"July 11, 1912

YUMA - Word comes from Somerton that for the past five days Indians of all colors, sizes and kinds, from all over the Southwest, have been in attendance at the big Indian Festival which concluded last night at high 12.

The heavens were ablaze for miles around when the assembled Cocopahs and their visitors set fire to the chief's house as an atonement for their sins.

Weird songs lent enchantment to the scenes while the Indians danced and the pale-faced visitors in attendance gazed on in wonderment.

Five hundred buck Indians attended, some of them from Encenada on the Lower California coast. All were well supplied with money, and A.E. Baldwin, the Somerton storekeeper, had a small mint for five days, and says he is going to invest it in Yuma County real estate."

Get the Story:
Arizona at 100: Cocopah Indians hosted exotic festival in Somerton (The Arizona Daily Star 7/11)