(Proceedings submission caseby-case

BUTTerwICK & dANIeL: FLOrA OF SOUTHerN BLACK MTS., ArIzONA 275
The yuman peoples used many additional plant resources, not only for food but also for fiber,
construction, implements, basketry, water proofing, adhesives, dyes, medicine and fuel, among
other uses (Stone 1987). we documented the following plant species, which serve as sources for
many of these uses, in the flora area: Allium nevadense, Baccharis salicifolia, Celtis reticulata,
Chenopodium berlandieri, Chenopodium fremontii, Chilopsis linearis, Fouquieria splendens,
Fraxinus anomala, Larrea tridentata, Mentzelia albicaulis, Physalis crassifolia, Pluchea sericea,
Populus fremontii, Rhus aromatica, Salix exigua, Salix gooddingii, Salvia columbariae, Typha latifolia,
and Vitis arizonica.
The Hualapai in the Black Mountains interacted frequently with the Mohave people, trading
wild products for agricultural produce from the floodplain of the Colorado river (Stone 1987). The
Mohave practiced a generalized settlement-subsistence pattern, which included farming, fishing,
hunting, and gathering wild plants. Their settlements shifted in arrangement, composition, and
location from year to year and season to season to cope with the unpredictable variations in the timing
and volume of annual floods (Bee 1981). Crops they cultivated included corn, beans, squash,
melons, and grasses. However, gathered resources were not mere supplements to cultivated crops
but constituted a diverse and important component of the Mohavean diet. According to Castetter
and Bell (1951:179–180), mesquite beans continued to be a staple resource into the 20 th century
and was “more important than maize . . . and virtually supplied the living through the winter and
until the next cultivated crop was ready.” Because large game was scarce along the river, fish, such
as the humpbacked sucker and Colorado salmon or squawfish, and small game were the major
sources of protein. during winter, small hunting parties pursued deer and bighorn sheep in the
desert mountain ranges, including the Black Mountains. An annual lean period of reduced supplies
occurred in the spring, when few wild plant resources were available and fish were relatively
scarce. The duration and severity of this lean time depended on the amount and rate of consumption
of stored foods from the previous seasons (Stone 1987).
The remote and rugged terrain of the Black Mountains provided the yuman peoples respite
from the effects of early Spanish contact. However, by the 1800s Anglo-American explorers ventured
into the area. The California gold rush in the 1850s led to increased travel and settlement in
western Arizona. In 1863 gold was first discovered in the Black Mountains at the Moss vein northwest
of Oatman (gray et al. 1990b; ransome 1923). Varying levels of mineral production continued
in the Oatman mining district until 1942. Numbers of feral burros, originally released by the
miners working in the area, increased significantly, resulting in degradation of the vegetation and
perennial springs and competition with the desert bighorn sheep for limited resources. After the
introduction of cattle in Mohave County, army officers consistently reported that livestock grazing
reduced the quantity of wild game and the supply of edible seed (United States Senate 1936). davis
(1973) documented that Sacramento Valley, now desertscrub dominated by Larrea tridentata and
Ambrosia dumosa, was once an open grassland. In 1865 the Colorado river Indian reservation
was established, thereby providing the Mohave people with only a portion of their former prime
farming and gathering lands. In 1883 the Hualapai Indian reservation was established at the north
end of the Hualapai people’s historic area of occupation. A profound impact to the Mohave people’s
way of life resulted from construction of major dams on the Colorado river between 1930
and 1970. These changed the water flows and aquatic temperature, tamed the annual floods, and
reduced transport of sediment, all of which contributed to the loss of marshes and mesquite bosques
as well as the native fish populations (Cole 1981). given the magnitude of changes within the past
century, it is difficult to see how a traditional subsistence economy could be sustained under current
conditions in and around the Black Mountains.