HUA A'aga: BASKET STORIES from the FIELD, the TOHONO O'odham COMMUNITY of A:L PI'ichkiñ (PITIQUITO), SONORA MEXICO. by Re

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Hua A'aga: Basket Stories from the Field, The Tohono O'odham Community of A:L Pi'ichkiñ (Pitiquito), Sonora Mexico

Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation

Authors Naranjo, Reuben Vasquez Jr.

Publisher The University of Arizona.

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Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/202767

HUA A’AGA: BASKET STORIES FROM THE FIELD, THE TOHONO O’ODHAM

COMMUNITY OF A:L PI’ICHKIÑ (PITIQUITO), SONORA MEXICO.

Reuben Vasquez Naranjo Jr

______

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the

GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN

AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES.

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

In the Graduate College

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

2011 2

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE

As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read this dissertation prepared by Reuben Naranjo Jr entitled Hua a’aga: Basket stories from the field, the Tohono O’odham Community of A:l Pi’ichkiñ (Pitiquito), Sonora Mexico, and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

______Date: 08/02/11 K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Ph.D.

______Date: 08/02/11 Nancy J. Parezo, Ph.D.

______Date: 08/02/11 Elizabeth Kennedy, Ph.D.

______Date: 08/02/11 Michael Brescia, Ph.D.

______Date: 08/02/11 Aurore Chabot, M.F.A.

Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement.

______Date: 08/02/11 Dissertation Director: K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Ph.D.

STATEMENT BY AUTHOR

This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library.

Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder.

SIGNED: Reuben V. Naranjo Jr.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My gratitude goes out to the many people, places, and events that made this project possible. Thank you to my dissertation committee: K. Tsianina Lomawaima Ph.D., Nancy Parezo Ph.D., Elizabeth Kennedy Ph.D., Michael Brescia Ph.D., and Aurore Chabot, M.F.A. Also, my thanks to Dr. Maria Teresa Velez, Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Debbi Golden Davis, Office of Financial Aid. To my Tohono O’odham consultants: C. Alicia Chuhuhua, Mattías Chuhuhua Gomez and his family, Candelaria Pedro, Luis, Miguel, Alma, Yamilet, and Grecia, Carmen Rodriguez- Napoleon, Rafael Rodriguez-Napoleon, Candelario Zacarias-Napoleon, Ricardo Rodriguez-Napoleon, Francisca Salas-Rodriguez, Marco Antonio Salas-Rodriguez, and Dena Thomas. Also to Claudio Alonso Murrieta-Ortiz, the priest for the Pitiquito community. I am indebted to the generosity of the American Philosophical Society’s Native American Grants for research, the American Indian Studies Mini Grant for travel in Latin America, the University of Arizona Graduate College Marshall Fellowship, the Tohono O'odham Nation Education and Scholarship fund and the UofA American Indian Studies Program. Also to my good friends Susan Lobo, Antonio S. Abeyta, Greg Schoon, To:bi Keli or Bernard “Bunny” Fontana, Alan Ferg, Diane “Miss Star” Dittemore, and Diana Hadley. In Mexico City, thank you to Victor the extremely helpful hostel manager, the “Coyote Back Packers” and finally to the “copy guy” (never got his name down) for the Archivo General de la Nacíon, as he knew the archives better than the archivists and librarians and his knowledge was an enormous help. I thank you all.

DEDICATION

I dedicate this project to my mother Rosita, as well as three individuals that have passed away before the completion of this project: To my best friend and companion in the field, Annie Manuel (Hickiwan, AZ); To Candelario for his bright, devilish and candid smile--always ready to go look for aluminum cans or clay; and to the grandfather I never had, Mattías Chuhuhua (Cu’i wuadam) Gómez. Mattías knew more about Sonoran

Tohono O’odham culture and life than I could ever learn in one lifetime, the last of his generation. May they all rest in eternal peace. 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ...... 8

LIST OF TABLES...... 9

ABSTRACT...... 10

PART ONE: RESEARCH ...... 12

1.1 Central influence of the international boundary ...... 13

1.2 Cultural, nationalistic and political discontinuities between the northern and

southern Tohono O’odham...... 14

Discontinuities across the border...... 14

O’odham views of one another north and south of the international boundary .16

1.3 Locale: the mission pueblo or town of Pitiquito, Sonora ...... 18

Historical geography...... 18

Contemporary geography ...... 19

1.4 Methods: The beginning, the Institutional & Tribal research approval process and

social conviviality...... 23

The Institutional & Tribal research approval process...... 23

Methodology for fieldwork ...... 25

Giving back to the community ...... 30

1.5 Conceptual design and artistic theoretical foundation of the mural ...... 30

1.6 Themes derived from field research and experiences...... 32

TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued

1.7 Conceptual elements of the mural: culture, basket weaving and calendar sticks.....34

PART TWO: HUA A’AGA: BASKET TALE NARRATIVES...... 38

2.1 Oral Tradition ...... 38

2.2 Kinship...... 41

2.3 Tradition and Modernity in 2007...... 46

2.4 Feast of St. Francis at Magdalena de Kino in Sonora, Mexico ...... 49

2.5 Nationalism...... 55

2.6 Importance of Photography ...... 59

2.7 Identity...... 63

2.8 Cultural persistence through pottery and basketmaking...... 68

CONCLUSION...... 72

ENDNOTES ...... 73

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 1...... 75

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 2...... 76

APPENDIX C: ENGLISH PARTICIPANT INFORMED CONSENT ...... 77

APPENDIX D: SPANISH PARTICIPANT INFORMED CONSENT...... 80

APPENDIX E: TOHONO O’ODHAM LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL RESOLUTION ...... 82

APPENDIX F: TOHONO O’ODHAM EXECUTIVE APPROVAL...... 84

REFERENCES ...... 85 8

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1, Photograph of completed ceramic tile mural ...... 11

FIGURE 2, Map of the state of Sonora with inset of the town of Pitiquito ...... 20

FIGURE 3, Example of O’odham painting in Pitiquito mission church ...... 21

FIGURE 4, Historical photograph of Papago community in Pitiquito...... 22

FIGURE 5, Historical map illustration of Pitiquito community before dispersal ...... 22

FIGURE 6, Recent photo of interview subject Carmen Rodriguez Napoleon ...... 29

FIGURE 7, Diagram depicting author’s relation to interview subjects...... 30

FIGURE 8, Illustration of ceramic mural detail with explanation of components...... 32

FIGURE 9, 1976 photo of Rosita Bautista and family at Feast of St Francis ...... 52

FIGURE 10, 1976 photo of various relatives at Feast of St Francis ...... 54

FIGURE 11, 1940s photo of Pitiquito relatives at the Feast of St Francis ...... 59

FIGURE 12, 1950s photo of Napoleon family at Magdalena de Kino...... 60

FIGURE 13, O’odham painting inside San Diego del Pitic church ...... 68

FIGURE 14, Candelario Zacarías-Napoleon digging for clay ...... 70

FIGURE 15, Pitiquito consultants with pottery...... 71 9

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1, Eight narrative themes and their corresponding ideograms & descriptions ....33 10

ABSTRACT

The Tohono O’odham Nation of southern Arizona and northern Sonora Mexico has two distinct and distinctive cultural, social, political and federal histories. The

American government politically acknowledges one group while the other is entrenched in Mexican social policy that regards Indigenous peoples as equals to the Mestizo population known as campesinos or peasants. The Sonoran Tohono O’odham community of Al Pi’ichkin or Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico, has managed to persist and survive into the twenty first century despite the presence of an international boundary and the assimilative efforts of Mexican socio-federal Indian policy.

This is an exploration of the issue of cultural continuity within the community of

Pitiquito, Sonora Mexico via the following eight themes which emerged from my field work: the oral tradition; kinship; tradition and modernity in 2007; the Feast of St. Francis at Magdalena de Kino; nationalism; importance of photography; identity; and cultural persistence. The final ceramic mural along with the accompanying essay will constitute my Ph.D. dissertation project. 11

Figure 1, Ceramic tile mural (with detail)

PART ONE: RESEARCH

The Tohono O'odham Nation (formerly Papago in both the U.S. & Mexico) currently occupies southwestern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. Prior to the U.S.

Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), (Canby, 24) in 1934, Tohono O'odham people were a self-sufficient Indian Nation (Underhill, 30) hunting, farming and traveling long distances to gather weaving materials as well as harvesting various food items out of the Sonoran desert and on either side of the international boundary.1 Until the early 1950s and 60s, the

Tohono O'odham for the most part ignored the U.S-Mexico border. O'odham people interacted while traversing the boundary's invisible presence and negotiating political interventions and threats such as the U.S. deportation of Sonoran O'odham migrants working the agricultural fields in southern and central Arizona (Thomas), as well as the dispossession of O'odham lands by the Mexican government.

The purpose of this essay and accompanying ceramic mural is to explore the issue of cultural continuity in the community of Pitiquito, Sonora Mexico via the following eight themes which emerged in my field work: the oral tradition; kinship; tradition and modernity in 2007; the Feast of St. Francis at Magdalena de Kino; nationalism; importance of photography; identity; and cultural persistence. The themes will be represented in both narrative and artistic form. The final ceramic mural with the accompanying essay will fulfill the minor in studio arts requirement and constitute my final Ph.D. project (See Figures 1 and 8).

In addition, my fieldwork represented a quest for the roots of my identity as an

Amerindian living in the United States descended from Sonoran Tohono O'odham and 13

Yoeme (more commonly known as Yaqui)2 peoples. Sonoran Tohono O’odham and

Yoeme peoples were at one time theoretically, legally and politically Mexican Indians.

With the establishment of the present international boundary these two groups were separated into two, Mexican and American Tohono O’odham – American and Mexican

Yoeme peoples. This project combines an inquiry that is on one level personal and on another, academic.

The ceramic mural along with the accompanying essay illuminate what changes have taken place such as the passport requirement for passage by Sonoran Tohono

O'odham into the U.S. and from Arizona into the state of Sonora, and how the Tohono

O'odham of the state of Sonora, Mexico have managed to survive ethnic and cultural genocide, all the while maintaining their identity as Pápagos or Tohono O’odham people.

1.1 Central influence of the international boundary

The Tohono O’odham homeland was severed when the current U.S.-Mexico border was created by the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. At first, the border was more ideological than a physical fence or effective human and cultural barrier. It was only in the early to mid-20th century that the border’s presence began to solidify nationally, politically, economically, and culturally. Unlike the Canadian-United States border, the

U.S.-Mexico border situation is grounded in racist practices as well as economic and social regulatory processes. U.S policies are directed at those deemed undesirable:

Mexican nationals. The maintenance of colonialist practices and racist policies, such as the recent Arizona House Bill 1070, which extends the power of state and city law 14

enforcement into the federal realm of immigration control, remains alive and well in the

21st century.

