Maricopa

people

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June 30, 2026

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The Maricopa are an Indigenous people of the Gila River valley in Arizona. They are also known by the name of their language, which is part of the Yuman language family. Historically, the Maricopa have lived along the Gila and Colorado rivers, engaging in agriculture supplemented by hunting and gathering.123

In modern times, the Maricopa people are part of the population concentrated in urban areas of Arizona. Specifically, Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is home to three-fifths of the state's population. While Native Americans constitute a small fraction of Phoenix's population, the city has one of the largest urban concentrations of Native Americans in the country, with several reservations located nearby.45

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Yuman
…and Cocopa, together with the Maricopa in the middle Gila; and the upland Yumans, who inhabited what is now western Arizona south of the Grand Canyon and whose major groups included the Hualapai (Walapai), Havasupai, and Yavapai. Two other groups of Yuman-speaking people, the Diegueño and the Kamia (now known…
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…and Cocopa, together with the Maricopa in the middle Gila; and the upland Yumans, who inhabited what is now western Arizona south of the Grand Canyon and whose major groups included the Hualapai (Walapai), Havasupai, and Yavapai. Two other groups of Yuman-speaking people, the Diegueño and the Kamia (now known…
Read More