Children of the Desert

THE PAPAGO INDIANS live on three reserva-tions in southern Arizona. The Papago Reservation, which is about the size of the state of Massachusetts, is roughly rectang-ular and extends from ten miles south of Casa Grande to the Mexican border. The terrain is known as range and basin country. Sharp, bare, low mountains, deeply eroded, thread from northwest to southwest, and alternate with expanses of very level plain. The entire tract is typical of the Arizona desert, with cactus, palo verde, mesquite, and ironwood. The large areas of mesquite and palo verde trees are of the browse range type. However, the mes-quite provides the chief source of fuel, and quantities are sold in nearby towns. The San Xavier Reservation lies to the west and south of the Mission of San Xavier and includes the ground on which the mission stands. The small Gila Bend Reservation is about one hundred ten miles northwest of Sells, Arizona. The Papago, like the Pima Indians, belong to the Uto-Aztecan family and the language of the two tribes is almost identical. The name is derived from "papah" (pa-pa) (beans) and "oo-tam" (people), and means the bean people. This derivation indicates that the Papago have been an agricultural people for a considerable period of time. Their tribal name, as employed by themselves, is Taw-haw-no Aw'-o-tahm which is translated as "desert people." Archaeologists believe it probable that the ancestors of the Papago occupied a much larger territory than that which they now occupy. Present differences from other tribes in cus-toms, mental habits, and ceremonies may beattributed to choice but mainly to outside forces and influences. In the sixteenth century the expedition of the Franciscan priest, Marcos de Niza, visited Papago territory, and so did Coronado's expedi-tion. In 1697 the celebrated missionary, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, came to Papagueria, as it was called, following by a few years the visit of Juan Menje. Diego Carrasco, official surveyor for the Spanish crown, came with Father Kino. He received the voluntary sub jection of a large number of Papago and ad-ministered the oath of fealty. Father Kino in turn baptized many of them, giving them

The Story of the PAPAGO INDIANS

Prepared By Arizona Writers Project, W. P. A.

Spanish names. He explored the region and founded-missions, many of which were aban-doned during the eighteenth century when the Apache pushed their raids into southern Ari-zona. While Papago life is still closer to the Spanish than it is to the American, much of the influence of Spain has been lost. The Papago showed no apparent interest in Mexico's revolt against Spain in 1820, the Mexican War, nor the Gadsden Purchase. The Spanish mission-aries introduced domestic animals, farm tools, wheat, and a considerable variety of legumes, and encouraged house building. These inno-vations have been of great value in the economic and social life of the Papago. Soon after the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, mining activities were begun at Ajo, and in the late sixties and the seventies a considerable number of Americans came to open mines or establish stock ranches. They immediately improved the springs used by the Indians and in many places dug wells. Each camp had its nearby Papago settlement dependent to some extent on the new or improved water supply and wages from the mines. As mine prospects and stock ranching proved unprofitable, the white man moved away, and the Indians came into possession of the watering places. Even-tually a reservation system was set up and government schools were established. New trade goods and the white man's type of clothing were introduced. However, the desert dwelling Papago had worked out for himself, before the coming of the Americans, a mode of agricultural existence which has remained basically unchanged. The food supply of the Papago consists mostly of the products of the soil and range. The Papago was raising corn, beans, and squash when found by the first Spanish explorers. Other common foods more recently acquired are wheat, chili, onions, melons, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. Meat, which they formerly obtained by hunting, now comes from their herds of range cattle. While there is a govern-

CHILDREN of

meant

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

the DESERT

meant mill at Santa Rosa where some wheat is ground, most of the tribe still prefer the tortilla made from meal ground by hand. The metate (hand stone for grinding grain) provides the principal meal for the family bread. The tortilla, (chumite) (shoo-mite), is the prevailing form of bread, although a biscuit is often made of the same dough.

The economic unit is the household, consisting of the parents, married sons and their families, and the unmarried daughters. Formerly after the puberty ceremony the girl was ready for marriage. This was a matter of contract between the families with no religious ceremony. After proper negotiations the bridegroom spent four days at the home of the bride, after which he took her back to live with his family. The young couple fifteen or seventeen years old were not regarded as adults but were still for several years under tutelage. Today is it not uncommon for a young man to establish his own home instead of remaining under the family roof. In the usual Papago household all the mature members of the household act more or less as guardians to all the children.

