Historical Context

Dr. Brown

Eng 306

In March of 1875 the U.S. Army moved the Yavapai Tribe from Camp Verde Arizona to San Carlos Arizona (East Valley Tribune 2003).  The tribe would stay in San Carlos until September 15 1903 when President Roosevelt would again move the tribe to Fort McDowell by executive order (East Valley Tribune 2003), the Yavapai Indians would were given 40 square miles of land just northeast of Phoenix (Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation 2016).  The Yavapai Indians are now made up of three different Tribes/ Nations they are; Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Yavapai-Apache Nation and Yavapai Prescott. Each Tribe acts as its own independent Nation with its own laws and judicial systems.

            During all of these moves the Yavapai people complied with what was being done. They were outnumbered and didn’t have the resources as their opponents did. In 1968 congress was again about to try to move the Yavapai people from their land they were given just 65 years prior. “In 1968 congress authorized the building of the Orme Dam at the confluence of the Salt and Verde Rivers as part of the Central Arizona Project. Its main purpose was to store C.A.P. water in the winter for use in the summer” (AZPBS). The building of the Dam would have flooded 17,000 of the 25,000 acres of land that the Yavapai people possessed. The Dam would also have flooded out the home of at lease one endangered species, the bald eagle  (The Courier 1981).  Congress tried to sweetened up the deal by adding that they would give the Yavapai Tribe a new reservation just northeast of their current location along with 33 million dollars (AZPBS). The Yavapai people would once again face a situation where they would have to pack up all of their belongings and move to another “home”. But the Yavapai people were not willing to do that this time around. They were willing to stand and fight. Kimberly Williams one of the most influential leaders of the protest said the reason she stood up for the protest was because her grandfather had told her, “if you put a dollar in one hand and soil in another which will last longer” (AZPBS), that was all that she needed to know that something had to be done, there had to be a stand.

            The Yavapai Tribe of Fort McDowell Governmental duties is assigned with a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and two Council Members. The members of the Yavapai Tribe vote these seats in. During the time of the Orme Dam protest President Doka was the one to take the lead on the protest. He was the first to get people educated about what was really happening rather than Tribal people being so focused on the money part (Wilson). Another person who was in the heat of the protest was a 12-year-old female named Kimberly Williams. The goal for using the 12 year old female was to have her talk to congress about who lived on the Reservation and that their were actual people living where the Dam was going to be built. Kimberly would also bring another dynamic; she would bring a sympathetic and calm voice to congress. Being that she is a young female girl she would hopefully be able to bring congress to a reality that they could relate to, maybe they would see their own 12-year-old daughter.

            The goal of this protest was for the Yavapai Tribal members to defend the land that they were given. They were tired of moving every few decades. But more importantly they would use this protest as a stepping-stone to defeat the Federal Government once again on Gaming in Arizona, but that would come a few years later. If the Yavapai Tribe were to give into the Orme Dam being built they would not only show weakness but also show that Congress could override an Executive

Order without going through the necessary steps to override the Executive Order.

            The phase of the protest that I am going to focus is the inception phase. During the time of the protest, specifically when the Dam had plans on paper to be built on the 17,000 out of the 25,000 acres that the Yavapai People lived. The Yavapai people would then begin to contact the media and start to talk to the media about their view of the protest. The Yavapai people began to talk among themselves about what kind of protest they would choose, a violent one or a more legislative one where they would voice their opions and would ultimately voice their oppions to congress (Wilson). They chose to talk to congress. They didn’t want to be known as they had been thought of in past history as “savages”. The Yavapai people wanted to be organized and thoughtful in their actions against the Orme Dam and the site where Orme Dam was to be built.