Two congressional collections contain materials on the Cocopah, a people whose contemporary Colorado River reservation lies south of Yuma, Arizona, at the junction of the borders of California, Arizona, and Mexico.
Synonymy
“Cocopa” and variations are a rendering of Yuman names for the Cocopa. It is also an approximation of the autonym. The Cocopah Indian Tribe uses Cocopah and Kwapa. See also Goddard, Handbook of North American Indians, v. 10, p. 111.
Includes folders bearing on a bill sponsored by Rep. John Jacob Rhodes (R‐AZ) to expand the Cocopah reservation. A more substantial expansion was planned in the 1980s with the addition of almost 4,000 acres. The collection also includes documentation of the Cocopah Indian Tribe Patent Day Celebration, first held in 1985, to commemorate expansion.
Includes materials regarding the Cocopah reservation expansion with documents about the negotiation with municipalities, utility easements, and water rights. Parties express concern about the advantage expansion might afford the Cocopah in other negotiations, such as utility easements, pointing to a recent Quechan expansion as precedent. One local interest, the Yuma Water Use Agency, argues for land to be held in fee simple, opening the land to sale, alienation, and local and state taxation.
Arizona Historical Society Materials
The materials located in this section can be found at the Arizona Historical Society Tucson location, an institution separate from the University of Arizona. There you can find manuscript materials, photographs, oral histories and books that highlight Indigenous life in the U.S./Mexico borderlands. This selection represents only a small fraction of the Arizona Historical Society's materials related to Indigenous life in the borderlands. Please contact their archivists for questions about additional materials.