1.2 Cultural, nationalistic and political discontinuities between the northern and southern Tohono O’odham

The international border has created new challenges and obstacles that impede cultural, historical, political and economic equilibrium between the two O’odham groups on either side of the boundary.

Discontinuities across the border

The land status of most Sonoran Tohono O’odham communities south of the border has, since the late 1800s, been fragile. Most Sonoran Tohono O'odham view their time-immemorial occupation of their lands and communities in Sonora as establishment of their right to aboriginal land without dispute. The Mexican government views land ownership differently. Based on Old World ideas of documentation by deed and Mexican state and federal recognition of land ownership, Mexicans have forcibly removed some

Sonoran Tohono O'odham from their communities.4 The Mexican government has justified this dispossession of the Sonoran O'odham by asserting that they do not own their lands because they do not have title, deeds, or Mexican federal recognition of their ownership of lands (Chuhuhua). On the U.S. side, land status is grounded in a federal trust status and is more concrete.

Although federally recognized American Indian tribes have through two centuries of court cases been recognized as sovereign nations, they have a political relationship with the U.S. federal government that is paternalistic in nature. One example is that

Native American lands or reservations are held in trust by the United States government. 15

In Sonora, the federal-Indian relationship is characterized by the system of ejidos for most, if not all, Sonoran Tohono O'odham communities. The ejido system is a form of a communal land ownership whereby a group of individuals, primarily related families, colonize or make use of a piece of communal land and establish a form of local governance that is referred to as regidor. A regidor is a public servant, which by popular vote and in conjunction with the municipal president, attempts to resolve pueblo or town obstacles (Franco).

Many American Tohono O’odham families who have relatives farther south into

Sonora do not understand the process of documentation required by the Mexican government for travel into the interior. In the 1990s, with the advent of the tourist industry, this process has been made slightly easier for Americans and Tohono O'odham traveling into Sonora for pleasure, business or religious purposes (Sonora Tourismo), but many past misunderstandings and conflicts between American O’odham and Mexican customs officials have created great mistrust. In recent years the effort to make tribal identification cards function as passports for passage to and from Sonora has been suggested, although as of this writing it has been largely unsuccessful due to increased national security and changes in both tribal and federal administration.

A further example of discontinuity between American and Sonoran O’odham is access to education in Sonora. The Mexican public educational system grants a student free education through a public school system. Most children of Sonoran Tohono

O’odham families go to work upon finishing secundaria, or middle school, since high school, or preparatoria, is not required by Mexican educational standards (Franco). 16

Sonoran Tohono O’odham do not have governmental support for the unemployed or a social security system that is comparable to the American model, therefore everyone in the family pitches in to help the survival of the whole. Thus Sonoran Tohono O’odham students such as Miguel Chuhuhua Varela, son of Mattías Chuhuhua Gómez, are forced to drop out usually after secundaria to begin working to help their family. Miguel wanted to go to electrician’s school but he could not because he had not finished preparatoria.

This disqualified Miguel and many other Sonoran Tohono O’odham students like him.

By contrast, on the American side, public assistance for the unemployed and access to

General Education Degrees for student dropouts is available to most American Tohono

O’odham and non-Native American citizens, usually for free.

These discontinuities between American and Sonoran O’odham have engendered tension between the two groups. As a result, this has brought about a nationalistic and political rift between American Tohono O’odham nationalists and the Papagos

Mexicanos Nacionalistas, or Mexican Nationalist Papagos. Mexican federal policy in regard to natives and tribal government in Sonora is historically complex.

O’odham views of one another, north and south of the international boundary

The institutional severing and ongoing militarization of the border has had an increasingly negative effect on the views of American O’odham and Mexican Sonoran

O’odham towards one another. As noted in a 1940 letter from then ex-presidente of the pueblo of Caborca to the Mexican President, more Sonoran O’odham began migrating north into the United States, sending their children to American schools and looking for work in U.S. agricultural fields, and some Mexican citizens and politicians interpreted 17

their movement north as treasonous to the Mexican republic, despite the countless

Mexican mestizos migrating north in search of the same work and prosperity (Salcido).

Some Native North American Indians including some American Tohono

O'odham, based on their own nationalist ideas about what constitutes American Indian, would refer to Sonoran O’odham as simply “Mexicans” for the same reason cited by the state of Sonora and officials in charge of Mexican Indian affairs: they do not practice the traditions of the Papagos of Sonora, but more importantly, “they do not speak the Papago or the Tohono O’odham language” (Salas-Rodriguez).

Conversely, some Mexican O’odham refer to American O’odham as gabachos or gringos Papagos, or white Papago, for their use of English and assimilation into mainstream American society. As a personal example, in approximately 1988 a meeting was held at Cedagi Vahia, or the Pozo Verde community in Sonora, a few miles south of the international boundary. Both Sonoran O’odham and their American relatives were in attendance, including my since-deceased mother and our relatives to the south. My mother, annoyed with the rather loud chit chat between two Sonoran Tohono O’odham women sitting in front of her, leaned over and said, “Sai si s-nakosikam,” “You’re very loud,” to which one of the Sonoran O’odham ladies replied in Spanish, “Callate, tu eres una gabacha,” “Be quiet, you’re just a white woman.” This is one of many examples of nationalist attitudes extant among both groups of O’odham, as a direct result of the institutionalization of the international boundary.

On the American side, there are an increasing number of full and mixed-blooded

American O’odham who do not speak the O’odham dialect or have little or no awareness 18

of their culture. Once in a conversation with a fellow O’odham compatriot about the

Sonoran O’odham communities and their struggles with tribal unity and cohesiveness, my compatriot stated that compared to the American O’odham, the Sonoran O’odham were disorganized and factionalized. I responded by stating that their comment was historically unfair considering that in the 1930s, American Tohono O’odham had every necessity to organize and establish a tribal government or risk losing their political status as Native North American Indian and the federal assistance of the U.S. government while the Sonoran O’odham never had the federal and societal support to formally organize

(Canby).

To be sure, existence along the border has been nothing but challenging for both groups of Tohono O’odham, consisting of a life with two different sets of social, racial and political histories.

1.3 Locale: the mission pueblo or town of Pitiquito, Sonora

I chose the Tohono O’odham community of Pitiquito Sonora as my research focus in an effort to explore my identity as an Amerindian with bi-national roots. Secondary to this project was my incessant desire to know what it was like for my great grandparents living in this old mission community of Pitiquito and how our family arrived in the U.S.

Historical geography

Before an exploration of the Pitiquito O'odham can begin I would like to give the reader an overview of this ancient O'odham community, which is today a treasured

Sonoran Mission pueblo within the larger Sonoran mission system that reaches as far north as Tucson, Arizona. 19

In 1894 W.J. McGee, author of Trails to Tiburón described the Papago (Tohono

O’odham) community of Pitiquito: "The Papago pueblo is located on the foothill E. of

Pitiquito, well beyond the limits of the village. There are two little houses in one group, near town, two more and a semi-enclosure on hilltop 300 yards beyond, and eight in another group 200 yds. still farther” (41). Thirteen years later, in 1911, Karl S. Lumholtz described the Pitiquito community as agricultural with four Papago families living on the outskirts of the town, most of the Papagos there were working for the Mexicans

(Lumholtz, 391). In the century since Lumholtz’s trip to Pitiquito, no other ethnologist, anthropologist or social scientist has mentioned the presence of the O’odham community in Pitiquito, yet we, their American kin, have always known they were there.

Contemporary geography

The present town of Pitiquito lies on a foothill between Mexican Highway

Carreterra 2 and the Asuncíon River with a population of 9,236 according to a 2000

INEGI census (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia). The original town sat closer to the Asuncíon River but has since grown approximately a mile north from the original town border (see Figure 2).5 The Asuncíon river only runs during heavy monsoons, as the construction of the Presa Cuauhtémoc or Cuauhtémoc Dam has stopped the continual flow. In 2008, heavy rains caused its banks to overflow and many people went down to see the river alive once more. Across the river is La Zarragoza or the horse racetrack, which continues to offer horse racing and betting, a very Sonoran tradition, to the local Pitiqueños. 20

Figure 2, Map of the state of Sonora, Mexico with inset of the town of Pitiquito. Note the city of Tucson at top right of map. (Adapted from Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia (INEGI), or the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, Mexico City, MEX. 2006.)

Pitiquito is for the most part a typical Mexican pueblo, where everyone says hello to everyone and strangers are immediately recognized as outsiders. Summers are hot and dry due to the low elevation. The Mexican highway that runs through the very northern edges of the city provides the only access to the west coast of Mexico. Along the highway, traffic rumbles 24 hours a day with tractor trailers, semis and SUVs bound for commerce or vacation on the west coast or up into the state of California. It is very common to see license plates from almost every state in the Mexican republic. The motels in Pitiquito and Caborca never lack for business. Many times you will see locals waiting along the highway for a chance to run across the very modern two-lane highway.

The Pemex gasoline station is one of the local landmarks that lies closest to the street 21

leading to the old mission church of San Diego del Pitic, the church that was in all probability built with the assistance of O’odham people in the 17th century. Some portions of the original church frescos were clearly decorated by the hands of O’odham artists. James S. Griffith, retired professor from the University of Arizona, states that only one colonial mission church in the Pimeria Alta or Land of the Upper Pimas, shows clear evidence of an Indian “hand” and Indian ideas in some of its decorations. This is the church at Pitiquito (Griffith, 161). The inside of the church was immaculately white until local volunteers discovered paintings done by O’odham artists in the late 1600s behind the whitewash. Most of the paintings are religious in content, while others are rudimentary frames of reddish ochre, white and charcoal black pigments (See Figure 3).

Figure 3, One of fourteen hand-painted Stations of the Cross, Kino mission church, San Diego del Pitic. Photograph by Reuben Naranjo.

Although my family continues to reside near the same hill as their forefathers, referred to as Loma de los Pápagos or “hill of the Papagos,” Candelario Zacarías-

Napoleon, my oldest consultant at seventy plus years says that at one time there were 22

many other O’odham families living there but many of them migrated north or moved to the nearby town of Caborca, approximately five miles west of Pitiquito.

Figure 4, “View of Pitiquito from the “hill of the Papagos” (Lizárraga).

