Vatop. There are occasional references to fish in the traditions of the Pimas and the notes of Spanish and American travelers sometimes mention them. It is certain that at times they caught large numbers of fish, but in seasons of drought the river, then as now, becoming wholly dry near the villages, could not be relied upon to furnish such a convenient supply of food. Either the long series of dry years and the absence of fish have caused the people to forget former classifications or else they never distinguished one species from another, for they now have but one name for all fresh fish. However, there were several species in the Gila and adjoining streams that were large enough for food.[1]
Whʼaĭ, Odocoileus hemionus (subspecies?}. Information concerning this species was very vague and unreliable, though it seems certain that the black-tail deer was sometimes killed by the Pimas, at least before the growing power of the Apaches prevented the former from roaming through the mountains that border Pimería on the north and east.
Woʼpoldo, Equus asinus.[2] The burro (donkey) is not in high repute among the Pimas, where the distances to the white settlements and between villages necessitate a more speedy animal for draft or riding purposes. Few in number, they could not be very important as an article of diet. They have been eaten in the past, but are rarely so used at present.
Snakes are not eaten, even in times of famine, and the idea of eating lizards is repudiated with scorn.
- ↑ Garcés, who traversed the Pima country in 1775, wrote: "There is found in this river no other fish than that which they call matalo’te, which is so very savory to the taste, but is troublesome on account of the many bones that it has." On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, II, 142.) Jordan says: "Garcés's remarks settle the matalo’te. There are no large fish in the Gila except the two large, bony chubs called, by Baird and Girard, Gila robusta and Gila elegans. In the very mouth of the river there is also a big, rawboned sucker of the same build, called Xyrauchen cypho, the Razor-back or Hump-back Sucker. The Gila is a hump-back chub, about a foot and a half long, with a low, large mouth and a long, broad tail. It is popularly known as Bony-tail, Gila Trout, and Round-tail, and is about as poor eating as a fish can be." The Land of Sunshine, XIII, 436.
In The Fishes of the Colorado Basin, Evermann and Rutter enumerate several species that must have been accessible to the Pimas. Their names and the localities where they were collected are as follows:
Pantosteus arizonæ Gilbert. Salt river, Tempe.
In addition to these may be included the species collected in the San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers, which are both tributaries of the Gila above Pimería and within reach of Pima hunting parties: Leuciscus niger (Cope), Tiaroga cobitis Girard, Agosia oscula (Girard), Agosia chrysogaster Girard, and Meda fulgida Girard.
Pantosteus clarkii (Baird and Girard). Gila river, Fort Thomas.
Catostomus latipinnis (Baird and Girard). Rio San Pedro and Fort Thomas.
Catostomus gile Kirsch. Fort Thomas.
Catostomus insignis Baird and Girard. Rio San Pedro and Fort Thomas.
Xyrauchen cypho (Lockington). Mouth of Gila and Fort Thomas.
Ptychocheilus lucius Girard. Various stations on the Gila. Called Gila trout by Emory in 1848.
Gila elegans Baird and Girard. Taken from several places along the Gila by collectors.
Gila robusta Baird and Girard. Also described from several Gila stations under various names.
Cyprinodon macularius Baird and Girard. "Rio Gila." - ↑ It is uncertain whether the burro of the Southwest is a descendant of the Asiatic species of wild asses, Equus hernionus, E. heniihippus, and E. onager, or of the African, E. africanus and E. somaticus.
