Chief Tecopa ~ Early 1900's Photo
Original Photo provided to the
Mojave River Valley Museum
by Vance Gilliam
where it is still on display
( contact the museum for print availability )
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The town of Tecopa ( from the Pauite word Tecopet which means "wildcat" ), was named after Chief Tecopa ( Teca-Avats ), who became most famous as the peacekeeper of the "Ni-Wi" Pauites. Chief Tecopa was alive prior to the Anglo-Saxon migration into the Southern Basin region, and lived until between 1904-1906 ( there are conflicting dates in historic accounts ). He watched the arrival of the white man, and witnessed them take his peoples' lands as their own.
Rather than resist the arrival of the white man, Tecopa sensed the changing times. He saw an opportunity for his people, who had long struggled to live in one of the harshest habitable climates in North America. Prior to the white man's arrival, Chief Tecopa believed that his small band of tribes would one day become extinct. He convinced the Ni-Wi to befriend the newcomers, and spent the rest of his life working toward a cooperative future, one that included food, warmth and shelter for his struggling people.
When Chief Tecopa died in 1904, the Pauites recited the Lords Prayer rather than the traditional burial chants. This was in accordance with Tecopa's final wish; he had told his people that there was much magic in the great Chief in the sky called God.
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