University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository UNM Bulletins Scholarly Communication - Departments 1937 The ba original utilization of the tall cacti in the American Southwest Edward Franklin Castetter Willis Harvey Bell Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/unm_bulletin Recommended Citation Castetter, Edward Franklin and Willis Harvey Bell. "The bora iginal utilization of the tall cacti in the American Southwest." University of New Mexico biological series, v. 5, no. 1, University of New Mexico bulletin, whole no. 307, Ethnobiological studies in the American Southwest, 4 5, 1 (1937). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/unm_bulletin/28 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Scholarly Communication - Departments at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in UNM Bulletins by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. t11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111III The University of New Mexico Bulletin Ethnobiological Studies in the American Southwest I IV. The Aboriginal Utilization ofthe Tall Cacti in the American Southwest By EDWARD F. CASTETTER, Professor of Biology University of New Mexico and WILLIS H. BELL, Associate Professor of Biology . U '. ....1-. Uni~e?ity of New Mexico :II ~~I-D6. U.,IV/,;it, .&-'-;1. ~~.>'<4__ ~ . ~, ~. (!d~dltz-&-L' ~ F: r-J, J l.J?7h'-:X-t'-J? ~~ 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 }7~~JL_/n?7 .::: IIL-l GSW~ The University of New Mexico Bulletin Ethnobiological Studies in the American Southwest IV. The A bong-inal Utilization OJ the Tall Cacti in the American Southwest By ·EDWARD F. CASTETTER, Professor of Biology University of New Mexico and' WILLIS H. BELL, Associate Professor of Biology University of New Mexico THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO BULLETIN Whole Number 307 June 1, 1937 Biological Series, Vol. 5, No.1 Published twice a month by the University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexi~co Entered as Second Class Matter, May 1, 1906, at the post office at Albuquerque, New Mexico, under Act of Congress of July 16, 1894 UNIVERSITY OF' NEW MEXIOO PRESS 1937 IV. THE ABORIGINAL UTILIZATION OF THE TALL CACTI IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST INTRODUCTION The authors are engaged in a series of investigations on the ethnobiology of the American Southwest, a region variously defined by different investigators. To our concep­ tion of the Southwest, as represented on the accompanying I map, Baja California has been added because of natural ,I botanical affinities oBhe species presented. Culturally, Baja I : California does not belong to the typical central Mexican region nor to the Californian area, hence no particular vio­ L."'f"'nL1 lence is done by this temporary alignment. The choice of the cacti discussed has been guided by the aboriginal utilization of species of tall cacti belonging to the old genus Cereus, and is, therefore, more or less arbitrary. From several lines of evidence it is known that the 30' fruits, seeds, and other plant parts of the species of cacti discussed below were used as food, etc., aboriginally in por­ tions of the American Southwest, and it is our purpose to reconstruct, in so far as possible, the methods and extent of such pre-Columbian utilization by the various Southwestern aborigines. In so doing, our main sources of information have been the distribution of these species of cacti, the study of surviving peoples, and evidence gathered from recorded historical sources. Other lines of attack, valuable to some investigators, have proved practically fruitless in this par­ Map showing the distribution of Carnegiea gigantea, as well as the limits of the ticular study. American Southwest. Adapted from the map in "Garnegiea gigantea Britton & Rose'" by Forrest Shreve, Die Pflanzenareale 3 (1): 7-8, 1931. By permission of author, . As regards the methods of investigation listed it may be editor, and publisher. Limits of the Southwest, as interpreted by the authors. said that the first, namely distribution, was orten valuable shown by the heavy dotted line. in determining the identity of a particular species that was reported used in a given locality.. Thus, when it was known that the fruit of some giant cactus was utilized in an area, the known distribution of the various species made it pos­ sible to ascertain the particular one by eliminating those not distributed in such an area. [ 3 ] I I 4] THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ETHNOBIOLOGICAL STUDIES [ 5 The second method of attack-study of survlvmg our knowledge, not since Onate, in 1604, traveled from peoples-has been very fruitful. To be sure, European pene­ Moqui down the Colorado of the West had any white man tration in the Southwest wrought pronounced economic seen the Gila River. Hence the rediscovery and first interior changes in some quarters; However, it