Maurice Crandall, Ph.D., gave a talk titled “We Are of This Place: An Indigenous Natural History of Central Arizona” as part of Yavapai College’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program in partnership with the Natural History Institute on Oct. 10.
Crandall is an enrolled member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation and an associate professor of history at Arizona State University.
Crandall began his presentation by showing images of a mural that used to exist in Old Town Cottonwood, depicting Indians, pioneers, trains and a modern family camping. The young girl in the family was reading a book with images of Indians on the cover.
“The Verde Valley and central Arizona are places where native peoples seem more like historical relics,” Crandall said, adding that that was the message he got from the mural. He said that the earlier residents of the Verde Valley were found living in the nooks and crannies of their home territory after displacement, often invisible to their non-Indian neighbors.
While the Yavapai-Apache Nation is composed of two distinct cultural groups — the Wipukyipai or Yavapai and the Dil zhéé or Tonto Apache — Crandall noted that he is descended from both peoples and called the Verde Valley and red rock country his peoples’ spiritual heartland.
Montezuma Well, in the Yavapai and Apache creation stories, is the place where the first humans emerged from the underworld into this world before dispersing.
The Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo came to the Verde Valley in 1583 CE looking for gold, but moved on after finding only copper. It was not until the 1800s that local tribes were affected by white settlers moving westward. Crandall said that the Yavapai were the first affected, as the territorial capital of Prescott was in Yavapai territory.
“There’s no other way to put it,” Crandall said. “Our Yavapai ancestors at that time were hunted down like animals.”
Settlers then became interested in the Verde Valley due to its steady water supply for farming and ranching. They were followed by the U.S. Army, which established Fort Verde. Crandall said that this started a period that he referred to as the time of terror from 1860 to 1874. The Yavapai people alone experienced 16 massacres.
In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant dispatched Vincent Colyer, a peace commissioner, to establish the Rio Verde Reservation. By 1873, there were around 2,000 natives at the reservation, farming and digging irrigation ditches.
Gen. George Crook started using American Indian scouts, enabling the U.S. army to defeat Crandall’s ancestors. Crandall described Crook’s rule as a season of slaughter.
After the American Indians on the Rio Verde reservation became too self-sufficient, the Tucson ring, which had a monopoly on supplying food to the reservation, saw their business threatened. On February 27, 1875, both the Yavapai and Apache were forced to march to San Carlos; the day is now known as Exodus Day. Many died on the journey, while lack of food and poor conditions led to conflict between the Yavapai and Apache.
The Yavapai and Apache were held on the San Carlos reservation for 25 years. Whenever Apache leader Geronimo escaped custody, the U.S. Army imposed further restrictions on the reservation.
Crandall said that the word “Apache” struck fear into people and that the army used Geronimo as an excuse to keep them on the reservation.
After returning to their ancestral lands in 1900, the Yavapai and Apache found that farming, ranching and mining had significantly altered the area and outsiders had claimed the best land and waterways. Mining ruined the local ecology, with acid fumes and ore roasting pyres killing pine trees and undergrowth. While the Yavapai and Apache’s patronage in Clarkdale businesses was not welcome, their labor was, and many performed dangerous work in the smelter.
Taylor Gabbard opened a day school in 1907 for Indian children in Camp Verde. He also helped the Yavapai and Apache acquire more land. They were given two noncontiguous parcels, just a fraction of their original homeland, as well as the Rio Verde Reservation. Many settlers still feared their presence.
By the 1930s, Crandall said, the Indian presence in the Verde Valley and greater Central Arizona was no longer a question. He added that tourism poses an increasing challenge to their homelands. Crandall said that the tribal cemetery where some of his relatives are buried is now on land owned by the cement plant in Clarkdale, and that he has to check in at the plant before being allowed to visit his uncle’s grave.
“I hope that everyone will be more thoughtful of this land,” Crandall said, adding how important the land is to him and his ancestors.
