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Gila

(Encyclopedia)Gila hēˈlə [key], river, 630 mi (1,014 km) long, rising in the mountains of W N.Mex. and flowing W across Ariz. to the Colorado River at Yuma, Ariz.; the San Francisco River is its main tributary. ...

gila monster

(Encyclopedia)gila monster hēˈlə [key], venomous lizard, Heloderma suspectum, found in the deserts of the SW United States and NW Mexico. It averages 18 in. (45 cm) in length, with a large head, stout body, thic...

Maricopa

(Encyclopedia)Maricopa märĭkōˈpə, mâr– [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Yuman branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). At some time in the past...

Coolidge Dam

(Encyclopedia)Coolidge Dam, 249 ft (76 m) high, 920 ft (280 m) long, on the Gila River, SE Ariz.; built 1927–28. It irrigates c.100,000 acres (40,470 hectares), half of which are Native American lands in San Carl...

Pima

(Encyclopedia)Pima pēˈmə [key], Native North American tribe of S Arizona. They speak the Pima language of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic family (see Native American languages). There are t...

Leopold, Aldo

(Encyclopedia)Leopold, Aldo, 1886–1948, American ecologist, b. Burlington, Iowa. He was an advocate for a “land ethic,” in which humans see themselves as part of a natural community. After work in the U.S. Fo...

Gold Butte National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Gold Butte National Monument, 296,937 acres (90,506 hectares), SE Utah, est. 2016 and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Named for a mining ghost town, the monument embraces a rugged desert lan...

Gadsden Purchase

(Encyclopedia)Gadsden Purchase gădzˈdən [key], strip of land purchased (1853) by the United States from Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) had described the U.S.-Mexico boundary vaguely, and Presiden...

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