Native Health on the Move: Public Health and Assimilation on the Lower Colorado River, 1890-1934

Abstract

The combination of federal Indian assimilation policies with settler movement to the western United States, and the continuance of the reservation system meant that more American Indians than ever before had to grapple with, adapt to, and resist the United States’ policies and practices. Scholars have rightfully argued that sickness and death were traumatic side effects of federal assimilation policies; these changes left in their wake a growing health catastrophe. However, through a case study of the Pipa Aha Macavs (Mohaves), this dissertation argues that by examining the nexus of mobility and health, we gain a new understanding the logic, practices, and tools of federal activity and Indigenous survivance. Pipa Aha Macavs’ mobility accorded them some degree of autonomy and the ability to continue ancestral ways of interacting with the landscape and each other. At the same time, poor Native health illustrated the failures of the federal government to assimilate Native people and authorities tried control Mohaves’ movements to improve their health. The irony was that federal attempts to control and manipulate Pipa Aha Macavs’ movements aggravated already appalling health conditions and confounded officials’ attempts to contain diseases as well as Indigenous peoples.