Two Rivers, One Watershed
The Gila River rises in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico and flows west across southern Arizona to meet the Colorado River. The Salt River forms in the mountains of eastern Arizona from the meeting of the White and Black rivers, runs through a deep canyon and then west, reaching the Gila near the Phoenix area. Together with their tributaries, they drain much of the central and southeastern part of the state, and many of the places associated with Western Apache and Chiricahua history lie along them or in the mountains where they begin.
Many of these streams are small by the standards of other regions, and some have changed since the nineteenth century because of dams, diversions and groundwater pumping. Descriptions of the rivers in historical records may therefore not match what a visitor sees today.
Water for Fields and Camps
For Western Apache families, the creeks that run off the Mogollon Rim and White Mountains were places to plant. Corn, beans and squash were grown in small fields near water, often in side canyons and on creek terraces, and families tended them in the growing season before moving to gather and hunt. Some farming involved simple ditches to bring water to fields. The history is discussed more fully in the articles on Apache farming and Western Apache irrigation, and practices varied among local groups, such as those along Cibecue Creek, the Tonto Basin and the upper Gila.
Not every Apache nation farmed, and not every Western Apache group relied on crops to the same extent. Chiricahua groups, for instance, were generally less dependent on agriculture, though some did plant at times. The rivers mattered to them as sources of water, cottonwood and willow, and routes through the country.
Neighbors on the Rivers
The Gila and Salt were also home to other peoples. Farming communities of O’odham ancestors, including the Akimel O’odham on the middle Gila, irrigated fields on a large scale, and the older Hohokam canal systems in the Salt River valley were among the most extensive in the Southwest. The Yavapai lived across central Arizona, and Apache and Yavapai families sometimes shared territory, intermarried and fought. These relationships are a reminder that Apache homelands overlapped with those of many neighbors.
Rivers as Routes
River valleys and canyons offered natural paths through rough country. Travelers followed the Gila and its tributaries between New Mexico and Arizona, and routes crossed the Salt where it could be forded. In the nineteenth century, these same corridors were used by the army, traders and settlers, bringing conflict to places where families had lived for generations.
Reservation Boundaries
Many boundaries of today’s reservations in Arizona follow river and mountain features. The San Carlos Reservation, established in 1872, is centered on the Gila and its tributaries, while the Fort Apache Reservation, home to the White Mountain Apache, lies to the north across the Salt River, which forms the boundary between the two. The decision to concentrate people at San Carlos is associated with the Rio Verde removal of 1875 and with the consolidation of other groups, as explained elsewhere on the site.
People from different groups, including those now identified as San Carlos Apache, Tonto Apache, Yavapai and Chiricahua, were held together at San Carlos. Conditions there were difficult, partly because the agency was on low, hot ground along the river, and disease was a serious problem. Over time, the San Carlos Apache Tribe and the White Mountain Apache Tribe developed as separate governments with separate lands.
Dams and Changing Waters
Twentieth-century water projects changed the rivers. The Salt River was dammed in the early 1900s, with Roosevelt Dam completed in 1911, to support farming and cities downstream, and Coolidge Dam on the Gila, built in the 1920s, created San Carlos Lake and altered the valley where many families lived. Reservoirs flooded land and affected communities, and the benefits of such projects were not evenly shared. Water rights for Apache nations have been the subject of negotiation and litigation in the modern era, and anyone interested in current arrangements should consult the nations’ official websites rather than rely on general summaries.
Visiting the Rivers
The Salt River Canyon and the Gila’s tributaries can be visited in several places, including national forest lands, but large stretches pass through reservations that have their own permits and rules for fishing, camping, boating and travel. Rivers in this region can rise suddenly after storms, and low-water crossings can be dangerous. As elsewhere, check current rules with the nation or agency responsible for the area.