LibGuides: Native American Indian & Alaskan Heritage Month: Tribes

Tribal Directory

Tribes Directory - National Congress of American Indians
Alphabetical Listing of tribes by the National Congress of American Indians.
Tribal Leaders Directory - U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs
A current listing of tribal leaders in the United States.

Arizona Tribes

Akimel O'odham - Pima

Pima (Akimel O'odham)
The Pima /ˈpiːmə/[3] (or Akimel O'odham, also spelled Akimel Oʼotham, "River People," formerly known as Pima) are a group of Native Americans living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona, as well as northwestern Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua. The majority population of the two current bands of the Akimel O'odham in the United States are based in two reservations: the Keli Akimel Oʼotham on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) and the On'k Akimel O'odham on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC).
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The Akimel O'odham are closely related to the Ak-Chin O'odham, now forming the Ak-Chin Indian Community. They are also related to the Sobaipuri, whose descendants reside on the San Xavier Indian Reservation or Wa꞉k (together with the Tohono O'odham), and in the Salt River Indian Community. Together with the related Tohono O'odham ("Desert People") and the Hia C-ed O'odham ("Sand Dune People"), the Akimel O'odham form the Upper Oʼotham or Upper Pima (also known as Pima Alto).

The short name, "Pima", is believed to have come from the phrase pi 'añi mac or pi mac, meaning "I don't know," which they used repeatedly in their initial meetings with Spanish colonists. The latter referred to them as the Pima.[2][4] This term was adopted by later English speakers: traders, explorers and settlers.
Pima (Akimel O'odham)
The Pima (pronounced PEE-mah) referred to themselves as Akimel O'odham (pronounced AH-kee-mul oh-OH-tum) or Akimel O'othom (pronounced AH-kee-mul AU-authm, meaning “River People.” Legend has it that Spanish explorers asked several questions of the first Pima Indians they encountered. When the Natives answered their questions with the phrase pi-nyi-match (“I do not know”), the Spanish misunderstood and thought they were saying Pima. Thereafter, the Spanish explorers referred to the people as Pima.

Diné (“the People”)

Navajo (Dine’é)
Navajo (pronounced NAH-vah-ho.). The name comes from a Tewa (Pueblo) Indian word, Navahu, meaning “large area of cultivated fields.” The Navajo call themselves Diné (“the People”).

Hohokam

The Hohokam: Triumph in the Desert
All over Arizona lay the ruins of Hohokam art and architecture and engineering. Find out how small farming communities came together to master the Arizona desert and create a thriving and adaptive culture.

Hopi

Hopi
Hopi is the shortened form of the tribe's original name, Hopituh Shi-nu-mu. Its most commonly given meaning is “peaceful people.” The Hopi are sometimes referred to as the Moqui, a name given to them by the Spanish, who misunderstood and thought the Hopi word móki, meaning “death”, was the tribe's name.

Maricopa

Maricopa (Piipaash)
The Maricopa or Piipaash[2] are a Native American tribe, who live in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and Gila River Indian Community along with the Pima, a tribe with whom the Maricopa have long held a positive relationship. The Maricopa at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community consist mostly of Xalychidom Piipaash members and are concentrated in Lehi.[3] The Maricopa at the Gila River Indian Community are concentrated in Maricopa Colony. The Maricopa are a River Yuman group, formerly living along the banks of the Colorado River.

Tohono O'odham

Tohono O'odham
The name Tohono O'odham (pronounced to-HO-no oh-O-tahm) means “desert people.” The tribe was formerly known as the Papago, a name the Spanish called them that came from a mispronunciation of a Pima word meaning “bean people” or “bean-eaters.”

White Mountain Apache

White Mountain Apache
The name White Mountain Apache refers to the White Mountain region of Arizona where the tribe resides. The people, who were part of the Coyoteros, have also been called the Sierra Blanca Apache, a Spanish version of their name. The Apache refer to themselves as Ndeé, or “the people,” and the White Mountain Apache go by Shis-Inday, or “People of the Woods,” a name that may have arisen because they spent the winter in the forests of the Sierra Madre.

Yaqui

Yaqui (Yoeme)
The name Yaqui (pronounced YAH-kee) came from the river called Rio Yaqui, along which the people lived. Rio Yaqui most likely meant “chief river.” The tribe has also been called Cáhita, which is the name of their language. They refer to themselves as Yoeme (sometimes spelled Yueme). The plural form of their name, Yoemem, means “the people.”

Yavapai

Yavapai
Native American group indigenous to central and western Arizona. The name “Yavapai” is from the Mojave word “Enyaéva Pai,” meaning “People of the Sun.” The Yavapais are sometimes confused with the Apaches because of their long association and are occasionally (and erroneously) referred to as Mojave Apaches or Yuma Apaches. The Yavapais spoke a dialect (similar to Pai) of Upland Yuman, a Hokan-Siouan language.
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Traditionally the Yavapais controlled roughly 10 million acres in present-day west-central Arizona. This transitional area between the Colorado Plateau and the lower deserts provided them with a salubrious mixture of desert, mountain, and plateau plants and animals. Today, Yavapais live on the Fort McDowell, Camp Verde, and Yavapai reservations in Arizona.

Other Tribes

Cherokee Nation
Anadisgoi is a Cherokee word used by many to simply describe “the news” or “what people are saying.” Oral traditions have always been an important part of the Cherokee Nation as a way to both inform and entertain. On average, our communications teams send out at least 30 news releases a month. Some of that news makes it in your local newspaper and/or on TV. Anadisgoi allows us to share all of our stories with you.