The Akimel O’odham have been known by non-Indians as the Pima. The name Pima, pronounced PEE-mah, is derived from the Native phrase pi-nyi-match, which means “I don’t know.” It came to be applied to the tribe when the Indians used it in response to questions by early Spanish explorers. Their Native name, pronounced AH-kee-mul-oh-OH-tum, means “river people,” to distinguish themselves from the TOHONO o’ODHAM or “desert people,” also known as Papago. The related dialects of the two peoples are of the Uto-Aztecan language family, sometimes grouped together as Piman.
The Akimel O’odham occupied ancestral lands now mapped as part of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, a state of Mexico. They were divided into two major groups—called historically the Pima Alto, or Upper Pima, and the Pima Bajo, or Lower Pima. The Upper Pima lived along the Gila and Salt Rivers. The Lower Pima, or Nevone, as they are known in Mexico, lived along the Yaqui and Sonora Rivers much farther south. The Tohono O’odham lived to the immediate west of the Upper Pima. Both Akimel O’odham and Tohono O’odham are classified by scholars as SOUTH WEST INDIANS.
It is thought that the ancient ancestors of both peoples were the Hohokam Indians. Hohokam is an Akimel O’odham word meaning “vanished ones.”
Hohokam Indians constructed advanced irrigation systems in the Gila and Salt River valleys (see SOUTH WEST cultures).
World History