Figure 5, The Pitiquito Tohono O’odham community, “Hoy” or today, and “Antes” before, the dispersal of the families in relation to the surrounding Mestizo Pitiquito, Community. (Adapted after a map of the state of Sonora: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia). 23

1.4 Methods: The beginning, the Institutional & Tribal research approval process and social conviviality

Originally, my dissertation project began as an extension of my Master’s thesis,

Tohono O’odham Women Potters in Bisbee and Tombstone, Arizona, 1890-1920,6 examining ceramic production and economic gender roles of O'odham south of the international border. My thesis explored the topic of Tohono O’odham women potters in

Southeastern Arizona and the impact they had on local economies, specifically in the areas of Tombstone and Bisbee, Arizona. I examined women’s roles in the economic development of border town communities of extractive capitalistic industries; race relations in Southern Arizona; and the changing gender roles of Tohono O’odham women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

However, as the library and archival research process progressed and through the interviews I conducted with my Sonoran Tohono O’odham friends and relatives, I realized that little information relative to the topic of ceramic production and economic gender roles was available for communities in Sonora. More importantly my consultants were much more interested in other ideas such as their community and tribal history as it related to their identity-kinship status and persistence as O’odham people.

The Institutional & Tribal research approval process

In order to begin the process of fieldwork I had to be approved by the University of Arizona Institutional Review Board Human Subjects Protection Program, the Tohono

O’odham Nation Cultural Legislative Committee, and the Tohono O’odham Human

Cultural and Resource Development (HCRD). The process of tribal approval included presentations to the tribal legislative and executive branches (see appendices 4 & 5) 24

including approval by Felix Antonio, Sonoran Tohono O’odham governor, and finally, approval by representatives of the Pitiquito O’odham community itself. To date many

Tribal Nations are suspicious of academics, scholars, and anthropologists because of exploitation in the guise of science that unfortunately has taken place since anthropology first began to document tribal communities. As I experienced myself and expand upon in the personal narrative sections, tribal members who are associated with institutions of learning are viewed with equal suspicion.

Quite coincidentally, as I began the approval process with the Tohono O’odham

Nation, the Havasupai Nation had presented before the Tohono O’odham legislative council, seeking Tohono O’odham tribal support of their pending lawsuit. In the 1990s, the Havasupai tribe of Arizona filed a lawsuit against Arizona State University, the

University of Arizona and principal investigator Therese Markow. The lawsuit alleged that blood originally collected from the Havasupai for a diabetes study had been redirected without Havasupai knowledge or consent to other studies about inbreeding, migration, and schizophrenia. Although the lawsuit has been since settled, it did slow down the tribal approval process of my research.8 The tribal research approval process was probably one of the most time-consuming steps towards completion of my research.

It took exactly one year to complete all the required steps before I was ready to go out in the field and undertake my interviews with the Pitiquito O’odham elders.

Following is the list of requirements that were necessary for final approval of my research.

• Submit a letter of research interest to the Tohono O’odham Cultural Legislative Committee. 25

• Provide a presentation to Tohono O’odham Human Resources and Cultural Development (HCRD) committee and the Tohono O'odham legislative council.

• Complete a resolution application, which was approved by the legislative council, August, 2006, (see appendix E) and Tohono O'odham chairwoman Vivian Juan Saunders on September 27, 2006 (see appendix F).

• Present before the Honorable Governor of the Sonoran Tohono O'odham, Felix Antone (community of Cedagi Vahia or Green Well, Sonora Mexico) and the Lieutenant Governor, José Garcia Lewis (S-gogosik or Many dogs, Sonora Mexico).

• Request permission from the Pitiquito Tohono O'odham community and the official O’odham representative, Francisca Salas Rodriguez.

Despite the challenges and very lengthy time frame for tribal review and approval

I decided that remaining infinitely patient and steadfast in my commitment to the community was my number one priority.

Methodology for fieldwork

When I initiated the interview process with Sonoran O'odham elders I had what I believed to be the added benefit of being extended kin, though I also quickly discovered drawbacks to that position. Remaining objective while being related to my interview subjects was an academic requirement I was aware of, but I also experienced suspicion by a Pitiquito relative due to the lapse in years that we were out of contact, and this person questioned my intentions and relation to their family, which I will discuss in the kinship narrative in the second half of this essay.

My kin and cultural relations with some of the Sonoran O’odham communities gave me a distinct perspective, as my Baab or maternal grandfather was born in the 26

O’odham community of Pitiquito, and my hu’ulbad or maternal grandmother was born in the Sonoran O’odham community of Son or Sonoita about an hour and 15 minute drive northwest of Pitiquito along the international border. Some of my connections are and were extensive, some short term, some kin related, and some by the way of my mother,

Rosita Whitehorse, and her political involvement with the now-disbanded O’odham In

Mexico office and the Hiaced O’odham programs (still supported by the Tohono

O'odham Nation). These Tohono O’odham tribal government offices were and are dedicated to the support and assistance of O’odham communities in the state of Sonora and others in the area of Ajo, Arizona and the reservation district of Gila Bend. My cultural, social and political ties to the Sonoran O’odham community also come by way of my attendance at the Vi:kita9 and the Feast of Saint Francis in Magdalena de Kino, as well as other family gatherings.

My mother, Rosita Whitehorse, first introduced me to the Pitiquito O'odham community as she and her partner Jose Dolores Valencia-Garcia would regularly visit family there and she would bring back videos and pictures of family members. Her father, my grandfather, Frank Lewis10 initially introduced her to these relatives. In 1994, I made my first trip to Pitiquito. Prior to this I had only met and visited with these relatives in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora during the Feast of Saint Francis.

In 2001, after my mother passed away, I returned to visit our Pitiquito relatives, lured there by my mother’s interest in family genealogy and history, which I picked up after her death. I began to become acquainted with the extended family members, their 27

children and grandchildren, and I discovered family members who were living in

Hermosillo and Rocky Point, Sonora, as well as the southern state of Sinaloa.

After completing the Tribal approval process, I made ten trips into Sonora,

Mexico between the Fall of 2006 through 2007 interviewing a total of seven community members. The elders interviewed were Candelario (Cande) Zacarías-Napoleon, Carmen

(Carme) Rodriguez-Napoleon, Ricardo (Callo) Rodriguez-Napoleon, Marco Antonio

Salas-Rodriguez, Francisca (Panchis) Salas-Rodriguez and Rosario (Chayo) Zacarías-

Trujillo and family (See Figure 7).

My Pitiquito relatives were interested in working as consultants on this project according to Francisca Salas-Rodriguez, official representative for the community, in order to bring recognition to the unfair actions of the government. The Comisión

Nacional Para el Desarollo de los Pueblos Indigenas or National Commission for the

Development of Indigenous Communities (CDI) was, in 2007, unwilling to recognize the

Pitiquito O’odham as an Indian or Indigenous community. The CDI, in all probability used the nearby Seri Indians’ maintenance of a native tongue and cultural traditions as markers of Indian identity and as a point of reference for being authentically

“Indigenous.” Since my original interviews and as of 2010, the CDI has officially recognized the Pitiquito Tohono O’odham community as an official Indian community

(Salas-Rodriguez).

Most of the discussions for this interview process were conducted under a large mesquite tree on the family lot at the home of Carmen Rodriguez. It was under that giant mesquite tree where some of her children and their families worked and socialized on a 28

daily basis. Often I had the impression that the area under that tree was like an enormous outdoor den or living room. It was the social nucleus of family and extended kin.

My fieldwork was never formal interviews and appointments but was characterized by much eating, conviviality and bonding. My tia abuela or aunt grandmother11 Carmen is an excellent cook in the Sonoran style of Mexican cuisine and many days I would arrive to see Carmen and her daughters making Sonoran-style tortillas12 for sale or find Carmen roasting coffee beans for her family using an old recipe that required caramelizing the toasted beans with sugar into a big black mass of constantly stirred lumps to be ground later (See Figure 6).

I consumed many cups of this coffee while listening to the family reminisce about

‘how it used to be’ and how they ended up moving to where they are today after their ancestral homes had been demolished and the land sold to "no one has been able to say or tell them” (Rafael Rodriguez Napoleon). We would talk about foods that used to be eaten—starvation foods such as quelites or wild amaranth (cuhuggia13 in O’odham), and traditional foods such as teddy bear cholla buds. 29

Figure 6, Carmen Rodriguez Napoleon making her Sonoran style coffee using toasted coffee beans and caramelized sugar. Photograph by Reuben Naranjo.

Figure 7, a diagram of my relation to the Pitiquito community.

Giving Back to the Community

In an effort to give back to the Pitiquito Tohono O’odham community, I, along with a friend, the late Annie Manuel, from Hickiwan, Arizona, gave approximately five impromptu classes on the basics of Tohono O’odham pottery making. This is discussed in further detail in the final narrative essay on cultural persistence. I was also able to provide many photographs—both documentation and general candid shots—for the residents as well.

1.5 Conceptual design and artistic theoretical foundation of the mural

The artistic portion of my project is a ceramic tile mural. The mural is in the shape of a giant stylized woven-coil basket, approximately six feet by six feet in 31

diameter, with individual tiles composed of three components. The primary component, or warp, of each tile includes an ideogram or visual representation of one of eight themes derived from my fieldwork. The secondary component, or weft-bundle, representing the continuity of kinship, remains the same while the tertiary component, the ideogram itself, changes to reflect the eight themes from tile to tile (See Figure 8).

The mural integrates foundational elements of Tohono O’odham life, emphasizing: (a.) the centrality of cultural expression, continuity, and preservation of individual and communal O’odham identities; (b.) the importance of O’odham basket- weaving as a metaphor for the weaving and interweaving of lives, relationships, and identities past and present so that the past is interwoven into the present; and (c.) the evocative and representational power of O’odham Calendar Sticks and their role in archiving and transmitting culture (events, interpretations, stories, lessons, memories, memes) from one individual, community and generation to the next.

Figure 8, A single tile example including all three representational components.

1.6 Themes derived from field research and experiences

Following are the eight themes that will be explored in the personal narratives in the second half of this essay and which are depicted by ideograms on the final ceramic mural.

The ideograms function as visual mnemonic devices. They incite historical thought and consideration in regard to the eight narratives as they relate to the themes listed in the table above.

1.7 Conceptual elements of the mural: culture, basket weaving, and calendar sticks

Creating the ideograms symbolic of the Pitiquito oral tradition required community input and developing my own understanding of those events that are historically and culturally significant. What follows are discussions and personal thoughts on culture, basket weaving, and calendar sticks.

There are many ways to view and define culture. For the purposes of this project, culture is conceptualized as an engineered system of three interrelated and overlapping realms: (1) the abstract or ideational; (2) behavioral or experiential culture (processes for transforming ideas into products); and (3) produced objects or experiences (products).14

These realms are transmitted or passed on between individuals and groups within a culture, across cultures, and between generations in similar ways around the world.

