Archeological and linguistic evidence suggests that the Yavapai people began developing independently from the Patayan at some point around 1300 CE. Until western expansion in the 1860s, the Yavapai, specifically the Wi:pukba (Northeastern Yavapai), occupied the land up to the San Francisco Peaks. Wi:pukba groups had tumultuous relations with the nearby Havasupai and Hualapai people from around 1750. Though the Pai peoples all spoke Upland Yuman dialects, and had a common cultural history, each peoples had tales of a dispute that separated them from each other; according to myth, the dispute began with a mudball fight between children. The Yavapai land in the area saw overlap with the land of the Northern Tonto Apache that stretched across the San Francisco Peaks to the Little Colorado River.