According to Bureau of India Affairs records, Maria was born in approximately 1874 on Tohono O'odham lands. No records could be found indicating the names of her parents. There is also no record of her death with the Arizona health department, though based on her husband's remarriage and her disappearance from the records, it is likely she died around 1929. The name “Chelis” only appears one other time in the BIA records for the Tohono O'odham, with a woman named Juana Chelis married to a man named Sivayo in 1919. However, she lived on the complete opposite end of the Tohono O'odham reservation.1 Maria spent much if not all of her married life in the village of Topowa. Interestingly, the 1925 Bureau of Indian Affairs census lists her name as Maria Cholis Narcho, while her husband still has the surname Miguel, leading to the possibility that he may have adopted her surname.
1 Year: 1919; Roll: M595_480; Line: 15; Agency: Perigua Village Sells.
1 Year: 1919; Roll: M595_480; Line: 15; Agency: Perigua Village Sells.