NOTES FROM "THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN" BY EDWARD S. CURTIS
LOCATION: Arizona-The Qahatika lived forty miles from the Pima near the Salt and Gila rivers and in the Sonoran desert in southwestern Arizona.DRESS: Same as the Pima. The dress for men was loin-cloth in summer and robe in winter. The women wore a short cotton skirt of their own weaving and in winter a shawl.
DWELLINGS: The Qahatika house was similar to those of their neighbors, except that the materials were different. Instead of mesquite, cottonwood and, willow used by thee Pimas and Papagos, the Qahatika depended on the woody ribs of the giant cactus.
QUOTES FROM "THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN:" "About forty miles due south of the Pima reservation, in five small villages, one sees a type of the true desert Indian-the Qahatika. When or why they separated from their Pima kindred on the Gila and wandered into this inhospitable desert is a question on which even Indian tradition is vague."
"One traversing this region would have cause to wonder how a human being could wrest from so
barren a land the necessities of life. It is only the life of meager requirement that could exist here; fortunately it is a land of warmth and sunshine, requiring little clothing... By gleaning the whole desert of its plant and animal products, they managed to eke out an existence, becoming in time not only satisfied, but quite attached to their desolate, inhospitable surroundings...Their never ending struggle with the hostile desert seems to have left its mark on the Qahatika and has made them as repellent as the thorny vegetation itself.""They still depend mainly upon the natural food supply, such as mesquite pods and cactus fruits. In locating their villages they selected spots where the natural drainage of a large area concentrates, hence they depend wholly on storm water for their crops. Theirs might well be termed 'dry farming.'"
"Qahatika handicraft shows considerable skill, particularly in pottery, many forms of which are made."