the Mohave Valley

The name Mojave, given to the natives who lived along the river, is derived from the Native American words aha (water) and macav (alongside). The Pipa Aha Macav were "the people by the water." Their lives centered around the river whether it was for the agriculture of the valley area, the fishing, or trapping. They are credited with developing irrigation systems bringing water from the Colorado River to their crops. As settlers encroached upon this land the natural resources once sufficient to support the Mojave people were no longer such to support the ever increasing population. Inevitably, this led to violence. An army post was established in 1850. The Mojave were dispersed with many sent to the Colorado Indian Reservation and others remaining near Fort Mojave. The gold rush brought more people to the area. In 1911, President Taft granted a 31,000 acre reservation to the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe.

The different spellings stem from the different pronunciations of the tribe's name. English speakers heard the Spanish pronunciation of Mojave as "mo-HAH-vey" and spelled in Mohave.

The area is really quite desolate and it is hard to imagine surviving here without the river. It is desert in the true sense of the word. The sunsets, however, are breathtaking.