An example of how the different realms play out in an everyday and simplified fashion can be found in basket making. A basket maker utilizes knowledge acquired through active learning within his or her culture. What is acquired represents a continually evolving amalgamation of all of the ideational, behavioral/experiential, and material knowledge of his or her contemporaries and predecessors. The basket weaver uses transmitted ideational culture to discern which fibers, weaves, and shapes are best suited to the basket’s purpose (e.g. decorative vs. utilitarian, light vs. heavy use and anticipated lifespan). Behavioral or experiential culture consists of the actual physical 35

actions or processes involved in translating ideation into material products and real-time experiences (manifestation of the idea). In the case of a basket weaver, every step involved in choosing, handling, treating, and weaving the material is an example of behavioral knowledge. Produced objects/experiences, such as a finished basket or a basket-related ritual, are examples of material culture. These are the physical manifestations of ideational and behavioral culture. In essence, the idea is transformed through a behavioral process into a material product or experiential ritual.

In her biography, notable Native American basket-weaving elder Frances Manuel refers to basket weaving as a metaphor for life (Neff and Manuel). Basket weaver Lois

Liston has also made this connection. In Liston’s model, the center knot symbolizes the birth of an individual, the coils represent the years of his/her life, and the ending stitch represents their passing into the spirit world (Johnson and Reader). For this project, I used a basket-making model to artistically visualize the narratives that arose from my time within the community of Pitiquito. It is a cultural and philosophical perspective on the process of making baskets as being symbolic and analogous to the process of life.

The center knot or beginning is symbolic of birth or genesis of the community, while the wefts or stitches are suggestive of the individual days or particular narratives that make up the history of the community. Finally, the warp or the bundle materials represent ideational knowledge; it functions as the foundation not only for the basket but as a metaphor for the people’s history, philosophies, values, ethics and experiential, intergenerational knowledge. In his chapter “Kinship: The Foundation for Native 36

American Society,” Raymond Demallie describes kinship very much the way I understand basket making:

As a social phenomena kinship weaves related individuals into solidarity; related individuals into solitary groups, as cultural phenomena it defines relationships (sets of statuses), prescribes normative patterns for behavior among relatives (roles), and extends those patterns outwards towards the universe (306).

In many ways the Tohono O'odham philosophical view of basket weaving and

Demallie’s commentary on kinship are similar in that they both weave and solidify thoughts, concepts of kinship, and familial components into one coherent whole that serves as the foundation for integration into a larger tribal social cultural tradition and society.

Calendar sticks were an O’odham method of recording local histories. Generally, they were started by any individual with a desire to record personal, familial, communal and sometimes tribal history. They therefore are essential to maintaining oral tradition. A piece of straight wood, usually a saguaro rib, was used, and mnemonic incisions were marked within units or component areas representing individual years. By viewing, or sometimes in the case of an old man with limited vision, feeling these individual components, the calendar stick keeper would recall memories and cultural facts relative to each section with a pictograph or cultural glyph. The ideograms chosen for the ceramic mural draw inspiration from these pictographs.

In the second half of this essay, a series of eight personal narratives tell a story of my O’odham family and kin relatives—a story about Native Americans managing to culturally persist despite the presence of the political border. I wish to educate my tribal 37

colleagues and non-Natives alike about the complexities and challenges of life for the

Sonoran O'odham. This work is only the tip of the “complexity of life” for the Tohono

O’odham along the United States Mexican boundary.

PART TWO: HUA A’AGA: BASKET TALE NARRATIVES

2.1 Oral tradition

This entire doctoral project, including the ceramic mural and accompanying narratives, is grounded in the oral tradition. The oral tradition forms the basis of my identity as a Native American living along the international boundary and of my relatives across the border. This narrative is an exploration of how oral tradition expressed through kinship provided the vehicle for a new understanding of my place within a bi-national

O’odham society. Further narratives will explore several other factors that come into play—not just for myself, but for an entire Sonoran community—when presented with two sets of distinct cultural, social, political and federal Indian histories.

My ideogram for oral tradition represents the movement of air as one expels in the process of speech. The oral tradition is a way of conveying information, such as historical fact or cultural tradition, from individual to individual, generation to generation, from one group to the other, even from medicine people and hunters to nature’s elements. The oral tradition was and is the most effective way of transmitting important events in one group’s history or existence. In many Indigenous communities the oral tradition is highly ritualized and repetition is central to the oral tradition. 39

This reminds me of the many stories my mother would repeat over and over, so often that I became annoyed. My response to my mother would be, “but you’ve told me that before,” or “you’ve said that already,” or “how do you know this?” She would always respond, “because the old people would talk about it,” or “because my mother told me over and over as well, that is how I know.”

My first encounter with my Pitiquito relatives came by the way of oral tradition, through stories my mother told about family on topics such as family history and genealogy over two, sometimes three generations. My mother’s stories and comments were often about extended kin, both living and deceased. Though some O’odham people will not say the name of a deceased individual, as they believe that stating the name of the deceased might cause them to return and frighten their living relatives, my mother did not follow this practice as she felt that the stories were valuable enough to be passed on without restriction.

My mother would speak of her visits to Magdalena, and of our relatives who traveled there annually, being devout Sonoran Catholics. My mother described her Yaqui grandfather, Juan Silvas, who married an O’odham woman, Jesusita, who was originally from the community of Pitiquito. Silvas was a traveling musician who often moved back and forth over the American-Mexican border as he acted as a maestro for the Easter ceremonies at the Old Pascua village in Tucson and at the Yaqui enclave in Guadalupe,

Arizona (next to the modern day town of Tempe) 15. In the early 1900s, en route back to

Pitiquito from Guadalupe, Jesusita died suddenly and was buried at Sacaton, Arizona in the Gila River Indian Community. Following his wife’s death, Silvas returned to Pitiquito 40

to inform her family of her passing, and temporarily lived with Jesusita’s cousin,

Francisca Napoleon and her family. Francisca’s son Ricardo described Silvas as a short man with a big belly and a sombrero with three picos or points, an older form of the

Mexican cowboy hat. Ricardo went on to say that Silvas had convinced him as a seven- year-old to don the tenevoim or cocoon rattles and to dance pascolas, or social dances while Silvas would play music. They would walk down to the main plaza and set up an area where Ricardo danced as locals would watch and throw money in a can Silvas had placed in front of the two. My cousin Ricardo laughed as he revisited that time of his life in the late 1930s or early 40s, and the small change he received for his dancing meant

“candy or maybe even a baseball mitt, if I saved my money” (Ricardo Rodriguez-

Napoleon). Clearly it was a memorable event for a young boy growing up in an old mission town along the northwestern periphery of the borderlands region.

I consider oral tradition central to this project as a way to help identify and strengthen my own personal history, as well as weave new histories, ideas, and experiences into my own. One of the most important aspects of oral tradition is the passing of information from one generation to the next. Though I may have been annoyed by my mother’s repetitive stories, I realize that they led to introducing me to my Pitiquito relatives, and, years later, hearing similar stories directly from these relatives during my fieldwork, I was reminded of this importance and how the simple memory of a pascola dance can trigger a story that will now survive one more generation. 41

2.2 Kinship

One part of my undergraduate studies focused on ceramic and fiber studio art. In preparation for a conceptual artistic project I researched the topic of the strong quilting and lace-making traditions extant among Northeastern U.S. Native peoples. Searching for more information on quilting, I was inspired by a comment in a documentary on twentieth-century Euramerican women and quilting titled Hearts and Hands, a film by producer and director Pat Ferrero and writer Beth Ferris. The statement that caught my attention was from a southern woman about a particular quilting design, which depicted a small, thin set of sticks or branches, drawn in the middle by a string. She explained that a thinner and smaller bundle of sticks is infinitely stronger than one that is composed of bigger, wider sticks. My ideogram for kinship incorporates this concept of a bundle of smaller sticks, and represents the resistance to outside forces, social and federal, that promote individualism and discourage human solidarity.

Raymond J. Demallie, Chancellors' Professor of Anthropology at Indiana

University, asserts that kinship:

…defines relationships (sets of statuses), prescribes normative patterns for behavior among relatives (roles), and extends those patterns outwards towards the universe (306). 42

As a Native American scholar, I find Demallie’s comment on the importance of kinship extraordinarily innovative and useful. It privileges the Native American belief that our world(s) were and are interrelated at every level and by every standard. In exploring

Demallie’s insight, I began to reflect on the O’odham kinship system as an example of how cultural patterns are extended out into the cosmos. For this narrative and project I propose to explore Demallie’s theory that kinship extends beyond the basic human relations usually discussed by American social scientists.

Western ideas of kinship teach us to define interpersonal relationships as finite, brief, or ephemeral, while the O'odham belief system grounds us in the universe by reminding us that our relationships to everything around us are infinite and enduring. In

O’odham, all creatures--humans, plants, and animals--are ephemeral, while the earth and sky are permanent. Animals and plants were first to occupy the land, prior to humans, and therefore we respect our relationship to them through ritual kinship. From Ha’icu

Doakam (the animals), and Kulañ (medicine) to our relationship with Ka:cim Jewed

(literally, “staying earth”) and Dam Ka:cim (literally, “staying heaven or sky”), O’odham have continually had a structured kinship system. Humankind, to the O’odham, is positioned on the periphery, or at a point within the larger “web” of the phenomena of life. Traditional stories tell us that when the world was created by I’itoi he sent the

Tokitod (spider) to weave the corners together to stop the gyrating motion of an unsettled earth. The Tokitod’s first strand of silk began to weave the cosmos, establishing the intricate kinship relations that kept everything in cultural and natural equilibrium. This 43

balance, also known as Himdag, provides O’odham rules and directions to maintain our relationship with the earth, life, and medicine.

On one occasion, while en route to the community of Komckud E-wa:’ositk or

Sells, Arizona, accompanied by the Tohono O’odham elder Mattías Chuhuhua, I described to him how some Hopi women elders and mothers will sprinkle their grandchildren and children with water, reciting to them the purpose of this ritual as mimicking the act of rain over crops of corn, nourishing, sustaining, and therefore encouraging the children to grow. This act reminds the children and their parents and grandparents of their relationship with forces that bring forth life and in the context of

Hopi, the importance of their intimate connection—kinship—to corn. Mattías was silent for a second and then began to relate that O’odham children and adults, like the plants, need the sun and that they must work the earth (as in agriculture) so that they too can be nourished by it, just as the water nourishes Hopi corn, children and their people

(Chuhuhua). While working the earth can be difficult, especially on a grand scale, the act strengthens stamina and therefore our bodies are healthy and wiser for it.

I realized through Mattías’ statement that there are more ways than blood to establish kin with other (in)animate beings. When my grandmother was alive and healthy,

I would often walk into the kitchen and witness her having a conversation with the food she was cooking. I thought it strange and so I asked my mother about it. She explained that my grandmother was asking the food that she was preparing to “cook well” in order to nourish our bodies. In the same vein, many gardeners will speak to their plants with the idea that the intimate act will bring the plants to life, and even as a potter gathering clay, I 44

will say a prayer for the clay as there is a chance it might not “favor” me and, particularly if I offend the natural clay body in any way, the pot will crack during creation.

