The Names of Arizona's Four Peaks

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• The Names of Arizona's Four Peaks
• Harry J. Winters Jr. (bio)

Yavapai Name

The Four Peaks sit on the crest of the southern Mazatzal Mountains on the boundary between the old territories of the Kwevakapaya Yavapais on the west and the Dilzhę'e (Tonto Apaches) on the east. The Kwevakapaya are the Downstream or Southern Yavapais because their territory is downstream and south on the Verde River from the territory of their relatives on the middle Verde River. See the locator map for the location of the Four Peaks and other places named in this essay. The Four Peaks have many names. The Yavapais call themselves Baaja and their language Baaja Gwaawja. In Baaja Gwaawja the Four Peaks are Wii Kjasa, Chopped Mountain, from the shape of the peaks and the passes between them as seen from the west. See Figure 1. The earliest written record of this name that I know of is in Corbusier (1921, 8). His spelling is wē-ka-chá-sa and his translation is "Chopped Looking Rocks." Corbusier's original vocabulary was written in 1873, but did not include the name of the Four Peaks. Recently another name, Wii Huba, literally meaning Four Mountains, was coined from the English name, but it is not the historical Yavapai name for the peaks. I never heard Yavapai elders use it. [End Page 165]

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Four Peaks seen from the west. Photo by Pete Kresan.

from HW: This figure is in Maricopa Place Names, 2018, Figure 9.1 on page 133, SRI Press, Tucson, AZ, 2018. It is also Figure 8 in Winters and Darling, JSW, 64, 1 (Spring 2022: 159-191)

[End Page 166]

Apache Name

When the Dilzhę'e, Tonto Apaches in English, arrived in the Tonto Basin, they became friends and allies of the Kwevakapaya. The Dilzhę'e camped on the eastern slopes of the Mazatzal Mountains and shared the resources there with the Kwevakapaya. From the Tonto Basin side the Four Peaks look very different than from the Verde River side. The Dilzhę'e named them Tsēē Disdāāz, Rocks Sitting (like they have been put there). That's how they look from the east. See Figure 2.

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Four Peaks seen from the Tonto Basin east of the peaks. Photo by Sal Cabibo.

Piipaash Name

The Piipaash, Maricopas in English, call their language Piipaash Chuukwer. They call the Four Peaks Ikwem Kwiimash, Dancer With Antlers/Horns. Ikwe means "antlers," ikwem means "with antlers," and kwiimash, dancer, comes from the verb iima-k meaning "to dance." There is nothing about the appearance of the Four Peaks from either west or east that would bring a dancer wearing antlers or horns to mind. How did this name come about? [End Page 167]

'O'odham Names

The Tohono 'O'odham, formerly called Papagos by non-'O'odham, and the 'Akimeli 'O'odham, called Pimas by non-'O'odham, call their language 'O'odham ñi'ok. The 'O'odham have three names for the Four Peaks. One is Masha Sha'alik, Pass In The Moonlight. Masho means "in the moonlight." Due to a feature of 'O'odham ñi'ok called vowel harmony, the o in masho becomes an a, giving masha. A sha'alik is a pass or gap between peaks, mountains, or hills. In this case sha'alik refers to the big, deep gap between two of the four peaks. See Figure 1. There is relatively little vegetation on the heights of the peaks. They stand out clearly in bright moonlight. For a second name, some 'O'odham call the peaks Mashad Sha'alik, Moon Pass or Moon Gap, instead of Masha Sha'alik. I have heard these names many times over the last 65 years, including as far southeast as an 'O'odham saguaro camp in the western foothills of the Tucson Mountains.

Spanish-speaking explorers gave a name to the mountain range on which the Four Peaks sit. That name came to be spelled Mazatzal. This clearly came from one of the above...