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Salt River Pima & Maricopa - Arizona (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 31 January 2008

The band
The flag
Variant flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Salt River Pima & Maricopa - Arizona

On the northern border of the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, the Salt River Reservation is home to 5,000 members of the Pima and Maricopa Tribes (AID, 41). The Salt River Community and its larger companion to the south of Phoenix, the Gila River Community, were once administered as a single unit. In 1961, the two communities split and function now as separate entities.

The Flag

The Salt River Pima and Maricopa have two flags - one de jure, with the true seal of the community and one de facto, with a simplified version. The true community seal can be seen throughout the reservation; the tribal headquarters displays a large replica of the seal at its main entrance. On a white ring are GREAT SEAL at the top and SALT RIVER PIMA-MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY along the bottom, all in black. Black upward-pointing arrows separate these phrases (seal provided by the Salt River Tribal Headquarters).

Within the ring is a depiction of the "man in the maze", a recurring symbol in Pima art of man's journey through life. His life begins at the center of the maze and ends when he reaches the top. As he overcomes obstacles represented by the maze he becomes stronger and wiser. The man and the maze walls are black on a yellow background. This image also appears on the flag of the counterpart reservation [see Gila River Pima & Maricopa].

The flag of the Salt River Community is royal blue with a variant of the seal in the center. In this simplified seal, SALT RIVER and ARIZONA appear on a yellow disk, surrounding a stylized symmetrical maze image in black, without the "man in the maze". Simplification was likely done for economic reasons since the actual seal would be very expensive to reproduce accurately.

[Thanks to NAVA member Harry Oswald for the photograph of the flag.]

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 31 January 2008

image located by Valentin Poposki, 19 August 2019

Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community is a federally recognized tribal entity. Its flag has been changed together with the seal. Here is the image from the World Statesmen website and a photograph of the flag.
Valentin Poposki, 19 August 2019

Seal

image located by Valentin Poposki, 19 August 2019