Medicine people rely on their intimate cultural, and therefore ritual, kinship with the spirits and the animal world in order to address health and spiritual imbalances within the individual and community. This type of kinship is dependent on innate powers of divination and understanding of the connections between the spirit and living world.

Without these kinds of intimate relationships there may be no way that an adequate diagnosis can be made and a physical, spiritual, or emotional resolution executed. The seen and unseen world would be void of human contact without the special and enduring kin relationships medicine people have maintained with these worlds of curing power.

There are other factors that tend to knit delicate kin groupings together across the international boundary and across political and ideological changes. These cohesive factors include the oral tradition, and annual events such as the Feast of Saint Francis in

October, and the Vi:gita, or Tohono O’odham world renewal ceremony in Quitovac, generally performed after the organ pipe fruit harvest at the end of July or early August.

This is not to say that the O’odham idea of kinship has not evolved or escaped outside influence. With the coming of Europeans, O’odham kinship has taken on new ideas such as the compadrazgo, or godparentship, practiced by Catholics. The compadre

(literally, "co-father" or "co-parent") relationship between the parents and godparents of a child is an important bond that originates when a child is baptized. By Catholic doctrine, the godparents share the parenting role of the baptized child with the natural parents and 45

accept the responsibility to ensure that the child is raised according to the dictates of the

Catholic faith. 16

The O’odham idea of kinship is deeply rooted in ancient practices, and like the bundle ideogram, holds strength together. Based on these examples further explored in the following narratives I began to see how even the strength of one is not impervious to outside forces. The new manifestation of kinship retains an Indian identity all the while accommodating itself to the surrounding social forces of Mexican federal policy. 46

2.3 Tradition and Modernity in 2007

Forged metal is a Mesoamerican and Old World tradition. Anything built of metal in the area of Pitiquito, Sonora would have been created after the time of the arrival of the

Eshpokam (bearded people), or Spaniards. Pottery making is an O’odham tradition that extends into the Pitiquito community’s historic past. In my ideogram for Tradition and

Modernity, a horizontal line separates two images. The image at the top represents an abstract view of a handmade clay olla, or pot. The olla image represents tradition that, like human beings, is complex and dynamic, constantly evolving and manifesting itself into new forms. The bottom half is the abstract form of a metal cooking pot, which has, in modern times, replaced the traditional clay pot. The combination of the two presents my own views on the juxtaposition of tradition versus modernity. This narrative describes how some members of the community of Pitiquito interpreted tradition and modernity and my surprise in how my own views on the subject were challenged enough to become a turning point in my research.

Here is the response by Rafael Rodriguez-Napoleon, one of the four Pitquito

O’odham elders, regarding what he considered traditional and modern kinds of work. He stated that his family were campesinos and they went where there was work, migrating to follow primarily agricultural jobs. I asked Rafael if going to the fields (Costa Agricola, literally, the “agricultural coast” 17) to work was a traditional or modern form of work. 47

Rafael replied “Yes, it was traditional because they always did it and for a very long time.” Upon further questioning, I realized that the term ‘a very long time’ for Rafael referred to only the two generations before his, since that was his only point of historical and familial reference. He didn’t know anyone beyond his grandparents so the concept of tradition is based on that timeframe.

I asked another elder, Candelario, if he considered the annual acorn harvest practiced by his grandparents, Lucio and Concepcion, to be a traditional or modern kind of work. He answered “modern” but was unable to give any direct reasoning for it

(Zacarías). I would think that this harvest was traditional because acorns were an important food staple, gathered or harvested for many generations, however in

Candelario’s view, since he experienced and participated in the harvest in his lifetime, he considered it modern.

In 2007 I began my fieldwork with a plan to interview four of the Pitiquito

O’odham elders. After these two difficult interviews it became clear the elders had never been asked to verbally conceptualize the ideas of tradition and modernity and therefore had a difficult time trying to explain their reasoning. I realized that their concept of tradition only went back as far as their grandparents. They defined tradition as those practices that have survived since their grandparents’ generation into the present, while I defined it as those cultural practices that began generations ago, possibly from the time of first creation, and have remained enduring and persistent today. With this unexpected challenge, I decided to terminate the interviews. Arriving back in Tucson, Liz Kennedy, one of my committee members, reminded me that perhaps the reason I was unable to 48

effectively introduce the topic of tradition and modernity was because I grew up in a different culture than my relatives/consultants. I found that when dealing with a community that has been through such impermanence – not simply in their migratory nature but, as I explore in other narratives, by the government hand in destroying their homes and nearly their identity—they understand and define the terms traditional and modern in different ways than I do. I don’t question the importance that my relatives place on their history, since as I had already explored, the oral tradition is central to the community, but I was beginning to wonder whether my expectations for my research would be able to be met. I reworded my questions, incorporating the suggestions of my other committee members into a new set of questions (see appendix B) and it was at this time my research project began to evolve from a more economic study of this community into a deeper and more personal exploration. 49

2.4 The Feast of St Francis at Magdalena de Kino, Mexico

In 2009, I was employed at the Feast of St Francis celebration as a translator for the Tohono O’odham office in Magdalena de Kino. At the annual fiesta, celebrated during the week of October 4th, I assisted Tohono O’odham as well as other tribal members with translation and troubleshooting issues that came up for the O’odham either camping or on day visits to the plaza and chapel. When the pilgrims would arrive they immediately set out for our makeshift office on the plaza, next door to the infirmary where medics would treat exhaustion and blistered feet of those who had walked to the

Magdalena. The ideogram for this narrative is simple in its representation of the

Magdalena de Kino Catholic Church, but through my employment and experience at the festival, I began to realize the complex importance that the ritual of the festival plays, not just in the celebration, but in bringing far-cast members of the tribe together for exchange of information important to each individual community and their spirituality.

The honorable father Bonaventure Oblasser wrote in his diary during his work at

Mission San Xavier del Bac that the Fiesta de San Francisco probably had its debut after cessation of fighting in the Pápago-Mexican war of the 1840s, when families that had taken refuge at the mission of San Ignacio developed a love for Catholic ceremonies.

Specifically, Juan Lopez from Santa Rosa, Arizona, organized the first pilgrimage to 50

Magdalena to have a picture of San Francisco blessed by the priest so that it could be placed in his own newly built chapel.

Old town Magdalena de Kino lies next to the Magdalena River, in a shallow valley, about 72 miles northeast of Pitiquito. Every year O’odham from north of the border would travel the Tucson-Nogales highway south, while those traveling from the area of Caborca would take Mexican Highway Carreterra Federal 2, then north to

Magdalena. Mattías Chuhuhua related to me that in the old days it would often take two weeks by wagon to travel the 80 miles from Caborca to Magdalena. Along the way they would stop east of O’o Ke:k (Bone Standing, Mexicans refer to it as Ocuca)18 and rest in an area of mesquite trees, because there in the wash they could find water just beneath the surface of the sand (Chuhuhua). Still today, many pilgrims choose to express their faith by walking the distance to Magdalena from Jewed I-da:m, (“On top of the earth or ground” also known as Tubutama), or along the Nogales Highway. Others walk from the international boundary, or even from as far away as the Mission of San Xavier del Bac in

Tucson, nearly 124 miles. Nearer to the cities, Native and Non-Native spectators watch the colorful procession of O’odham devotees, with their colored ribboned wands or staffs, some adorned with various bird feathers. Once reaching the church at Magdalena, pilgrims line up to pay respect to the statue of St. Francis, which lies on a platform within the chapel. Many lift the upper portion of the supine statue and kiss the saint’s forehead or bring small offerings or personal items to touch to the statue much like Juan Lopez’s original pilgrimage. Meanwhile outside, the main plaza is the central point for all of the fiesta’s activities. 51

Other groups of Sonoran Native Americans also participate in the pilgrimage.

Seris, Pima Bajo, Yaquis from the Yaqui neighborhoods in and around Hermosillo,

Mayos and other southerners and Mestizo populations travel to pay respect to the Saint in the Chapel. Some Yaqui groups would perform the Danza de Venado or Deer Dance for the saint. We kids would watch and some of the smaller kids would attempt to imitate the deer dancers.

Personally, my first memory of the fiesta begins around the age of 9. My Baab

Oks (paternal great aunt), Rosa Bautista would meet us in Magdalena during the first day or two of the fiesta. It was Rosa who first introduced my family to our Pitiquito relatives.

She would carry on lengthy conversations in O’odham with my mother and grandmother but we kids would drift off towards the west end of the plaza. The carnival rides were our objective, and with those distractions we had no interest in the talk of adults, only the screams of other children, O’odham and non-O’odham. Even better were the kuitas or firecrackers (cuetes in Spanish) that we would buy and light, far enough away from our parents to avoid reprimands for buying them. After a day filled with childsplay and roughhousing with other kids present at the fiesta, the strawberry sodas and “cat tacos”19 made for a fulfilling meal. Elsewhere on the plaza, O’odham women would buy colorful crepe wreaths made by Mexican women to be placed on the dirt mounds of reservation cemeteries. Other adults would wander around the plaza stores and boutiques, buying rosaries, candles, and other religious items to be placed on or near the statue of St.

Francis. Often we would hear a group of older O’odham women, seated at a table on the plaza, laughing and carrying on and sometimes flirting with the men walking by. Other 52

times we might hear a group of older ladies shedding a tear for some friend, perhaps an ex-love or relative, who had not made the trip back or had passed on in the year prior.

Figure 9, My Baab Oks (Paternal Great Aunt), Rosita Bautista, (seated in her wheelchair), with her daughter-in-law Mary Maldonado from Artesia, AZ, and her cousin, Jose Luis “Lichi” Rodriguez-Napoleon. Taken at the Fiesta in 1976 at Bautista’s campsite.

At night, the dances would start and if a woman was single, she would cling to a group of other women, headed to the cantinas to reflect on their reasons for being there and a night of dancing pleasure. Speaking to an O’odham woman from Santa Cruz, AZ, she related to me that one night while she and a group of O’odham women were seated under a tree in the main plaza, a conjunto or group of Mexican musicians came by selling songs. None of the O’odham ladies spoke Spanish and so their response to the conjunto 53

was, “no speakie Spanish!” to which one gentleman with the music group replied, “d’añ

O’odham añi,” “I am O’odham.” The surprised ladies looked at one another and started laughing and then decided to buy a song. That man, Mariano Salcido Velasco of

Quitovac and Sonoita, Sonora, was married to one of my cousins, Reyes Uriarte de

Salcido, my grandmother’s niece.

