Sonoran Indigenous Groups
The Cucapá of Northern Sonora, Mexico
The Cucapá people of Northern Mexico and Arizona are also known as Cocopah, and Cocopá. The word Cucapá means “the people of the river,” or “those who follow the river.” In their native language the group is known as the Kwapa or Kwii Capáy, meaning the “Cloud People,” a reference to the fog that forms on the Colorado River.
The indigenous Cucapá people were expert hunters and fishermen who originally settled on the banks and delta of the Colorado River, near what is now the city of San Luis Rio Colorado. But the gradual decline of flows of the Colorado River in Mexico has had an adverse effect, as many have left their ancestral lands.
In fact, this is a native group that is threatened with extinction.They originally numbered at 10,000, but over the years their population has dwindled to fewer than 1,000.
The Cucapá people have settled in Baja California and Sonora, with fewer than 100 living in Sonora. And like the Tohono O’odham, there are tribal members who live on both sides of the Mexico – U.S. border. The largest concentration in Mexico is 250 people who live in El Mayor, Mexicali. On the other side of the border, a group of 500 live in Somerton, Arizona.
They were one of the few indigenous groups of the region that were not evangelized by Jesuit or Franciscan missionaries.
And even though they have survived to modern times as a distinct culture, over the years they have lost many of their original cultural traditions. They celebrate no annual festivities, although they sometimes gather in a reunion between members of the tribe in the United States and Mexico known as an “Encuentro de Naciones” (Meeting of Nations). They also observe traditional death rituals that are private and not shared with outsiders.
Sources:
SonoraTravel website
Indigenous Sonora