Hokan

The Hokan group gathers peoples of California, Arizona and Baja California whose languages linguists such as Roland Dixon and Alfred Kroeber proposed to be related; the Hokan hypothesis, which some versions extend to Honduras, is still debated. Among them are the Pomo, Karuk, Shasta, Yavapai, Hualapai, Kumeyaay, Cochimí and Seri.

The Hohokam of the Salt and Gila rivers built irrigation canals between 800 and 1400. In Baja California the Jesuits founded Loreto among the Cochimí in 1697. In 1769 the Spanish founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá in Kumeyaay country, and Kumeyaay villages later burned it. The Seri of Sonora resisted Spanish rule.