Mohave, << moh HAH vee, >> are a Native American tribe who live in California, Arizona, and Nevada along the Colorado River. Traditionally, the Mohave lived in isolated groups of related families. They built houses made of a frame of logs and poles thatched with plant material and covered with sand. Some houses were large enough for many families to live together.
The Mohave farmed the rich soil created by the spring flooding of the Colorado River. They planted corn, beans, pumpkins, melons, and wheat. They also fished in the river with nets or basketry scoops, hunted, and gathered wild plants.
The Mohave thought of themselves as a single nation within a defined territory. Unlike many other California tribes, whose small villages had little involvement with other villages of the same tribe, the Mohave moved freely from one settlement to another throughout the territory. They had hereditary chiefs, but such positions as war leader and shaman (spiritual leader or doctor) went to individuals believed to have received special powers in dreams. In the Mohave religion, knowledge and power came from dreams.
In the late 1700’s, there were about 3,000 Mohave. Today, there are about 1,400 Mohave. Most live either on the Fort Mohave Reservation near Needles, California, or south of Parker, Arizona, on the Colorado River Reservation.