As a child the carnival rides and fireworks were a distraction from what I considered boring talk of the elders, but after re-visiting the Feast of St Francis celebration as an adult I realized that even though the international border separated us as extended kin, and even after my Baab or paternal grandfather Francisco Silvas Ruiz left

Sonora for Wamul or Vamori, Arizona, the family continued to maintain contact with one another—this is where our families would meet. The pilgrimage was a religious ritual, but the ritual of the fiesta itself has become an important part of O’odham himdag.

Figure 10, Magdalena de Kino central plaza, 1976. Front row, left to right, child (unidentified), Francisco Trujillo, Roselynn Whitehorse (my youngest sister), Leon Whitehorse (my youngest brother). Back row, left to right, cousin (unidentified), Carmen Rodriguez, Guadalupe Salas (cousin), my je’ebad (mother) Rosita Whitehorse and my stepdad, Julius Whitehorse.

2.5 Nationalism

The ideogram for the theme of Nationalism consists of a solid undulating line separating rectangular spaces. The line is symbolic of the international boundary; the rectangular spaces indicate the outline-form of the American and Mexican national flags.

A spiral form on either flag expresses the cultural and familial kinship continuity that exists between the Pitiquito Sonoran Tohono O’odham community and their kinsmen to the north, despite the presence of the international border.

My earliest memories are of constant movement, either across boundaries to visit relatives, or attending family gatherings, anniversaries, and weddings. My grandmother was the impetus for this movement, as many of our trips involved taking her to visit her relatives. I was only interested in knowing if there would be other kids to play with so we wouldn’t be bored. As if it were an expected ritual, toward the end of each visit, we would often grow tired and repeatedly ask our parents to go home, but the response was always, “In a minute, my mother is still visiting.” Despite my childhood impatience, one of the most soothing memories I have of this time in my life was the O’odham language spoken in the background. That, along with the warmth of good food, and childhood play leads me to believe it was during this time that my identity as a member of a bi-national tribe began to form. 56

Visiting my Sonoran relatives throughout my childhood, I do not recall ever having to question my nationality or theirs. It was beyond my juvenile reasoning. I was

O’odham first and foremost and my relatives, in my view, were also O’odham, with no ties or connections to nationalist identity. My mother, who embraced all our relatives,

Mexican and American O’odham, without concern about their nationality, reinforced this perspective. I don’t believe that the view my mother had about her relatives was naïve, nor is it an entirely unique perspective among O’odham– but as I grew up and faced some of the more harsh realities of nationalism, politics, and identity I began to discover the difficulties behind it.

My first example came while working among my Sonoran Tohono O’odham family consultants, when I fell into what I call a cultural conflict of interest. On a certain occasion, a politically well-known Sonoran O’odham woman leader and I discussed our views on cultural and nationalist attitudes and perception from south to north and north to south. She stated that she did not work with the gringos or the gringos Papagos. I countered that her own daughter lived in Sahuarita, Arizona and that her niece graduated from an American high school. I discovered that being a member of the same tribe does not always guarantee automatic entry into a community or immunity from scrutiny, and my status as a U.S. citizen clearly differentiated me from Sonoran O’odham in her mind.

On another occasion, I assisted Xavier, son of Francisca, the representative of the

Pitiquito O’odham community, through the Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) orientation process. TERO’s main function is to assist Tohono O’odham tribal members secure vocational employment (construction, welding, driving bulldozers) and to assist in 57

employment should the work site be located on one of the Nation’s three reservations. At the TERO office everything proceeded as usual, however, when the office asked for my relative’s social security card he was unable to provide one due to his Mexican nationality. We walked out of the Tohono O’odham equal rights office with no assistance due to my cousin’s lack of social security documents all because of his national status as a Mexican citizen, despite his status as an enrolled member of the Tohono O’odham

Nation.

Even though by this time in my life I had acknowledged and understood the impact of the border on a national level, it was perhaps this personal experience that led to my realization of the difficulties that nationalism could present in the lives of so many.

Sonoran Tohono O’odham rights enumerated in the constitution of the Tohono O’odham

Nation are compromised based on the fact that federal jurisdiction supersedes the tribal government’s reach. I could no longer help my relative and the Tohono O’odham

Nation’s hands are politically and nationalistically restrained.

These examples are just a few of many challenges facing Sonoran Tohono

O’odham people as a direct result of the international boundary’s presence. The concept and practice of Nationalism both north and south became the metaphorical wrench in my research that was all the while challenging but enlightening as well. I was able to experience the people’s feelings in regard to their history within the context of the state of Sonora and in the Mexican republic, which up until the last 20-30 years, the Mexican republic, has attempted to assist Mexican Indians but so far has had a minimal success rate. 58

By my mother’s example, I continue to embrace and recognize my Sonoran relatives without concern of their nationality, but nationalist attitudes—on both sides of the international boundary—has become the delineation between the indifference it creates in some and the solidarity sought by many in the Tohono O’odham Nation. 59

2.6 Importance of Photography

When I was young, one of my biggest curiosities was the collection of old family photographs that my mother would carefully keep locked up in a cosmetic case. When I was allowed to look at them I remember being full of questions, asking my mother and grandmother about my relation to the individuals in the photos. I imagined all sorts of stories about what I saw in the gray, fading, and cracked scenes from long ago. The ideogram for this narrative is a stylized view of an early twentieth century camera, or a

“shadow box,” a term used primarily by Midwestern Native Americans to refer to the camera and how it captures ‘shadows’ or in their view, human souls.

Figure 11, The photo that was my first introduction to my Pitiquito cousins. Carmella, Ramona Napoleon, child unknown, Juan Zacarías (husband to Ramona), and Candelario Zacarías. Location is at the Fiestas de Magdalena de Kino, Sonora Mexico, in approximately the late 1940s. 60

Figure 12, Francisca “Pancha” Napoleon, her family, her sons and nephew and niece of her deceased sister, Luisa Napoleon. Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, 1950s. Photograph property of Rafael Rodriguez-Napoleon

During the interviews with my Sonoran O’odham relatives I began to understand the important role that some of the old photographs my mother had left me would play in my research. I used these images as a point of discussion regarding kinship, and as a way to reestablish myself within this extended family. The photos were always a starting point for my consultants to begin to discuss family and relations.

When I began my work with the Pitiquito community my relation was questioned by one of my female relatives there. Although I was aware of the family and had met them a few times as a child, I was not a familiar face within the community, much less involved in family interactions. I was an outsider, despite having a kin and familial relation to the community by way of my maternal grandfather, who was born in the community. The suspicion was quickly resolved by a picture my mother had of herself, 61

standing in a group shot next to Carmen Rodriguez-Napoleon, mother of the female relative who viewed me as suspect.

Even though I had some claim to kinship verified by the photograph, I felt I was still viewed as an outsider. By contrast, in the academic world, non-native scholars would likely interpret my research as having an insider’s view. My committee chair, Dr. K.

Tsianina Lomawaima, pointed out to me during one of our numerous discussions that often when a student goes to a research site wherein he is a part of the community, the immediate criticism by other scholars is that he will in all probability not be able to remain objective. While remaining objective was my goal in research, in this case it was the familial relationship (and proof of it) that allowed me as an outsider to have access.

Photography also became important in that, through my research documentation I was able to record many social moments as well as the informal pottery and basket making lessons I conducted with my friend Annie Manuel. Sometimes group photos were taken including visiting family members from Hermosillo, and my family would always ask for copies of pictures once I had them developed. When I would return they would all want to see the photos and be amazed at the stark contrast between them and the photographs from our collective past, “Mire Ruben, estas fotos estan superclaritas!”

“Look Reuben, these photos are very clear!” Conversely the families shared old photos with me and I was permitted to photograph the historic photos of family members long since deceased.

Although I don’t believe that the ‘shadow box’ does capture one’s soul, it was evident to me that through it, and the photographs I had available, I and my relatives were 62

able to exchange information by way of genealogy and history and clear up old questions and familial concerns so that the identity of this community is captured for future generations. 63

2.7 Identity

Throughout my lifetime, I never thought it necessary to question my identity as a

Native American. The question of identity did not become an issue until I was in a public high school surrounded by a primarily Mexican American population. Even being biracial, Tohono O’odham and Mexican Hispanic, did not save my sister and I from the derogatory expletives thrown at us by the other Hispanic students. The word that I recalled used frequently was the term “Papago,” but Papago for us was who we were.

Perhaps it was the manner in which it was forcibly thrown at us, from the street and from the lips of young men who followed as we walked along home. It left a bitter taste in our young mouths but we persisted through the high school process and moved on.

The ideogram for Identity depicts a cobble-stone in an arroyo or stream that continues to persist, remaining steadfast despite the speed and force of the rushing water.

Like the force of the stream, Mexican society attempts to disintegrate those paths back to an Indian past and instead reaches out toward a mixed blooded and European future.

Ethically, one’s identity guides one’s cultural and familial behavior within American

Indian cultures and is a form of ethnocentricity, which most global cultures practice and follow. Socially, identity can remain malleable, negotiable, and compromising for some, while others cling tightly to cultural ideas of who we have been taught and nurtured, to be, and in that most people find personal solace. 64

Even amidst the schoolyard taunting, I was aware of the tribal decision to change from the name Papago to Tohono O’odham, but in my young adult mind, I really felt no need to address or pay attention to it since to me there was nothing wrong with the word

Papago. Camillus Lopez, former Ge Aji district chair stated in an email message that:

From what I remember, the word Papago was a nickname given by the river people to desert dwellers babawi o’odham20 [tepary bean people]. Because that was the only thing that would grow in the desert in the drought times. Spaniards and white man changed that to Papago in the spelling. When the time came for the [19]86 constitution, the people wanted to revert to tohono o’odham (Lopez).

Outsiders and and even some Sonoran O’odham and mestizos were baffled at the name change. One of my relatives from the Sonoita, Sonora community once stated to me

“No se de donde salio aquel nombre, Tohono O’odham. Siempre hemos sidos Papagos y asi nos nombraban a nosotros, la gente mestiza,” “I don’t know where that name came from, we have always been Papagos, and that is what the mestizo population called us.”

Prior to the 1980s the Tohono O’odham people were referred to by both

American and Mexican peoples as Papago. On the American side the term Papago was accepted for many years, usually with no socio-hierarchical meaning linked to the term other than an Indian from the Arizona southwest. In Sonora, Papago took on a derogatory social definition or meaning. On the way to the store during one of my field trips, Darío, the husband of Francisca, told me that he recalled people from the Pitiquito mestizo community who would point at his wife’s great aunts, Francisca “Pancha” and her sister,

Ramona, and say, “mira, por alla vienen los Pápagos,” “look, there go the Papagos.” The social implication by the mestizo was that this sight was almost spectacular, unlike any of 65

the other inhabitants of the pueblo, almost as if they were part of a caravan of wild animals parading through the town.

