Two peoples share this land along the Salt River: the Onk Akimel O’odham, the Salt River People, and the Xalychidom Piipaash, the Upriver People. This map of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community prints the Huhugam Ki: Museum, the Tribal Justice Center, the Salt River Accelerated Learning Academy, Scottsdale Community College, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick and Casino Arizona, from the Salt River out to Associated Farm Co.
The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is a sovereign tribe in Maricopa County, surrounded by Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa and Fountain Hills.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 and gave modern data the look of a vintage atlas. The shaded relief of Apache Peak, Arizona Dam Butte and Boulder Mountain comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data, and the streets were drawn from Census Bureau files. The Community covers 54,568 acres, about 19,000 of them kept as natural preserve, and its defining landmark is Red Mountain on the eastern boundary, S-wegĭ Do’ag in O’odham, which the Community calls a symbol of the people’s deep connection to the land and of home.
O’odham and Piipaash
“Pima” and “Maricopa” are names others gave. In their own languages the O’odham call themselves O’odham, “the People,” and the Piipaash call themselves Piipaash, which also means “the People.” The two tribes have different languages and cultures, but they’ve been allies for many generations and formed a confederation that has long acted as one political power, which is why the United States recognizes them as one tribe. The O’odham word for the ancestors is Huhugam; archaeologists borrowed it as “Hohokam.” In the Community’s own words, those ancestors “developed the most advanced canal system in North America,” hundreds of miles of canals dug by hand, and some of those old canal courses are still used in the Phoenix Valley today. The Piipaash call those who came before them Piipaa nykor, and they’re part of a larger Yuman culture that reaches across Arizona, Southern California and Baja California.
For years the O’odham and Piipaash protected and supplied travelers on their way to California, and in 1862 their farmers reportedly sold more than 1,000,000 pounds of extra wheat to the U.S. military. Two hundred O’odham and Piipaash warriors were among the first to enlist in the first Arizona Volunteer Infantry, where the Piipaash leader Juan Chivaria held the rank of captain, the highest of any Native volunteer. When settlers upstream diverted the Gila in the late 1860s and the fields dried, many families moved to farm along the Salt River, where they had long fished, hunted, gathered and farmed. In 1877 a group of mostly Xalychidom Piipaash and some O’odham helped the Mormon settlers at Lehi dig a new canal system that would benefit all. President Rutherford B. Hayes set the Salt River reserve’s boundaries by executive order on June 14, 1879, and in 1940 the Community adopted a constitution; today an elected president, vice president and council govern more than 11,000 enrolled members.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
House of the Ancestors
Huhugam Ki: means “House of the Ancestors” in the Onk Akimel O’odham language. The museum is built of adobe brick, its gallery tells the Community’s history through objects and photographs, including an ongoing exhibit on Community veterans, and on its west side stand traditional structures: an ‘olas ki:, or va, a one-room house of arrow weed, mesquite poles and willow dug into the ground, and a vatto, or mathkyaaly, the shade ramada where families cooked, worked and slept. The museum holds a Tortilla Festival each spring and Mesquite Pancake Breakfasts in summer and fall. O’odham and Piipaash women made coiled baskets, and the style O’odham women carried to the present is known as “Pima basketry.” Piipaash women carried “Maricopa pottery” forward, and in the 1930s Piipaash potters and museum supporters set up the Maricopa Pottery Cooperative. Keepers of calendar sticks, often cut from saguaro ribs, carved a line for each year and a symbol for its biggest events.
The Community’s Great Seal carries the Man in the Maze, Se’ehe Ki:, Elder Brother’s House. Dorothy Lewis explained it the way her grandparents taught her: “The maze is a symbol of life … happiness, sadness … and you reach your goal.” The two languages, O’odham Ñiokĭ and Piipaash Chuukwer, are endangered, with fewer than ten fluent first-language Piipaash speakers in the Community, and the O’odham Piipaash Language Program teaches classes every spring and fall. In 2020 seventh graders in the Salt River Schools took O’odham language classes, and in 2023 the Council made preserving both languages a priority. The Community has since asked its members whether to take a formal name in O’odham and Piipaash, such as Salt River O’odham Piipaash Indian Community.
Around the map
In February 2011 the Community opened Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, the first Major League Baseball spring training complex built on Native land, home each spring to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies. Community President Diane Enos and Vice President Martin Harvier threw the first pitch, and the Salt River Elementary School choir sang the national anthem. Scottsdale Community College stands on 160 acres leased from the Community and held its first classes there in 1970. Casino Arizona, owned and run by the Community, opened in 1998 and keeps a collection of Native pottery, baskets and jewelry. The Salt River Accelerated Learning Academy is a charter high school in the Salt River Schools, where every school teaches about the O’odham and Piipaash peoples, and the Community still farms about 12,000 acres of cotton, melons, potatoes, onions, broccoli and carrots. The Tribal Justice Center, Associated Farm Co., Apache Peak, Arizona Dam Butte and Boulder Mountain appear on the map as well.
This map makes 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 everyone who calls Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community home, and KNOWOL created it in 2026 to show the Community as it looks today. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community map.
Sources
- About, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- The Peoples, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- History, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Traditional Cultures, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Languages, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Huhugam Ki: Museum, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- O’odham Piipaash Language Program, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Proposed Name Change of SRPMIC, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
- Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Wikipedia
- Mount McDowell (Red Mountain), Wikipedia
- Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Wikipedia
- Scottsdale Community College, Wikipedia
- Casino Arizona, Wikipedia
