Arenal, Arizona Explained

Arenal, "sandy place" in Spanish, also known as Aranca No.1 in the 1857 census, was one of the 19th century Pima Villages, located along the Gila River, in what is now the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County, Arizona.[1]

Demographics

Arenal appeared once on the 1860 U.S. Census in what was then Arizona County, New Mexico Territory. It reported a population of 577, all Pima Indians.[2] It was the largest native community recorded in Arizona County, behind only Tucson. Because census takers in 1860 and the specials prior to that failed to denote the precise location of the specific Pima villages on maps, it is unclear their exact locations today.[3] It was, however, noted that it was apparently between the villages of Cerrito & Cachanillo.[4] Arenal was never returned again on the census after 1860.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.griccrmp.com/PDF%20Files/Peoples%20of%20the%20Middle%20Gila.pdf John P. Wilson, Peoples of the Middle Gila: A Documentary History of the Pimas and Maricopas, 1500s – 1945, Researched and Written for the Gila River Indian Community, Sacaton, Arizona, 1998 (revised July 1999) Report No. 77, Las Cruces, New Mexico, p. 140
  2. Web site: Territory of New Mexico . United States Census Bureau . 1860.
  3. Wilson, People of the Middle Gila, p. 140
  4. Wilson, People of the Middle Gila, p. 166