Rafael Rodriguez-Napoleon, one of my consultants stated that in Sonora, “Antes, usar la palabra, Pápago, era sucio, pero usar la palabra Yaqui, no,” “In the past, using the word Papago was considered dirty, but using the word Yaqui, no” (Rodriguez-

Napoleon). Conversely, my cousin Candelario responded when I asked him to identify himself at the start of our first interview, “Pues, soy Pápago,” “well I am Pápago.” When

I told him what his cousin Rafael had said regarding his experience growing up in

Pitiquito, Candelario replied instantly, “pues, Ruben que te puedo decir, es cierto que soy

Pápago, porque voy a negarlo.” “Well, it’s true that I am Papago, why would I deny it?”

The different responses by my consultants were interesting, their responses compelling because all elders interviewed were in the same age range by ten years. Candelario is the oldest followed by his first cousins Carmen, Ricardo and Rafael.

Throughout my interviews, my consultants used the following terms to refer to their identity as Indian people within the context of Sonora, Mexico: sangre (literally

[Indian] blood), raza (race), tribu (tribe), Pápago, Tohono O’odham, etnia (ethnicity), primera nacíon (first nation), indigena (Indigenous), and primera gente (first people). All these terms reference Pápago or Tohono O’odham, but the O’odham consultants’ use of multiple terms begs the question, why so many terms? As noted by Rafael Rodriguez-

Napoleon and some other O’odham consultants, the use of the term Pápago by Sonoran society in general, was avoided intentionally because it was demeaning or had a dirty or negative connotation.21 Francisca recalls: 66

I remember that being Papago during my childhood was the cause for much discrimination by the other school children who said many offensive things to us. There were also teachers that discriminated against us as well. Much time has passed since then and today I believe that discrimination was the reason for our grandparents not teaching us to speak our maternal language, perhaps they wanted to protect their offspring from the people that were hostile to them.

As Indian people we have been forced to take nationalistic side(s), our cultural identity becoming secondary to our national identity. As an O’odham exploring Sonoran

Tohono O’odham people and more importantly their identity as O’odham people in the context of the state of Sonora and in the republic of Mexico, this narrative is also symbolic of the division of O’odham Himdag or culture into new kinds of cultural, political, possibly national, definitions of what it means to be Sonoran Tohono O’odham.

Many tribal members have said that when casino profits and benefits began to seep over into Sonora that many legitimate or illegitimate Sonoran O’odham began coming out of their ethnic closet. The entire phenomena is interesting considering the nationalistic ideologies expressed by some of the Sonoran Tohono O’odham in regard to their nationality as Mexican citizens. Their citizenship is normally disregarded but then lauded when resources derived from American Indian federal policy are being distributed to them via tribal per capita distributions or any other services that might be available to them via the Tohono O’odham constitution. Personally I believe it to be fascinating how identity within the context of O’odham has become so malleable almost akin to linguistic code switching, a term used by linguists to describe how an individual consciously 67

switches from one language intonation or inflection to another based on the context of the conversation.

During my field visits, I noticed that the younger generation in the Sonoran community interchangeably used only two terms to identify themselves: Papago and

Tohono O’odham. While I used the term Papago when I was young because it was the only term we associated with, I have hope that this younger generation recognizes that despite the negative connotations brought forth by Mexican colonialist practices, being

Pápago remains a source of ethnic pride. 68

2.8 Cultural persistence through pottery and basketmaking

My interest in ceramics and O’odham pottery making drew me to stories of my

Pitiquito great aunts and the grandmother of my elder consultants, including my great grandmother, who were all potters. As a traditional potter myself, this naturally led me to seek out other O’odham art and its role in the community. The ideogram for this narrative represents the O’odham presence in Pitiquito. The frame with triangles on either side is a visual replica of one of the fourteen frames painted with red ochre and white and black pigments within the Pitiquito mission church that serve as stations of the cross.

Figure 13, One of fourteen stations of the cross, placed inside the Church San Diego del Pitic. According to James Griffith, the frames were painted by the O’odham of Al Pi’ichkiñ. Photograph by Reuben Naranjo.

During the interview phase of this project I was compelled to find a way to give something back to the Pitiquito community. Being a traditional and contemporary ceramist and weaver I felt that teaching pottery making among the community was an opportunity for this. The community was well known in the older generation (great grandparents, aunts and mothers) for their pottery making. The last potter, Pancha, died in the mid-1960s. I considered the lessons a great opportunity to see the tradition rise up out of the cultural graveyard of the Sonoran O’odham past. I, along with an American

Tohono O’odham traditional potter, Annie Manuel, taught pottery making five times in

2007 and 2008. We were able to incorporate the elder Candelario’s knowledge of the area and where his mother, Ramona and her sister Francisca Napoleon gathered clay, as well as their methods in firing their pottery.

Candelario stated that his mother and aunt would gather two kinds of clays. One clay source was located north of the pueblo of Pitiquito. This clay was mixed with another clay from the dry banks of the Rio Asuncíon, which is located immediately south of the town22. He took us to a hill on the northwest end of the Pitiquito range, north of the

Mexican National highway. There, Candelario guided me the holes, which were still visible, where his mother and aunt would pick and shovel their clay. 70

Figure 14, Candelario digging through the soft dirt lining the Asuncíon river banks. The good clay is directly under the surface.23 Photograph by Reuben Naranjo.

While Candelario had his mother and aunt’s clay-finding skills as a remembrance, he seemed regretful about the fact that his mother and aunt would speak O’odham but never taught any of their children. Candelario states that if his mother had taught him

O’odham he could have gone north and have had better economic opportunities but they were never even taught one word.

Figure 15, My family of consultants and their pots, Pitiquito Tohono O’odham community, 2007. Photograph by Reuben Naranjo.

This project was challenged by the uncertainty involved, going into another country with different kinds of social and governmental cultures and tradition, practices - non-Native and Mestizo populations. Making pottery with my family of consultants was a lot of work: from gathering the clay and processing it to locating fuel materials and the subsequent firing. Their enthusiasm and desire to learn pottery making and basket weaving demonstrated to me their hunger to know and experience their ancestors’ past through creativity and kinship. 72

CONCLUSION

In basketry, the center knot is the point from which everything radiates outward.

It provides the foundational support for the coils that then wrap around it, each tightly connected to the next as they continue further from the central base. When analyzing my interviews and creating the eight personal narratives I felt that the Feast of St. Francis theme acts as the foundational building block or cultural nucleus that gives meaning to the other seven themes. The Feast ideogram is differentiated from the other seven ideograms, being a literal representation of the church at Magdalena rather than an abstract representation of a concept. To both northern and southern O’odham, the Feast is more than a spiritual event, it is a place to re-connect, despite the presence of the border and the assimilative efforts of American and Mexican outside forces. It is a place to reaffirm their kinship, culture, and identity, and to mourn lost connections while at the same time creating new ones.

A loosely woven basket will often not hold up under repeated stress, with coils not strong enough to hold weight over the years. Despite the many forces that try to infiltrate it, I believe the strong coil-warp bundle of the Pitiquito community will continue to hold it together. My mural represents every part of my dissertation: research, travel, family, ceramics, and basketry. As it weaves these together with the narratives and ideograms, it also represents a personal journey and my own realization of the strong bonds necessary to hold life together, no matter how far from the center coil. 73

ENDNOTES

1 Lucio and Concepcion Napoleon, Tohono O’odham from Pitiquito Sonora, would travel into the U.S. to gather acorns, at Waikk wiyo:di, Tres bellotas or Three Oaks (trees), Arizona (Zacarías-Napoleon, Candelario). My own grandfather, Frank Lewis would take his family and other tribal members to Waikk Wiyo:di or “three Oak trees,” near Arivaca, Arizona in the late 1940s and 1950s. O’odham would camp there and harvest acorns. 2 The Yoeme or Yaqui in Arizona have had a long and brutal history with Mexican soldiers and the Mexican government. For a more informative history of the American Yaqui presence please refer to Edward H. Spicer’s The Yaquis: a cultural history, 1979. 4 According to Lieutenant Governor of the Sonoran Tohono O’odham, Jose Garcia Lewis, the community of Mams, or “tick,” in the Tohono O’odham dialect, was an O’odham Ranchería whose O’odham owners were forcibly removed by Mexican soldiers. It became La Garrapata (“the tick,” in Spanish) ranch, owned by Jesus Zepeda, Mexican rancher and businessman (Garcia). 5 Map adapted from Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Georgrafia (INEGI), or the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, Mexico City, MEX. 2006. 6 Naranjo, Reuben V., Jr. MA thesis, American Indian Studies, University of Arizona, 2002. 8 For further reading on the Havusupai case as it applies to research and Native Americans see, Tribal Sovereigns: Reframing Research in American Indian Education, by K. Tsianina Lomawaima, 2000; Reliability, Validity, and Authenticity in American Indian and Alaskan Native Research by K. Tsianina Lomawaima & Teresa L. McCarty, 2002. 9 An O’odham world ceremony, celebrated in the ancient O’odham community Quitovac, Sonora. For more information on the Vi:kita refer to Edward Davis’ monograph, The Papago ceremony of Víkita, New York, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Indian notes and monographs, vol. III, no. 4, 1920, or The Vikita ceremony of the Papago by Julian Hayden, Smithsonian lnstitute: Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, 1937. 10 Frank Lewis’s birth name was Francisco Silvas Ruiz. Upon entering Ft. Yuma Indian boarding school in the 1930s, he was renamed Frank Lewis. The thought was that these Indian children or O’odham students were supposed to be American Indians and not Mexican. My grandmother first entered Fort Mohave Boarding School, Parker, Arizona, as Maria Neblina and left Mary Neblin. 11 Tia Abuela or “aunt grandmother,” tio abuelo or uncle cousin, are terms of respect given to an older relative or cousin, generally reserved for blood kin relations. 12 In the state of Sonora, Mexico, these large flour tortillas are known as tortillas sobaqueras or “armpit tortillas.” The term is a reference to the limit to which the tortilla’s width can attain nearest the armpit (Franco). 13 After Alvarez-Hale orthography, 1969. 14 This theoretical concept of culture has been discussed in the publication Cognitive Anthropology, edited by Steven A. Tyler, 1968. 15 Anthropologist Edward Spicer documented Juan Silvas’ participation in the Yaqui Easter ceremonies at Old Pascua Village in his 1940 audio recordings, film and field notes titled Papers of Edward H. and Rosamond B. Spicer, presently archived in the University of Arizona State Museum. 16 Prior to Catholic influence the Tohono O’odham blood relationship terms were extremely complex based on paternal and maternal lineage. For more information see Saxton & Saxton, 1969, pages 124-127. 17 The Costa Agricola lies at about a 15-kilometer distance from the town of Caborca (Chuhuhua). It is mostly a dust bowl today. Sporadic fields of asparagus and grapes cover the area all the way to the Gulf of California or Sea of Cortez. 18 Mattías Chuhuhua Gomez, indicated to me that that near the site of O’o Ke:k, there is a place he called Vi’inakud (no translation provided), site of the legend of the flood according to Sonoran Tohono O’odham and the O’odham who in desperation climbed a mountain near O’o Ke:k all in an effort to save themselves from the rising water. They were all turned to stone when someone asked the Goks, or the dog, how high the water had risen. Interestingly enough, American O’odham believe this event happened east of the modern day city of S-kikik or Phoenix, Arizona, on top of Gagodk Du’ag or the Superstition mountains. 74

