Tohono O’Odham, The Desert People

Lewis, David Rich

doi:10.1093/oso/9780195062977.003.0007

Chapter

6 Tohono O’Odham, The Desert People

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https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195062977.003.0007

Pages

118–132

Published:

October 1994

Abstract

When Jesuit missionaries made their entradas into the Pimeria Alta of northern New Spain, they encountered a semi-nomadic desert people. Their riverine Piman neighbors called them pavi au’autam, the “bean eating people,” which Euro-Americans transformed into “Papabotas,” or Papagos. The people called themselves Tohono O’odham, the “Desert” or “Country” or “Thirsty People” to distinguish themselves from their cultural relatives, the ‘Akimel O’odham, “River People,” or Pimas. The O’odham are members of the Piman language family of the Sonoran di vision of the Uta-Aztecan language stock. They inhabited an area in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico bounded by the Gila River on the north, the Santa Cruz and San Pedro rivers on the east, the Colorado River and Gulf of California on the west, and the Magdalena and Altar rivers on the south. Today the majority of the approximately 16,000 Tohono O’odham live on one of three reservations in southern Arizona-the Papago (Sells), Gila Bend, and San Xavier reservations incorporating 4,460 square miles (2,855,802 acres) called the American Papagueria.1 The Tohono O’odham have an elaborate origin cycle, told over fournights during the winter solstice, that explains the creation of the world and the appearance of the O’odham. In the beginning, Earth Maker made the world from the dirt and sweat on his skin. Darkness lay upon the water and they rubbed, producing I’itoi, the Papago’s Elder Brother and culture hero. I’itoi, Earth Maker, and Coyote (Ban, the trickster, who came to life uncreated) finished the world, creating plants and animals and giving each a place and function. I’itoi and Earth Maker created people, but the tears from an abandoned baby flooded the world.

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6 Tohono O’Odham, The Desert People

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