Anthropology and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Southern Arizona Nicholas Barron
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Anthropology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 4-5-2019 Applying Anthropology, Assembling Indigenous Community: Anthropology and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Southern Arizona Nicholas Barron Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Barron, Nicholas. "Applying Anthropology, Assembling Indigenous Community: Anthropology and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Southern Arizona." (2019). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds/168 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Nicholas Barron Candidate Anthropology Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Les Field, Chairperson David Dinwoodie Suzanne Oakdale Lindsay Smith i APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY, ASSEMBLING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY: ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE PASCUA YAQUI TRIBE IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA by NICHOLAS BARRON B.A., Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2012 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2015 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2019 ii DEDICATION For Mom and Susy Riot. I would not have been able to start and finish this project without the support of these strong and compassionate women. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Numerous institutions and countless individuals worked to facilitate the completion of this project. Vital funding came from the UNM-Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship; the Graduate Research Fellowship from the Center for Regional Studies at the University of New Mexico; the Philips Fund for Native American Research, American Philosophical Society; the Archaeological Society of New Mexico Scholarship; the Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship; the New Mexico Research Grant from the University of New Mexico; and the Edward H. and Rosamond B. Spicer Foundation. The patience and guidance from my dissertation committee members–Les Field, David Dinwoodie, Suzanne Oakdale, and Lindsay Smith–were indispensable. Along the way, I received insightful feedback on various chapters from Grant Arndt, Liza Black, Erin Debenport, Richard Handler, Susan Lindee, Nicolas Rosenthal, and Susana Sepulveda. I would have been lost in the archives were it not for the expertise of numerous archivists. I thank Mary Graham and Christina Antipa at the Arizona State Museum; the staff of the Arizona Historical Society, the Arden Craft Shop Museum and the Arden Archives, the staff of the University of Arizona Library, the staff of the Regenstein Library, and Mark Mahoney at the Wenner-Gren Archive. A number of Edward Spicer’s former students and colleagues took the time to speak with me about their experiences with the man. While many of the conversations were simply informal exchanges, they helped inform my research. Thank you to George Pierre Castile, John Francis Meaney, Felipe Molina, Nancy Parezo, Doug Peacock, Guillermo Quiroga, Ernesto Quiroga, and Raymond Thompson. iv APPLYING ANTHROPOLOGY, ASSEMBLING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY: ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE PASCUA YAQUI TRIBE IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA By NICHOLAS BARRON B.A., Anthropology, University of California Santa Cruz, 2012 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2015 Ph.D., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2019 ABSTRACT In the context of the US, anthropology and Indigenous politics are interconnected phenomena with points of intersection that are more often assumed then empirically explored. Using a historical anthropological approach, this study addresses this oversight through a focused analysis of the interconnected histories of anthropology and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Southern Arizona. Illustrated through four case studies of engagements between anthropologists and the Pascua Yaqui, I pose three interrelated arguments regarding the relationship between anthropology and Indigenous political formations. To being with, the dichotomous view of anthropology as friend or foe, dominator or liberator, to and of Native communities is not tenable in this particular case. From the 1930s to the present, this relationship has been, if anything, a mixed bag. To think about the history of anthropology and Pascua Yaqui politics in such a binary manner yields v very little insight. Additionally, anthropology does not appear either as an enemy or as a savior in this history; anthropology was in many ways more of a tool selectively deployed by Yaqui intellectuals. As I illustrate across each chapter, there has been a long-term pattern of Yaqui thinkers and advocates who used anthropological texts, institutions, events, and individuals to bring about their own objectives–namely, to construct and maintain the Pascua Yaqui as a culturally distinct and politically viable community in Southern Arizona. Finally, as Yaqui intellectuals have enrolled anthropology into their political repertoire, they have subtly–but consequentially–shaped the formation of anthropology itself. This confirms the findings of several contemporary scholars who argue that Native peoples have played a heretofore underappreciate role in the formation of the discipline and its key concepts. While their contributions to anthropology may not have always been fully conscious or intentional, Yaqui intellectuals and their political projects certainly had a role to play. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..........................................................................................................x INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 Ambivalent Reflections .........................................................................................1 The Case ................................................................................................................5 Main Arguments ....................................................................................................9 Anthropology and Indigenous Peoples ................................................................ 10 Approaches to the History of Anthropology ....................................................... 18 Chapter Outline ................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER ONE: THE YAQUI AND SPICER ........................................................... 37 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 37 Brokers and Intellectuals ..................................................................................... 37 The Yaqui Indians (in Arizona and Beyond) ...................................................... 40 Co-production in the Life and Times of Edward Spicer ..................................... 44 Anarchy in Arden ................................................................................................ 45 Wandering into Anthropology ............................................................................. 50 “Discovering” Pascua .......................................................................................... 54 Spicer’s Pluralism ................................................................................................ 57 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER TWO: ASSEMBLING PASCUA VILLAGE: PLACE-MAKING AT THE INTERSECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND IMPERIALISM IN TUCSON .......................................................................................................................... 63 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 63 vii Place and Empire .................................................................................................. 66 Institutional Context: Indian Reorganization ........................................................ 70 The Secretary ........................................................................................................ 71 Enrolling “Anthros” .............................................................................................. 83 Making Debris ...................................................................................................... 88 Conclusion: Regenerative Debris ......................................................................... 98 CHAPTER THREE: ASSEMBLING NEW PASCUA: THE PARADOXES OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL ACTIVISM ..........................................................................102 Introduction ..........................................................................................................102 Indirect Rule and Native North America .............................................................104 Historical Overview .............................................................................................107 Advisement and Preservation ..............................................................................120 Anthropological Intervention ...............................................................................125