19 Cat tacos is a term used by O’odham people in reference/jest to the meats used in the preparation of carne asada (literally grilled meat) tacos. The meat for the cat tacos is purported to be derived from feline strays. For many reasons, Mexican and Tohono O’odham social and cultural relationship is tempered by mistrust. 20 Tepary beans are a bean endemic to the American southwest and northern Sonora, Mexico. It is notable for its hardiness and adaptation to low levels of precipitation (Rea 321). 21 Among some Sonoran Mexicans including Sonoran O’odham peoples, the avoidance of the word Papago remains strong. I have Mexican acquaintances who will say, Papalote or a kite or Papagayo (a bird from the Amazon jungle) rather than use the term or word, “Papago.” On one occasion I responded to a question from a gentleman from Cuidad Obregon, regarding my background. I responded that I was Papago or Tohono O’odham to which he responded, “no, you shouldn’t say that, it’s not nice.” I countered, “why shouldn’t I, I am proud to be Indian.” He had nothing more to add to the matter but it was an interesting interchange just the same. 22 Candelario used the term los paredones, or the clay “walls” of the Asuncíon river bank. 23 Being a traditional O’odham potter, it has been my experience that good workable clays are found in the small hills of surrounding valleys and not river-banks. I didn’t know what to expect. I figured the clay had a lot of organic material in it, hence the black color of the prefired clay. Once fired the pot turns to a buff coloured clay. In all probability this area must have been part of the swamp discussed by Carlos Mazon Celaya during my interview with him. On another occasion, Mattías Chuhuhua, directed me to a charco, which was quite extensive and high. A charco is a man made dam that captures running water, mostly for animals, cattle, horses, and for human use and consumption. When we reached the summit of the man made dam, Mattías explained that under the top layer of dirt I would find a black clay that his sister, Elvira use to make her pots. I dug into the cracked up layer and sure enough there was a bed of black clay. This was near the old O’odham community of Vi’isin, Bisani in Spanish where Mr. Chuhuhua’s mother, Ramona Gomez was buried (Chuhuhua).

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 1

First set of questions (translated into Spanish)

1. Could you tell me your name, family and tribal affiliation?

2. I would like to discuss American Indian persistence and survival. Do you feel that this is worth discussing? If so, could you describe to me how your parents, grandparents and ancestors survived and persist?

3. What would you define or describe as being traditional forms of work? What would you define as being modern kinds of work? What do you think your mother would define as traditional forms of work or kinds of work that were modern during her lifetime?

4. What do you think your mother and father would define as traditional forms of work or kinds of work that were modern during their lifetime?

5. What do you think your grandmother and grandfather would define as traditional forms of work or kinds of work that were modern during their lifetime?

6. What do you believe your ancestors considered as traditional forms of work?

7. Would you say that your mother and father, grandmother and grandfather have full time traditional forms of work, if so what where they and if not what other kinds of work did they practice and would you consider this kind of work as traditional?

8. What type of work or kinds of jobs did your mother and father have in their lifetime in order to support their families? What kinds of work did your grandmother and grandfather have during their lifetime in order to support their kids?

9. Did both of your parents work?

10. Did your mother and father travel in search of work? If so where did they go? Did they always travel to the same area and jobs every year? If so why? If not where did they go? What kinds of work did they do? Would you consider this kind of work traditional or modern?

11. Would you say that your mother worked harder than your father? If so why?

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 2

Second set of questions (translated into Spanish)

1.0 Could you tell me your name, family, and tribal affiliation?

2.0 Are you aware that Tohono O’odham work and reside within the community of Pi’itksin (Pitiquito) or Ka: wolk (Caborca)?

3.0 Do you feel the topic of economics is important enough to discuss it with others from outside of the community?

4.0 Could you describe and explain the kinds of work-jobs and occupations yourself, your parents and grandparents took on in their lifetimes?

5.0 The kind of work that your parents and grandparents took on was it full-time, part- time, or supplemental to other kinds of work or subsistence economy?

6.0 Was this work considered traditional Tohono O’odham kinds of work, jobs and occupations?

7.0 Did both your parents work?

8.0 Where you parents involved in seasonal work?

9.0 Would you say your mother worked harder than your father, if so why?

10. As a member of the O’odham community in Pi’itskin or Ka:wolk did members engage in the similar kinds of work and or types of subsistence and cash economy? 77

APPENDIX C: ENGLISH PARTICIPANT INFORMED CONSENT

SUBJECT’S CONSENT FORM

Title of Project: “American Indian Survival and Persistence in the 20th century: The Economics of two Southern Tohono O’odham Communities, Pi’itksin (Pitiquito) and Ka:wolk (Caborca) Sonora Mexico.” A VERBAL TRANSLATION OF THIS CONSENT FORM IS AVAILABLE

IN THE TOHONO O’ODHAM LANGUAGE.

I AM BEING ASKED TO READ THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL TO ENSURE THAT I AM INFORMED OF THE NATURE OF THIS RESEARCH STUDY AND OF HOW I WILL PARTICIPATE IN IT, IF I CONSENT TO DO SO. SIGNING THIS FORM WILL INDICATE THAT I HAVE BEEN SO INFORMED AND THAT I GIVE MY CONSENT. FEDERAL REGULATIONS REQUIRE WRITTEN INFORMED CONSENT PRIOR TO PARTICIPATION IN THIS RESEARCH STUDY SO THAT I CAN KNOW THE NATURE AND RISKS OF MY PARTICIPATION AND CAN DECIDE TO PARTICIPATE OR NOT PARTICIPATE IN A FREE AND INFORMED MANNER.

Purpose: I am being invited to voluntarily participate in the “American Indian Survival and Persistence” research project. The purpose of this project is to explore the economic impact of the international boundary on two southern Tohono O’odham communities. This project will pay particular attention to the local economy, and how men’s and women’s roles were defined and lived out.

Selection Criteria: I am being asked to participate in this research study as a consultant because of my knowledge of the economic history of Pi’itksin (Pitiquito) and Ka:wolk (Caborca). Tohono O’odham and non - O’odham will be invited to participate in the research study.

Procedure: If I agree to participate, the principal investigator will interview me for about two and one half hours. Some of these interviews could be longer depending on the circumstances of the interview. The interviews will be recorded via minidisk. During the interview process I will be asked to discuss my knowledge of southern Tohono O’odham economics.

Risks: There are no known risks.

Benefits: There are no guaranteed direct benefits as a result of my participation in this study, but it may provide the foundation for Native American perspectives regarding

Oʼodham economics within the broader borderland regions studies area. 78

APPENDIX C: ENGLISH PARTICIPANT INFORMED CONSENT – Continued

Confidentiality: Complete anonymity cannot be guaranteed because interviews will be recorded, via a digital audio minidisk recorder; however, when these recorded interviews have been transcribed, all information from transcriptions pertaining to the identity of individuals will be coded. Recorded minidisks containing all interviews, any transcriptions derived from the recordings and coded information will remain in the sole possession of the principal investigator, Reuben V. Naranjo Jr. Coded information (from transcriptions) and the actual transcriptions will be stored separately in locked cabinets.

____ I waive my right to have my name concealed. I would like my name used in the write-up of this project, or I do not care whether my name is used in connection with the information I give in this interview.

____ I retain my right to have my name concealed. Only the principal investigator, Reuben V. Naranjo Jr., will have access to my name. A pseudonym will be used in the write-up of this project.

Participation Costs and Subject Compensation: Costs to the consultants will about two hours of their time. Due to the paucity of financial resources (principal investigator) no monetary compensation will be offered to the subject for their participation.

Contacts: I can obtain further information from the principal investigator Reuben V. Naranjo M.A. at (520) 260-1613. If I have questions concerning my rights as a research subject, I may call the Human Subjects Committee office at (520) 626-6721.

Preservation:

I am willing to have my recorded interview(s) and/or transcripts placed in an archive of the interviewer’s choice. YES____ NO____

If yes, I am willing to have my recorded interview(s) and/or transcripts open to public use in an archive after ______(date).

Authorization: BEFORE GIVING MY CONSENT BY SIGNING THIS FORM, THE METHODS, INCONVENIENCES, RISKS, AND BENEFITS HAVE BEEN EXPLAINED TO ME AND MY QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED. I MAY ASK QUESTIONS AT ANY TIME AND I AM FREE TO WITHDRAW FROM THE PROJECT AT ANY TIME WITHOUT CAUSING BAD FEELINGS. MY PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROJECT MAY BE ENDED BY THE 79

APPENDIX C: ENGLISH PARTICIPANT INFORMED CONSENT – Continued

INVESTIGATOR FOR REASONS THAT WOULD BE EXPLAINED. NEW INFORMATION DEVELOPED DURING THE COURSE OF THIS STUDY WHICH MAY AFFECT MY WILLINGNESS TO CONTINUE IN THIS RESEARCH PROJECT WILL BE GIVEN TO ME AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE. THIS CONSENT FORM WILL BE FILED IN AN AREA DESIGNATED BY THE HUMAN SUBJECTS COMMITTEE WITH ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, REUBEN V. NARANJO JR. OR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES DEPARTMENT. I DO NOT GIVE UP ANY OF MY LEGAL RIGHTS BY SIGNING THIS FORM. A COPY OF THIS SIGNED CONSENT FORM WILL BE GIVEN TO ME.

______Subject’s signature Date

______Witness (if necessary) Date

INVESTIGATOR'S AFFIDAVIT I have carefully explained to the subject the nature of the above project. I hereby certify that to the best of my knowledge the person who is signing this consent form understands clearly the nature, demands, benefits, and risks involved in his/her participation and his/her signature is legally valid. A medical problem or language or educational barrier has not precluded this understanding.

______Signature of Investigator Date

APPENDIX D: SPANISH PARTICIPANT INFORMED CONSENT

APPENDIX D: SPANISH PARTICIPANT INFORMED CONSENT - Continued

APPENDIX E: TOHONO O’ODHAM LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL RESOLUTION

APPENDIX E: TOHONO O’ODHAM LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL RESOLUTION - Continued

APPENDIX F: TOHONO O’ODHAM EXECUTIVE APPROVAL

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