldiers remained to begin construction on the Beale's Crossing fort, which was named Fort Mohave. After its completion, Irataba and several hundred of his most ardent supporters moved to the Colorado River Valley, where in 1865 the Colorado River Indian Reservation was established. This marked the beginning of a rift between two rival factions of Mohave, the other led by a respected sub-chief named Homoseh quahote, known by the whites as Seck-a-hoot.

On June 21, 1859, Cairook and several others were killed by soldiers while attempting to escape their incarceration at Fort Yuma, which had exposed them to the desert's harsh elements. After Cairook's death, Irataba became the Mohave's head chief, and he attained the title of Aha macave yaltanack or hochoch, which designated him as the leader elected by the people. Settlers living near the Colorado viewed Irataba as the most important Indian chief in the region. With a large army of Mohave warriors under his command, he quickly earned a reputation as a strong leader. According to ethnographer George Devereux, white officials "tended to act on the assumption that Indian chiefs exercised absolute authority"; he describes Mohave government as "one of the least understood segments of Mohave culture", and notes that because Irataba's leadership position was traditional, he was "primarily a servant of the tribe".

In 1862, he acted as a guide for the Walker Party Exploration, gold prospectors led by Joseph R. Walker and including Jack Swilling, who later founded Phoenix, Arizona. Irataba brought them to a river that he called Hasyamp, later officially named the Hassayampa River, where they found plentiful gold. Arizona's first mining district was established there the following year, which led to the founding of Prescott, Arizona, soon afterward. Relations between the Mohave and American settlers were positive during this period, but as emigration increased, gold seekers founded a town nearby named La Paz, stirring fear among settlers of a native uprising against further encroachment on Mohave land.

Travels

Washington, D.C., April 1865

John Moss, an experienced prospector, suggested Irataba be brought to Washington so that he could see firsthand the United States' military might. In November 1863, Irataba traveled with Moss to San Pedro, Los Angeles, where they boarded the steamship Senator, bound for San Francisco. In San Francisco, he stayed at the Occidental Hotel and created a storm as he walked down Jackson Street, dressed in what Woodward described as "the full civilized costume" typical of European Americans, which Irataba soon preferred to traditional Mohave clothing. The press documented his every movement and wrote extensively about his physical size and strong features. According to Margot Mifflin, "in all his interviews he maintained the stoical and impassible bearing so peculiar to the red man of the forest".

Olive Oatman, a former captive of the Mohave

In January 1864, they sailed for New York City, by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Upon arriving in New York, Harper's Weekly described Irataba as "the finest specimen of unadulterated aboriginal on this continent". Here Irataba exchanged his suit and sombrero for the uniform and regalia of a major general, including a bright yellow sash and gold badge encrusted with precious stones. From it hung a medal that bore the inscription, "Irataba, Chief of the Mohaves, Arizona Territory". In February, when The New York Times asked him to explain the nature of his visit, he replied: "to see where so many pale faces come from". In New York he met with the former slave girl Olive Oatman. Despite her hatred of Indians, she was immediately impressed by him. She described the meeting: "It was a singular coincidence, that after the lapse of 8 years the wild savage and the released captive should again meet; not among the mountain solitudes of the Pacific slope; amid the filth and degradation of an unmitigated barbarism; but in the metropolis of the highest civilization; not in the wigwam; but in the beautiful adorned reception room at the Metropolitan. We met as friends giving the left hand in friendship, which is held as a sacred pledge, among some tribes." According to Mifflin, Irataba had stated to her his desire that the Mohave become civilized; author and veteran of the American Indian Wars John Penn Curry reported that Irataba told him: "Mericanos too much talk, too much eat, too much drink; no work, no raise pumpkins, corn, watermelons – all time walk, talk, drink – no good."

Irataba moved on to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., where he earned great acclaim; government officials and military officers lavished him with gifts of medals, swords, and photographs. In Washington he met with President Abraham Lincoln, who gave him a silver-headed cane "as a symbol of his chieftainship". He was the first Native American from the Southwestern United States to meet a US president. The tour ended in April, when he and Moss sailed to California, again by way of Panama, and made their way back to Beale's Crossing from Los Angeles by wagon.

Waning influence and death

Artist's impression of Irataba, February 1864

On his return from Washington D.C., Irataba met with the Mohave while dressed in his major general's uniform, which was covered in medals. He wore a European-style hat and carried a long Japanese sword, and he told the Mohave about all the things he had seen. He tried to convince them that peace with the United States was in their best interests, and that war against them was futile, stressing their dominant military capabilities. Nevertheless, according to Woodward the Mohave accused Irataba of telling "tall tales", and he was largely discredited.

Irataba continued to lead the Mohave in their conflicts with neighboring tribes. In March 1865, he and the Mohave defeated the Chemehuevi after their allies, the Paiutes, killed two Mohave women. To avoid fighting a two-front war, Irataba attacked the Chemehuevi first, then turned his attention to the Paiutes, who were planning an attack on the Mohave farm and granary on Cottonwood Island. During a subsequent battle with the Paiutes in October 1865, Irataba was taken prisoner while wearing his major general's uniform. From the island on which he was captured, Irataba ordered to his people: "Let the women stay and burn all the crops and granaries and then go down-river for help". The Paiutes feared that killing him would invite repercussions from the soldiers stationed at Fort Mohave, so they instead stripped him naked and sent him home badly beaten. This defeat further eroded Irataba's influence over the Mohave people.

The old man is here now with his tribe, but he looks feeble, wan, and grief stricken. Age has come to Irataba, but it has brought to him no bright and peaceful twilight. Dark and cheerless appear the skies of his declining years.

 —The Arizona Weekly Miner, February 5, 1870

By the late 1860s a strong rift had developed between Irataba, who was sympathetic to white settlement, and the militant Mohave sub-chief known as Seck-a-hoot, who vehemently opposed white encroachment on Mohave lands. At one time, Seck-a-hoot briefly imprisoned Irataba in an effort to supplant him as head chief. His influence waning, Irataba retired to a small adobe-style house – the first such dwelling for a Mohave – where he lived out his final days. A report by a US official visiting the Colorado River Indian Reservation in 1870 recorded that he was living near 800 others, and that attempts by the Mohave at agricultural cultivation on the site were restricted to an area of not more than 40 acres (16 ha). He noted that they were adept at wood cutting, and traded timber with merchants arriving in steamboats along the river. The Mohave never replaced him; he was their last independent head chief when he died at the reservation on May 3 or 4, 1874. Irataba's cause of death is unknown, but smallpox and natural causes are both cited. The Mohave grieved deeply, and were so committed to Irataba's cremation ritual that they did more than just burn his body, hut, and belongings according to tradition—they burned their entire village, slaughtered the horses, and fasted for a prolonged period.

In 1970, the Irataba Society, a non-profit charity run by the Colorado River Indian Tribes, was established in Parker, Arizona. The charity held its 13th annual pow wow or National Indian Days celebration in September 1985. Irataba Hall, a sports venue in Parker, is also named after him.

Bibliography

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External links

• Pipa Aha Macav – "The People by the River": The Official Website of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe
• InterTribal Council of Arizona – Colorado River Indian Tribes