| Cocopah Museum exhibits tribal beadwork, arts, crafts and tribal dolls. The Museum also features a gift shop. Gift shop items include tribal beadwork, arts & crafts, tribal dolls, Native American tapes and CD's, beading and jewelry supplies.Cocopah Tribe ProfileThe Cocopah are descended from the Yuman-speaking people who arrived in what is now Arizona some 3000 years ago. Around 1000 B.C. ancestors of the Cocopah began to live along the Lower Colorado River region between present day Yuma and San Felip, Mexico near the delta and the Gulf of California.The River People developed a way of life adapted to the river's seasonal ebb and flow, and to the lush riparian habitats near the river's edge. Forests of tall cottonwoods and arrowweed, jungles of willows, and reed-lined banks supported a rich diversity of wildlife. The Cocopah people grew grains, corn, beans, and melons in the floodplains of the river, netted fish and collected shellfish in the delta, and hunted deer and small game in the mesquite forests.When Don Juan de Onate and Father Escobar sailed up the Colorado, there were estimated to be about 6-7,000 Cocopah people living along the delta and lower Colorado. Later, diaries and journals kept by Hernando de Alarcon, Father Kino and Father Garces, James O'Patte a fur-trapper, military men, ethnographers like Williams Kelly, and photographers, have left a colorful record of the Cocopah culture from 1540 - 1917, when Woodrow Wilson designated the first Cocopah Indian Reservation on the Arizona bank of the river. The Cocopah Indian Reservation was established by Executive Order No. 2711 in 1917As waves of immigrants poured into the Yuma-valley crossing on their way to California for gold, the strategic importance of the river crossing was recognized by the U.S. government. Significant changes to the Cocopah way of life were brought about by the steamboat business bringing supplies from ships in the Gulf up to Yuma and beyond. Cocopah men became valued steamboat pilots with their knowledge of the river's currents and shifting sandbars.Without direct access to the means of the new economy, and separation of tribal relatives by enforcement of the international boundary between the U.S. and Mexico, Cocopah (U.S.) and the Cucup (Mexico) struggled to maintain tribal integrity.A different economy based on currency began to replace simple trade. And as towns and farms grew in the West, the construction of dams to control the wild fluctuations in the Colorado River's spring floods brought an end to a way of life for the Cocopah. As the flow of water was slowed and eventually stopped, dramatic changes in the landscape and its wildlife put the Cocopah people under great stress.The Cocopah today are important partners in the region's largest economy: tourism. The Cocopah Casino, Cocopah RV & Golf Resort, Cocopah Corner Store & Gas Station, demonstrates the resourcefulness and entrepreneurial spirit of the region's first people. About 1000 Cocopah live and work on or near three reservation sites in Somerton, Arizona today |
|  |  | | | Facilities: Cocopah Museum provides a restrooms and picnic areas. Reservations: Special Guided tours available by appointment only. Best Time To Visit: Cocopah Museum Office Hours are Monday thru Friday - 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Exhibit & Gift Shop Hours: Monday thru Friday - 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. The Museum is closed Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays and there is an early closure at 3:00 p.m. on the last Friday of each month. Fees: Free admission, donations appreciated. Accessibility: Handicap parking, restrooms and wheelchairs are available. Rules: No cameras, recording devices, food and beverages are allowed in the Exhibit Room. Directions: To reach Cocopah Museum from Yuma, travel south on Highway 95 past Somerton. Drive through Somerton (1 mile). Turn right (north) on Avenue G (1 mile); turn left (west) on County 15th (2 miles). Look for the building with Tribal Seal. | | |
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