Cocopah Indian Tribe

The Cocopah Indian Tribe Community Network serves the Cocopah Tribe (Kwapa), also known as the River People, who have long lived along the lower Colorado River and Delta. For centuries, the Cocopah people, described as generous and non-materialistic, have maintained their traditional and cultural beliefs through the various political environments and ever-changing landscapes.

The Cocopah Indian Tribe is one of seven descendant Tribes from the greater Yuman language-speaking people who occupied lands along the Colorado River. Cocopah Tribal ancestors also lived along the Lower Colorado River region near the river delta and the Gulf of California.

The Cocopah Tribe of Arizona is comprised of three noncontiguous bodies of land known as the North, West and East Reservations. Today, the East, West and North Reservations comprise over 6,500 acres, much of which is leased as agricultural land to non-Indian farmers. The Cocopah Reservation is located 13 miles south of Yuma, Arizona, and 15 miles north of San Luis, Mexico, in Yuma County along the Colorado River. The reservation's unique geographical location borders the United States, Mexico, Arizona and California.

As recently as the 1960s, a number of tribal families lived in traditional arrow weed-thatched homes, and until 1968, there were few houses and gravel roads. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the Tribe began acquiring additional land, constructing homes, installing utilities, developing an infrastructure system and initiating economic development. The hexagonal Tribal Administration Building was completed in 1976. Currently, there are about 1,000 enrolled Cocopah Tribal members who live and work on or near the three reservations.

Rural Partners Network will work in partnership with the Cocopah Tribe to address infrastructure, energy projects, and community and economic development.