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1 <br />1 <br />camps of Native Americans, and numerous records authenticate its use as human and <br />animal food. Early settlers used many tons of n~zorback suckers as food (Minckley et <br />al. 1991, Quartarone 1993). , <br />Dfstributlon and Abundance ~ ' <br /> <br />The razorback sucker was once widely distributed and abundant in mainstream and the <br />' <br />ma <br />or tributa rivers of the Colorado River basin Ellis i 914• Jordan n v r <br />1 rY ( a d E e mann <br />1896; Minckley 1973, 1983; Fgure 2). In the lower Colorado River basin, razorback , <br />suckers occurred from the Colorado River delta upstream to Lees Ferry, Arizona <br />(Gilbert and Scofield 1898). Archeological evidence indicates that razorback suckers <br />were common periodically in the Salton Sea area (Minckley 1983; Minckley et al. <br />1991). They invaded the Salton Sea when it last filled in 1904-1907, but increasing <br />salinity made this habitat marginal to uninhabitable for freshwa#er fishes after 1929 <br />(Evennann 1916, Coleman 1929). Razorback suckers occurred in most of the Gila ' <br />River drainage (reviewed by Bestgen 1990) and may have been common in the Gila ' <br />River mainstream upstream nearly to the New Mexico border (Kirsch 1889), however <br />Huntington (1955) did not document resence of the fish in New Mexico. The fish was ' <br />P <br />abundant in the lower Salt River, and occurred in lower Tonto Creek and in the Verde <br />River to Perkinsville, Arizona (Hubbs and Miller 1953, Minckley 1973). Upstream , <br />distribution in the Salt River may have been limited by extensive canyon habitat <br />(Bestgen 1990), but no surveys were made before the 1960s. <br />s ~ <br /> <br />