A river in the southwestern United States, or referring to things from that region (like Gila monsters, a venomous lizard species).
From O'odham or similar Native American languages spoken in the American Southwest. The river was named by Spanish colonizers who adopted the indigenous name. 'Gila' has been used in English place names since the 1800s as Americans moved westward.
The Gila monster is one of only two venomous lizards in North America, yet despite its scary name and venom, it's actually quite docile and slow-moving—it was named 'Gila monster' by early settlers, but modern scientists find it to be a fairly harmless reptile that rarely bites humans. The Gila River region was crucial to Native American irrigation and civilization for thousands of years.
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