"Alfred Louis Kroeber...was the leading Indian anthropologist of his generation." -LA Times, Oct. 18, 1980

"World renowned anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber, of the University of California at Berkeley...an expert on California Indians." -Miami Herald, May 15, 1986

"Kroeber established much of what is still held to be the basic cultural interpretations of Native California." - The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-gatherers (2014)

"Alfred Louis Kroeber ranked by many experts as the world's greatest anthropologists...died peacefully in his sleep Tuesday night...credited by one of his associates with doing more to shape the science of anthropology than those of any other man." -San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 16, 1960

What geographical regions of the present United States did the mysterious people of the Yuma tribe inhabit prior to the 20th Century?

In 1920, Alfred Louis Kroeber published the short 15-page work titled "Yuman Tribes of the Lower Colorado," shedding light on this little-known tribe.

In introducing his work, Kroeber writes:

"Besides the Mohave and Yuma, who are well-known tribes still living in some numbers about Needles and Yuma, five or six other tribes of Yuman lineage once occupied the banks of the lower Colorado river. Of these half dozen, only the Cocopa and-Kamia retain their identity, and the latter are few. The others are extinct or merged. In order, upstream, the Yuman tribes of the river were the Cocopa, Halyikwamai, Alakwisa, Kohuana, Kamia, Yuma, Halchidhoma, and Mohave. The following discussion of this string of peoples refers chiefly to the less known ones among them and is based on information obtained from the Mohave and on statements in the older literature."

Alfred Louis Kroeber (1876 – 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his Ph.D. under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as Director from 1909 through 1947. Kroeber provided detailed information about Ishi, the last surviving member of the Yahi people, whom he studied over a period of years.