Alchedoma Indian Tribe History

Alchedoma. A former Yuman tribe which, according to Father Garcés, spoke the same language as the Yuma proper, and hence belonged to the same closely related Yuman division as the Yuma, Maricopa, and Mohave. As early as 1604-05 Juan de Onate found them in 8 rancherias (the northernmost with 2,000 people in 160 houses) below the mouth of the Gila on the Rio Colorado, but by 1762 (Rudo Ensayo, 130, 1894) they occupied the left bank of the Colorado between the Gila and Bill Williams fork, and by Garcés time (1776) their rancherias were scattered along the Colorado in Arizona and California, beginning about 38 m. below Bill Williams fork and extending the same distance downstream (Garcés, Diary, 423-428, 450, 1900). At the latter date they were said to number 2,500, and while well disposed toward other surrounding tribes, regarded the Yuma and Mohave as enemies. Garcés says of them: "These Jalchedun [Alchedoma] Indians are the least dressed, not only in such goods as they themselves possess, but also in such as they trade with the Jamajabs [Mohave], Genigueches [Serranos], Cocomaricopas [Maricopa], Yabipais [Yavapai], and Moquis [Hopi], obtaining from these last mantas, girdles, and a coarse kind of cloth (sayal), in exchange for cotton." This statement is doubtless an error, as the Alchedoma raised no cotton, while the Hopi were the chief cultivators of this plant in the entire S. W. According to Kroeber the Alchedoma were absorbed by the Maricopa, whom they joined before fleeing from the Rio Colorado before the Mohave. Asumpcion, Lagrimas de San Pedro, San Antonio, and Santa Coleta have been mentioned as rancherias. (F. W. H.)

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Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906