Mohave [key], indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Yuman branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the mid-18th cent. they lived on both banks of the Colorado River, in Arizona and California. They then numbered some 3,000. The Mohave were semisedentary farmers who generally cultivated bottomland along the river. They lived in low brush dwellings. Most of the Mohave now live on the Colorado River Reservation in Arizona, which was established in 1865. In 1990 there were close to 1,400 Mohave in the United States.
See H. Grey, Tales from the Mohaves (1970); study by A. L. Kroeber (1974).
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