Marius,
I think maybe part of the confusion is due to the Yavapai always being mis-identified as Apache...it's something to look out for when reading books, newspapers, etc., especially for anything written back in the day...
IMO some ancient people did live in the Supes, but only in very small numbers. I think the remnants at Garden Valley are probably just one of many harvest camps, but who knows…supposedly there’s a man-made mound there…which might mean a lot more people…but the Yavapai’s that came later probably used the valley in the same manner…for harvesting…
Some Yavapai did "live" (a better word would be “camped”) in there now and then, but keep in mind they would have only been in there to harvest something...then they would have moved on to harvest or hunt something else...the charcoal pits and beds attributed to Peralta or Mexican miners were most likely IMO associated with agave or other cactus harvest cooking...
I don’t know if any agave fields exist in the Supes, but it has been recently established scientifically that most stands of agave in central AZ were brought there from Mexico and primitively farmed…in other words they were sustainably harvested and cared for in order to provide long-term resources…that’s why we often see them in clumps even today…the remnants still exist…
Written Yavapai history is spotty and often incorrect…I think Joe brought up Mike Burns…google him, much of his history was written down…he was a young Yavapai survivor of the Skeleton Cave Massacre…