The Yuman (Quechan) people live farthest south of any California group, next to Baja California. They lived along
the Colorado River, and presently on the Fort Yuma Reservation. They have a Pow-wow in September. (Eargle: 1986)

They farmed, growing maize, pumpkins and gourds, and made pottery. They also gathered the seeds of the screwbean and honey mesquite, and caught fish, fowl and small animals, which they snared.

According to "The Natural World of the California Indians" they enjoyed warfare. They painted their faces and bodies with red, yellow and white clay, and built large rectangular semi-subterranean houses of cottonwood thatched with arroweed and covered with earth. The participated in the Karuk or Mourning Ceremony, as did the Maidu, Mohave and Haldichoma. In such a dry area, rainmaking ceremonies were important. (Heizer: 1980)

They gave the Western Yavapai glass traded beads, dried pumpkin, maize, beans, and melons, and got rabbit-skin blankets, baskets, buckskin and other skins, and mescal. They got gourds and eagle feathers from the Mohave, Martynia pods for baskets from the Pima. They gave the Diegueno gourd seeds and got acorns.(Davis: 1966)

The Haldichoma once lived in this area, but decided to move to the Gila and Salt rivers of Arizona. The area where they once lived is now the territory of the Chemehuvi.

The Kamia were farmers, growing maize, pumpkins, gourds, beans, watermelons and cowpeas. The last 2 were introduced by Europeans. They traded the watermelons to the Diegueno for acorns. (Heizer: 1980)

They spoke Yuman, while the Luiseno Serrano and Cahuilla spoke Takic. They created a pottery which was shaped by paddle and anvil technique, which differentiated it from that made by their neighbors to the north, whose pottery was by the coil and smooth method. The group called Kamia lived in the area south of the Salton Sea extending to the Colorado River Delta in Baja California. Both the Kamia and the Diegueno are called Kumeyaay by Gena Van Camp in her book "Kumeyaay Pottery." She lists both olla-style jars and bowls, some of them very large and flat, similar to those reported to have been used by the Mohave to ferry possessions and small children across rivers. They also created figurines, some with characteristic "coffee-bean" shaped eyes, and miniature vessels which Van Camp thinks might have been funeral offerings. Pottery is thought by her to have entered the area around 600 A.D., possibly from the area of West Mexico. (Van Camp:1979)

They traded tobacco with the Yuma. From the Cocopa (who now live in Yuma, Arizona) they got shells from the Gulf of California. (Davis: 1966)

The Mohave (or Hamakhava) live in the desert, and their staple food was mesquite and screw beans. They snared small animals like quail, rabbits and other rodents. They made beautiful blankets of the skins. They built round semi-subterranean houses of willow thatched with arrowgrass, and then covered with mud. They made pottery and did bead-work. "The North American Indian" Volume 2 describes large watertight baskets which they used to float supplies and children across streams when moving from place to place. They grew corn, pumpkins and gourds. They burned their dead.and sang a Mourning chant at funerals.

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California Native American Language Map