left other, more exploration were the work of Kino (11: 1,53). isolated, regions relatively unaffected for considerable per­ A differential rate of acquisition of white culture gradu­ iods of time. ally became evident among the Papago as compared with The growing and utilization of cultivated plants by the Pima. Kino labored incessantly to furnish a food supply Indian peoples is much more likely to be modified by white for the Indians of the missions in his territory and even contact than is that of wild plants. Agriculture in the South­ beyond, to the end that these missions might be given a west has been greatly modified by the introduction of foreign basis of economic prosperity and independence (11: I, 57). plants, although the methods of utilizing wild plant products Kino's missions dwindled soon after his death in 1711, and still remain in some places essentially on the aboriginal level. their later history, in spite of the picturesque labors of the The extent of dependence upon these same products hasfre­ saintly Garces, shows no great revival. Thus the Papagos, quently undergone pronounced change because of the gradu­ after a brief Spanish in'fluence, were left to their own devices. ally greater availability of other products within historic They had acquired horses from the Spaniards, and had times; also the persistence of aboriginal utilization among learned to plant wheat and a few imported fruits and vege­ some tribes is much more marked than among others. For tables. Except for these changes, however, their oldeco­ example, the Papago, living in a forbidding land, where com­ nomic life continued (21 :3-4). In sharp contrast, however, paratively little agriculture was possible, and where a sub­ the Pimas dwelling along the rich bottom lands of the Gila sistence had to be wrested with great effort largely from the possessed desirable agricultural lands much coveted by the wildproducts of nature, have, until recently, remained rela­ white man and easy of access. Due to this and constant con­ tively unaffected by white contact. Because of the inhospi­ tact with the argonauts from the United States, Sonora, and tality of their desert land they did not suffer the thorough Chihuahua, in 1848-49, when one of the Southwestern trails conquest which befell the Pima and many of the Mexican to California led through the Gila River country (10), the tribes to the south. Hence they have kept many of their Pima changed much more rapidly, until today they represent ancient customs intact. Kino, who came to Pimerfa Alta in only a vestige of their former selves. 1687, found it to be untouched and unknown, although to Castetter and Underhill (21) made a rather detailed the east in Nueva Vizcaya were the already important study of Papago ethnobiology as reported by the first Span­ reales, or mining camps, of San Juan and Bacanuche, and iards and as seen in the remoter villages of the present day. to the south were many missions, ranches, and mining towns Russell (74) did the same for the Pima, as did Spier (85) (11 :1, 51). Pimerfa Alta, which extended from the Altar for the Maricopa, and so on. The picture drawn, apart from River, in Sonora, to the Gila, and from the San Pedro River the exceptions mentioned above, may be reasonably consid­ to the Gulf of California and the Colorado to (he west, had ered as aboriginal. been entered by Fray Marcos, by Melchior Diaz, and by the The third line of attack, the historical or documentary, m'ainCoronado party between 1539 and 1541. But these ex­ involved the information obtainable from written records, in plorers had passed only' along the eastern and western several languages, made by early explorers, travelers, and borders. Not since that day had Arizona been approached missionaries.' These early intruders had ample opportunity , from the south by a single expedition, while, to the best of to observe and set down the kinds of plants employed and I ETHNOBIOLOGICAL STUDIES [ 7 6 ] THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO cereus Thurberi, and sahuaro or giant cactus to refer to C. the methods of their utilization before European contact fligantea. According to Safford (75 :555) the term pitahaya wrought much, if any, change. IS of Carib or Haytian origin, brought early to Mexico by the By comparing the above three methods with each other Spanish conquistadores. it is felt that a reasonably accurate picture of aboriginal Oviedo1 writing in 1535, described a pitahaya plant economy, as regards these cacti, has been reproduced. Cer­ with its spines and fruit. He referred to it as having a tain facts bearing on utilization presented in the text are thick skin, and that the fruit was filled with little seeds. obviously not aboriginal, and these will be apparent to the The seeds were mixed with the pulp to form a kind of paste . reader as he proceeds. They are included for special reasons. which had a crimson color.