Editing Quechan (section)

==History==
The historic Yuman-speaking people in this region were skilled warriors and active traders, maintaining exchange networks with the [[Pima people|Pima]] in southern Arizona, New Mexico, and with peoples of the Pacific coast.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Luebering |first=J. E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnQVJ01VDisC&dq=Yuman-speaking+people+pima&pg=PA101 |title=Native American History |date=2010-08-15 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc |isbn=978-1-61530-130-0 |language=en}}</ref>

The first significant contact of the Quechan with [[European colonization of the Americas|Europeans]] was with the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish]] explorer [[Juan Bautista de Anza]] and his party in the winter of 1774. Relations were friendly.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herrera |first=Carlos R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lktBgAAQBAJ&dq=Quechan+the+yuma+colony+and+massacre&pg=PA67 |title=Juan Bautista de Anza: The King's Governor in New Mexico |date=2015-01-14 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-4963-9 |language=en}}</ref>  On Anza's return from his second trip to [[Alta California]] in 1776, the [[Tribal chief|chief]] of the tribe and three of his men journeyed to [[Mexico City]] to petition the Viceroy of New Spain for the establishment of a [[Mission (station)|mission]]. The chief Palma and his three companions were [[baptized]] in Mexico City on February 13, 1777. Palma was given the Spanish baptismal name ''Salvador Carlos Antonio''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Santiago |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AZsDQAAQBAJ&dq=baptismal+name+Salvador+Carlos+Antonio&pg=PA52 |title=Massacre at the Yuma Crossing: Spanish Relations with the Quechans, 1779-1782 |date=2016-12-15 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-3685-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Once the initial contact had been made, The Quechan people seemed inviting toward [[Juan Bautista de Anza]]. He promised them to set up a mission where all people would live together instead of in a hierarchy. Alongside the promise, de Anza gave Palma’s people horses, steel weapons, clothes, and iron as a token of allegiance.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Service |first=United States National Park |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RY1aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA90 |title=The Spanish Missionary Heritage of the United States: Selected Papers and Commentaries from the November 1990 Quincentenary Symposium |date=1993 |publisher=United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service |language=en}}</ref>

This allegiance would soon sour as the bureaucracy of the Spanish Empire would cause major delays to the construction of the missions. When the Spanish’s first gifts arrived in 1780, they would be more of a bad omen than a sign of friendship as the livestock being herded to them would go and trample most of if not all the Quechan’s crops. That year there was severe lack of rain thus forcing the Quechan to raid another nearby tribe known as the [[Maricopa people|Maricopa]].<ref name=":2" />

The following year, two high members of the tribe were arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate a high-ranking officer. One of the natives was placed in stocks to humiliate them and this caused Palma to finally turn his back on the Spanish.<ref name=":2" />

Spanish settlement among the Quechan did not go smoothly; the tribe rebelled from July 17–19, 1781 and killed four priests and thirty soldiers.  They also attacked and damaged the Spanish mission settlements of [[Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer|San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer]] and [[Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción|Puerto de Purísima Concepción]], killing many. The following year, the Spanish retaliated with military action against the tribe.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=Deborah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6_xCwAAQBAJ&dq=Quechan+rebellion&pg=PT236 |title=Contesting the Borderlands: Interviews on the Early Southwest |last2=Lawrence |first2=Jon |date=2016-04-28 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-5509-8 |language=en}}</ref> After 1840, the Quechan people near La Frontera returned to their original ways of religious practice as soon as the mission priests left and no one replaced them.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Porcayo-Michelini |first=Antonio |date=2022-07-03 |title=Yuman Rebels of Antigua California: Colonial Resistance in a Hostile Environment? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1947461x.2022.2121023 |journal=California Archaeology |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=103–132 |doi=10.1080/1947461x.2022.2121023 |s2cid=252324718 |issn=1947-461X}}</ref>

After the United States annexed the territories after winning the [[Mexican–American War]], it engaged in the [[Yuma War]] from 1850 to 1853 in response to a conflict between the Quechan and [[Jaeger's Ferry]] and the [[Glanton Gang]], after the Quechan had established a rival ferry service on the Colorado River. During which, the historic Fort Yuma was built across the Colorado River from the present day [[Yuma, Arizona]].