Thank you for inviting me to the project. After reading I'd like to suggest a few points for discussion and possible improvement. My current research on a specific profile has me touching on the Tohono O’odham Nation region, from which I offer, in summary:
- 1. Tohono O’odham is a recent term, the Indians before 1986 were known as Pápago
- 2. Reservations occupied by the Pápago need clarification
- 3. Mission San Xavier del Bac, important architecture built by a band of the Pápago Indians
- 4. The greater Tohono O’odham Nation
1. Tohono O’odham was incorporated as a Nation with that name relatively recently in 1986 with the founding of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Before that the people were identified as Pápago. The Spanish called the Tohono O'odham "Pápago" after mispronouncing a Pima word that means "bean people" or "bean-eaters". The Tohono O'odham have rejected the name "Papago" since the 1980s and officially changed their name to Tohono O'odham in 1986. It is disappointing to me that current maps as well as most other social discussions reflect this, as if the Pápago never existed.
Even though the name Pápago has been rejected by the Nation today, Indian census reports use that name. People of the area of the Sonoran Desert were identified as Pápago. Yet the project does not even mention the name Pápago! Even the Wikipedia article, the source for the first section of the project states "They call themselves Tohono Oʼodham, meaning "desert people". The Akimel O'odham, a neighboring tribe, referred to them as Ba꞉bawĭkoʼa, meaning "eating tepary beans". The Spanish colonizers learned that name from the Pima and transliterated it as Pápago, in their pronunciation."
Pápago should be mentioned in context. The name Tohono O’odham, which should be used today, is, however, a "Johnny come lately". I'm concerned in my research with the late 1800s and early 1900s and the name Pápago is used exclusively in documents dated then. In a 1925 USGS Report on water, it was stated that "the region between the Baboquivari Mountains and Gunsight Pass is inhabited by the Papagos and the nearly related Kohakt Pimas. The Indians number about 6,000. No Indians have more closely adapted their habits of life to the character of the region in which they live than the Papagos."
Among the images captured by the famed photographer Ansel Adams is a photo titled
Papago Indian Boy, Mission San Xavier del Bac, Arizon c.1950
ANSEL ADAMS (B.1902-1984) @ https://fineartvendor.com/products/ansel-adams-papago-indian-boy-ar...
Ignoring the name Pápago in deference to the Tohono O’odham Nation is one thing, erasing it from history is quite another. WE should not.
2. It is my understanding that there are limited Pápago on the Gila River reservation, mostly confined in a small area south of the Gila River (aka Ak-Chin), but more do reside on the slightly differently named Gila Bend reservation in southwest Maricopa County on Interstate 8 just north of the town of Gila Bend, AZ. The Gila Bend reservation has been erroneously referred to and pointed out on maps as the Gila River reservation. The names are NOT interchangeable, they are NOT the same location.
In addition to the larger Tohono O’odham reservation, they can be found in three other locations, see this page and below the map (Click for a detailed map.).
See the map here: https://www.aaanativearts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/arizona-in...
I cannot rule out the possibility however of Pápago being residing on the Gila River reservation, there was a group of Pápago known as the Nomadic Pápago who could have resided there during one or more census enumerations, but this needs more proof in my mind.
3. Of importance (to me) here is the area to the southwest of Tucson, which is elsewhere identified as the San Xavier reservation, after the San Xavier del Bac Mission, which is a mission that has survived since 1687 (rebuilt after a fire) and was built by a tribe of the Pápago Indians, who still live locally, and who have assumed the Catholic religion as identified by the mission. Again from the USGS Report; "The tribe is nominally Christian, and the greater number, having been converted under Mexican influence, are Catholic. Many, however, are Presbyterians, having been influenced toward that faith by their relatives, the Pimas of the Gila Valley."
The mission itself is a National Historic Landmark. Indian Census as early as 1894 identified this area as being occupied by three tribes, the Pápago, Pima, and Maricopa Indians.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Xavier_del_Bac
and
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/53127/53127-h/53127-h.htm
and
FLICK, LAWRENCE F. “THE PAPAGO INDIANS AND THEIR CHURCH.” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. 5, no. 4, 1894, pp. 385–416. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44208774. Accessed 16 Feb. 2024.
and again Ansel Adams
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/262555
(and yes, there are colorized versions of this image out there)
4. I have encountered a 1910 census, in which Pápago were enumerated, that was taken at a CDP named Arivaca, AZ, a location which is NOT in the current Tohono O’odham reservations, is still included on Arizona maps, and which was included in earlier maps of the Tohono O’odham original land area, which included Mexico, and indicates to me that at the time of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the occupants/residents could have been anywhere within the old territory and still be included in Indian census reports as Pápago.
It is known that the Pápago tended to group in small villages of 10-12 huts, population of 70-80 seemingly of choice, so it seems to me possible that there are small villages that are outside of current reservation boundaries, Arivaca, AZ being one. (San Xavier was an exception, a village with a population in 1902 of about 267.) At least 80 known Pápago villages exist today, including Arivaca, the people of which are probably still considered part of the Tohono O’odham Nation even if the land is not.
