Editing Mohave people (section)

===19th–20th centuries===
[[File:Mosa, Mohave girl, by Edward S. Curtis, 1903.jpg|thumb|left|Mosa (Mojave girl), 1903, photograph by [[Edward Curtis]]]]
In mid-April 1859, United States troops, led by Lieutenant Colonel [[William Hoffman (U.S. Army)|William Hoffman]], on the Expedition of the Colorado, moved upriver into Mojave country with the well-publicized objective of establishing a military post. By this time, white immigrants and settlers had begun to encroach on Mojave lands and the post was intended to protect east-west European-American emigrants from attack by the Mojave.  Hoffman sent couriers among the tribes, warning that the post would be gained by force if they or their allies chose to resist. During this period, several members of the [[Rose-Baley Party]] were massacred by the Mojave. The Mojave warriors withdrew as Hoffman's armada approached and the army, without conflict, occupied land near the future [[Fort Mojave Indian Reservation|Fort Mojave]].   Hoffman ordered the Mojave men to assemble on April 23, 1859, at the armed stockade adjacent to his headquarters, to hear Hoffman' terms of peace.  Hoffman gave them the choice of submission or extermination and the Mojave chose submission.   At that time the Mojave population was estimated to be about 4,000, which composed 22 [[clan]]s identified by [[totem]]s.
[[File:Two Mojave Indians girls standing in front of a small dwelling with a thatched roof, 1900 (CHS-1241).jpg|thumb|300px|Two Mojave girls standing in front of a small dwelling with a thatched roof, 1900]]
Under American law the Mohave were to live on the Colorado River Reservation after its establishment in 1865. However, many refused to leave their ancestral homes in the Mojave Valley.  At this time, under jurisdiction of the War Department, officials declined to try to force them onto the reservation and the Mojave in the area were relatively free to follow their tribal ways.  In the midsummer of 1890, after the end of the [[Indian Wars]], the War Department withdrew its troops and the post was transferred to the Office of Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior.

Beginning in August 1890, the Office of Indian Affairs began an intensive program of [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]] where Mohave, and other native children living on reservations, were forced into boarding schools in which they learned to speak, write, and read English.  This assimilation program, which was Federal policy, was based on the belief that this was the only way native peoples could survive.  Fort Mojave was converted into a [[Indian boarding school|boarding school]] for local children and other "non-reservation" Indians.  Until 1931, forty-one years later, all Fort Mojave boys and girls between the ages of six and eighteen were compelled to live at this school or to attend an advanced Indian boarding school far removed from Fort Mojave.
[[File:Two Mojave Indian woman playing a game (fortune-telling with bones?), ca.1900 (CHS-3410).jpg|thumb|300px|left|Two Mojave Indian women playing a game (fortune-telling with bones?), {{Circa|1900}}]]
The assimilation helped to break up tribal culture and governments.  In addition to English, schools taught American culture and customs and insisted that the children follow them; students were required to adopt European-American hairstyles (which included hair cutting), clothing, habits of eating, sleeping, toiletry, manners, industry, and language.  Use of their own language or customs was a punishable offense; at Fort Mojave five lashes of the whip were issued for the first offense.   Such corporal punishment of children scandalized the Mojave, who did not discipline their children in that way.

As part of the assimilation the administrators assigned English names to the children and registered as members of one of two tribes, the Mojave Tribe on the Colorado River Reservation and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. These divisions did not reflect the traditional Mojave clan and kinship system.  By the late 1960s, thirty years after the end of the assimilation program 18 of the 22 traditional clans had survived.