udes the story of a deity, Kukumat, who created the Quechan on the sacred mountain Avikwame (which Bee identifies as Newberry Mountain near Needles, California), along with other Arizona tribes: the Cocopas, Maricopas, Kamias, and Mohaves. Kukumat later died from sorcery worked upon him by his daughter, Frog, who in a pique stole a portion of his excrement and devoured it. One thus sees that the tribes throughout the Southwest deserts shared legends, languages, or both, and were probably one people originally. How the Spaniards later controlled and dominated them must be seen in the context of how these Arizona and Southwest Desert Indians ceased to be one people.
One reason for the splintering of these people was, of course, the subsequently fierce competition for water in a desert that averages three and a half inches of rain a year. Added to this competition was the rich oral tradition of each clan and tribe, telling stories of gods, heroes, and battles to each generation, including perceived misdeeds of other tribes and the desire for vengeance. Kreuber and Fontana even derived an entire book on war from one of these intertribal battles. He also notes that some of these Indians who were called Yumas called themselves Quechans and that "Maricopa" did not even appear in writing until 1846.
Unfortunately for these Indians, the Spaniards walked into these Indians' homeland after they had separated into different clans and tribes, whether by defeat or famine, sporadically populating the forbidding Sonoran and Mojave Deserts. Consequently, the Spaniards treated them as separate tribes, economically, militarily, and religiously. These Spaniards had a mindset which could be summed up as "God, Glory, and Gold." Which was most important depended on the individual Spaniard. Father Kino, in his memoirs of his travels throughout these Arizona tribes, recorded his request for two more ships, more missionaries, a presidio [garrison] of...