Mohave Sketches

When a Mohave youth decided to get married, he would look over all the likely prospects.  After he decided on the maiden of his choice, he would have to buy her from her father.  Father had control of the purchase price, which was usually one or two horses.

There was very little courtship as such.  The couple may have talked together at a feast, or she may have congratulated him on his performance at a shinny game.  Perhaps their eyes had secretly met, each one telling the other, "I am ready and willing."

Nearly all of the maidens were virgins, and their marriage, like that of the wild goose or penguin, was for life.  Each maiden had been trained since childhood in how to cook, farm, gather and preserve foods, make baskets and pottery, and take care of babies.  She was physically ready and eager to form a perfect union.

The young man's obligation was to fight, hunt and fish.  He was a trained member of the reserve army.  He spent much of his time on long hunts for deer, antelope, rabbits, turtles, chuckawallas, fish and fowl, to supplement the grains and vegetables his wife had so laboriously provided.

Most of these young couples lived long, satisfying, happy lives together.  Probably the planning and building of their small shack gave them as many thrills as we might get looking over a set of blue prints for our dream home.

However, not all Mohave marriages were happy.  The squaw was the absolute boss of her household.  If her man was lazy and would not provide meat to go with the fruits of her farming, or if he just became useless, she could complete a divorce by putting his saddle and other possessions outside the door of their shack.  He was to pick them up and leave.
 
 

The most popular game of the Mohaves was shinny, something of a cross between golf and hockey.  It was played on a field about as long as three football fields end-to-end, 250 to 300 yards long.  There were two opposing teams, each containing approximately twenty players.  Each player had a club of his own making, resembling a heavy golf club.  Constructed from a hardwood shaft, the club had a shaped root on the striking end.  The ball was made by sewing fresh rawhide around a tightly wadded, tanned buckskin center.  As the rawhide dried, it compressed the buckskin center much tighter, giving the ball lots of bounce.

Teeing off in the center of the field as in hockey, the players tried to drive the ball over the opponents' goal line.  It was a rough game.  For example, if a contestant saw that his opponent would reach the ball before he could, he would dive through the air and jab his club between his opponent's legs, tripping him.  Some of the games would last for several hours.

It was a common sight to see a Mohave youth running along a path, driving a ball ahead of him, hoping to qualify for membership on a shinny team.

At a much later date, after the railroad had come through, the citizens of Kingman, Arizona, would match a shinny game between the Mohave Indians and the Hualapai Indians for the Fourth of July.  The wide Front Street in Kingman would be cleared of buggies and freight wagons for the game.  All the Indian families would come for the outing, the women dressed by this time in ankle-length, bright colored calico dresses.  They would line the street in their gay colors, picking lice from their children's heads and watching the game.

Another popular game was hoop and shaft.  A wooden hoop would be rolled along the ground, and a long shaft or straight stick was thrown through it.  The object of the game was to throw the shaft through the hoop without touching it or changing the speed of the hoop.  It took a great deal of skill to throw the shaft at the correct angle to clear the moving hoop.