Kohatk

Kohatk lies in the desert of central Arizona, in the country of the Akimel O'odham, the "River People", who lived along the Gila and Salt rivers long before European contact. They lived in loose clusters of houses built around a shared shade ramada, and farmed the river bottoms with an irrigation system of canals that prehistoric builders had dug and the people kept altering as needed.

Apache and Yavapai raiders were their main rivals, and they struck the settled villages for food and resources. Spanish contact began when the missionary Father Kino first visited their villages in 1694. In 1751 the Akimel O'odham rose in the Pima Revolt against the Spanish colonial forces, one of the major northern frontier conflicts of New Spain. After Mexico took over in 1821, contact with outsiders was infrequent, but introduced diseases, wheat, livestock and metal tools reached the villages.