HISTORY
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation is located within Maricopa County about twenty-three miles northeast of Phoenix. The desert landscape is contrasted by the Verde River, which flows north to south through the reservation. Thirty miles east of Fort McDowell, the Four Peaks rise from the desert floor to an elevation of more than 7,000 feet.
The community was created by Executive Order on September 15, 1903. The 40-square mile reservation is now home to 600 community members, while another 300 live off reservation. The reservation is a small parcel of land that formerly was the ancestral territory of the once nomadic Yavapai people, who hunted and gathered food in a vast area of Arizona's desert lowlands and mountainous Mogollon Rim country.
In recent years, Fort McDowell won two victories that made history and reaffirmed its tribal sovereignty. In the early 1970's, construction of the Orme Dam was proposed at the confluence of the Verde and Salt rivers, a short distance from the reservation's southern border. The project would have flooded the reservation and forced the community from what remained of its ancestral homeland. With limited financial resources, individuals from the community spearheaded an opposition movement that rallied the support of fellow tribal members. Other Indian tribes and non-Indian groups also opposed the dam.