Tohono O'odham (Papago)

Location:

There are approximately 8,300 Papago currently living in southwestern United States today. The homelands of the Papago Indians include the desert regions of the northern Sonora and Arizona. Many currently live in three reservations in southern Arizona, Gila Bend, and several are located in villages in northwestern Sonora.

Language:

The Papago tribe speaks the Uto-Aztecan language. This dialect is broken into two divisions. The Papago tribe speaks in the Sonora division focusing mainly on the Piman group of dialect.

Traditions:

The Papago were traditionally a semi-sedentary tribe. The rain variation in the desert and plains created seasonal variation in the location of the tribe. They relied on farming focusing mainly on corn, beans, and cotton. The Papago did not use an irrigation system but used the pattern of the rain season to grow crops. With the first rain, the crops would be placed deep in the ground and the subsequent rains gave way to harvest. The tribe also gathered the wild plants and vegetables of the area. While farming is still a large part of the Papago culture, much of the tribe has turned to raising cattle as the major source of income.

History:

The Papago tribe is a descendant of a larger tribe called the Hohokam. The Papago are also known as the Tohono O’Odham which means “Desert People”. The harsh, dry weather upset by abnormal periods of rain set the tribe in different areas at different times. The Papago tribe was spread apart and was not able to create large villages or have a central political organization. A group of related villages seems to be the largest form of organizational unit. The villages were made up of several families usually connected by the ancestry of the males. The Papago tribe has had little involvement with Caucasian Americans. This has allowed the Papago to preserve many of their aboriginal traits.

Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not claim expertise on the Papago.

Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the web address of this page.

If you are Papago, your feedback is much appreciated.

Tohono O'odham Nation: http://www.tonation-nsn.gov/

Tohono O'odham Community Action: http://www.tocaonline.org/Home.html

Sources:

“Papago.” The New Encyclopedia Brittanica. 1998. Ed.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0848956.html Last accessed April 25, 2000

Written by: Tara Rose Zitzmann