In their own language the Mojave are Pipa Aha Macav, “the People by the River,” and their reservation follows the Colorado River where Arizona, California and Nevada meet. This map prints Mohave Valley, the Colorado River and Beal Lake, from Mesquite Creek out to Mojave City.
The reservation’s Arizona land is in Mohave County, with more of it across the river in California and a corner in Nevada.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 and gave it the look of an old atlas. The shaded relief of Mohave Valley comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data, and the streets were drawn from Census Bureau files. The Fort Mojave Indian Reservation covers 23,699 acres in Arizona, 12,633 acres in California and 5,582 acres at the southern tip of Nevada. It’s home to about 1,100 citizens of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe of Arizona, California and Nevada, a federally recognized tribe governed by a democratically elected tribal council, with its headquarters in Needles, California.
The People by the River
The tribe keeps the traditional Spanish spelling, Mojave, while most English speakers write Mohave, as in Mohave Valley and Mohave County. Both are correct, and both are said “Moh-hah-vee.” The Spanish explorer Melchor Díaz met a large population of the Pipa Aha Macav here in 1540, and the shorter name Mojave comes from Aha Macav. In Mojave, Mohave Valley is ‘Amat’ ‘Analy Uuhwely.
In Mohave tradition the creator is Matavilya, who gave the people their clans, and his younger brother Mastamho gave them the Colorado River and taught them how to plant. The peaks that English speakers call The Needles are Huukyámpve in Mojave, “where the battle took place,” for the battle in which Mastamho slew the sea serpent. Mojave lands ran along the river from Black Canyon, past Avi kwame, or Spirit Mountain, the center of spiritual things, down to the Quechan Valley; in today’s terms, from Hoover Dam to about a hundred miles below Parker Dam. The Mojave farmed the river’s floodplain, growing corn, melons, beans and pumpkins, ground mesquite pods into flour for cakes, and caught fish in the Colorado. A stew of fish and corn was a favorite.
The reservation
The reservation’s page dates the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation to 1890, when the land of the old Fort Mohave military reservation passed from the War Department to the Office of Indian Affairs, and the Mohave people’s page dates the first Fort Mojave reservation to 1870. The reservation holds substantial senior rights to Colorado River water. Much of its land is leased to farm companies that grow cotton, corn, soybeans and alfalfa, and the tribe owns the Avi Resort & Casino in Nevada, founded in 1995, along with the Avi Hotel, the C-Plus Convenience Store and JB’s Restaurant. Its communities in Arizona include Mesquite Creek and parts of Mohave Valley, Fort Mohave and Golden Shores. High school students in Mohave Valley can choose the Aha Macav High School on the reservation.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
Names on this map
These names are printed on this map.
Streets and roads: Teller Rd, Joy Ln, Amigo Way, Everglades Blvd, Antoinette Ave, Pawnee Trl, Cll Serena, E La Mancha, Oatman Rd, Boundary Cone Rd, Hwy 15, Gemini St.
More street names, A to Z
Ann St, Ashley St, Aviation Dr, Barrackman Rd, Birdie Ln, Bison Rd, Bradley Way, Bush St, Canal Dr, Cheyenne Dr, Co Hwy 347, Co Hwy 357, Columbia Ave, Cou Rte 1, Courtwright Rd, Cypress Point Dr, Dailey St, Davis Dam Rd, Dorette Ave, Dudley Dr, Dyke Rd, E Bluff Rd, E Charlotte Rd, Hulet Ave, Indian Rte 2, Indian Rte 4, Indian Rte 6, Jerome Ave, Jerome Dr, Jerome Rd, King St, Laguna Dr, Laguna Rd, Lion Way, Mesa de Oro Dr, Old El Rodeo Rd, Park Rd, Paul Rd, Plantation Rd, Plantation Way, Ranchero Ln, Reservation Ln, Rio de Oro Dr, River Rd, Sagebrush Dr, Silver Mesa Dr, Vanderslice Rd, Vis Mountain, Willow Dr.
Bird songs and a poet
The Mojave language has few speakers left, and there are new efforts to teach it to the children. As of 2012, about 22 elders at Fort Mojave spoke some Mojave, and Arizona State University’s Center for Indian Education was holding workshops for learners and speakers on the reservation. The project brings elders and younger people together to teach the traditional Mojave bird songs.
The poet Natalie Diaz grew up in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles. She played point guard at Old Dominion University, reaching the NCAA Final Four as a freshman, and played professional basketball in Europe and Asia, then went back to Old Dominion for a graduate degree in poetry and fiction. She lives in Mohave Valley, and she worked on language revitalization at Fort Mojave, her home reservation, with the last Elder speakers of the Mojave language; that work was featured on the PBS NewsHour in 2012. Her book Postcolonial Love Poem won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2021.
Mesquite Creek is a small community of 403 people at the 2020 census, with Bullhead City 15 miles to the north and Needles 9 miles to the south across the river. Mojave City and Beal Lake are named on the sheet, and the Colorado River runs along the reservation.
This map of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe is a good addition to an office, library or den, and it can help teach children the geography and history of the area. It’s made for anyone who calls Fort Mojave Indian Tribe home, from Mesquite Creek out to Mojave City, and KNOWOL created it in 2026 to show the land as it looks today. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe map.
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