Lifeways

The Mojave Desert, named after the Mojave people, is one of the most extreme environments in North America. Temperatures often climb above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the hot sun, then drop drastically at night. But the Mojave coped with these extremes by settling along the bottomlands of the lower Colorado River. Every year, with the melting of snows in the mountains to the northeast, the lower Colorado flooded and provided suitable conditions for farming. In this strip of silty soil cutting through the desert, tribal members planted corn, beans, pumpkins, melons, and, after they had received seeds brought from Europe by whites, wheat. They also fished the Colorado River, hunted small desert game, especially rabbits, and gathered wild plant foods, such as pinon nuts and mesquite beans.

The Mojave lived in dwellings made of brush and earth. For the warm weather, they built flat-roofed, open-sided structures; for the cold periods, they made low, rectangular structures. Mojave clothing consisted of sandals and breechcloths for men, and sandals and aprons for women. In cold weather, both men and women wore rabbit-skin blankets and robes. Both men and women decorated their skin with tattoos and body paint.

The Mojave had a reputation as fierce fighters. A special society of warriors, called the Kwanamis, led the other men in battle. Mojave war parties were organized into three different fighting groups: archers, clubbers, and stickmen.

The Mojave made war with certain neighboring peoples, such as the AKIMEL o’odham (pima) and TOHONO o’odham (papago), but they traded with others. Mojave traders traveled all the way to the Gulf of California or to the Pacific Ocean to barter agricultural products with coastal tribes for shells and feathers. To cross the Colorado and other rivers, the Mojave made rafts from bundles of reeds.