Originally the Papago tribe included eleven parent villages with one or more kindred hamlets derived from each. The summer camp, called the "Fields", was located on the flat lands where drainage from the mountains provided a certain amount of irrigation. Here the Indians had their gardens. The winter camp, known as the "Well," was toward the base of the mountains as close to a water supply as possible.

From the summer camp the women went on food gathering expeditions while the men cultivated the crops. Every drop of the meager water supply was used and the land supported hundreds where a smaller number of whites would have starved. Each group of Papago had at least two village sites and, as cattle raising slowly increased, sufficient grazing land comparatively close at hand. Stock raising and agriculture are still the main occupation of the Papago. The range is held in common and ancient titles to particular farming areas are respected.

Agricultural methods are still comparatively primitive. The one-horse walking plow is used, and planting and harvesting are done by hand. Almost every family raises enough wheat for its own use, planting in January and February and harvesting in May. After the ground is plowed, the wheat is planted and then the fields are harrowed. Hand sickles and scythes are used in cutting the wheat and threshing is done on a circular spot of hardened ground, which belongs to the patriarchal family in common. In threshing, the grain is heaped about a central pole. Horses, hitched three abreast with the inner one tied to the pole by a rope, are driven round and round beginning at the outer edge and traveling toward the center. One man walks behind and drives the horses, as they stamp out the grain with their hoofs, while another keeps the wheat stalks raked evenly over the threshing ground.

Winnowing is always done on a windy day. The wheat is placed in a large basket and tossed until the chaff is blown away. The grain is stored in grass granaries four or five feet high and about four feet in diameter.

The Papago raise chiefly Sonora wheat, which is probably more drouth resistant than any other type. It is good for their native bread, but does not make good leavened bread. Recently the University of Arizona introduced Early Baart wheat and a few Papagos are growing it now.

In southern Arizona the rainy season is concentrated in July and August, when most of the five to eight inches falls. Among the Papago July is known as the "month of rains" and August the "month of short planting." Occasionally the heavy rains do not come until August, and very little planting is done, because the season is too short for the crops to mature before frost. When this occurs the Papago eat their seed corn and beans; the women spend the rest of the summer gathering food that grows wild and the men work for their kinsmen the Pima, around the mines at Ajo or wherever employment can be found.

Each group of villagers whose fields are lo-cated near a wash digs small ditches from the wash to their fields and end the ditch in the middle of the field so the water will flow over it. After the ground has been watered they break it up for planting.

Corn, beans, squash and melons are planted in August and harvested in November. When the time for planting arrives a man and his wife go to the field with a bag of seed corn and the digging stick-a straight piece of iron wood about four feet long with a sharp point. Kneeling, the man digs the first hole and drops in four corn kernels, takes a step forward and repeats the motion; behind him his wife fills the holes with a single foot movement.During the summer the fields are weeded at regular intervals, and the ditches cleaned out to get the benefit of the run-off of summer rains. In former times the Papago's only hoe was a slab of mesquite about two feet long shaped like a sword and sharpened on the lower edge. Metal hoes are now used.

November is a month of hard work for the Papago. After the crops are gathered, they are stored. Beans are whipped to shell them, and the old women sit around and sift out the husks. The pumpkins and squash are cut into long strips, wrapped like bundles of rope, and hung up to dry. Corn is roasted on the ear and later shelled and put away in sealed ollas (ol-lyah).

In addition to the cultivated crops a variety of wild foods is used. Acorns from the various species of live oak found in the mountains, are eaten either raw or parched. Leaves of the creosote bush are used as a tea, as a medicine for colds, and as a general tonic. Spur pepper is used as a condiment or is cooked with beans and stews. The flower buds and joints of the cholla (tchol-lyah) cactus are dried by pit-baking and used with wild greens and as sort of vegetable stew. The agave is also pit-baked; the outer leaves are then cut off leaving the center of sweet juicy pulp which is considered a delicacy by the Papagos.

The most important fruit crop comes from the saguaro (sah-war-o) cactus. The making and drinking of cactus liquor is a ceremony which the Papago believe is rain magic. A greater dependence is placed upon this fruit by the Papago than by any other Indians of the Southwest.

Each family has an accustomed spot to camp close to where saguaro grows. These camping expeditions are enjoyable occasions. The cactus fruit is about the first fresh food of the year, and a part of the sweet pulp is eaten fresh, but principally in participation for the drinking, a ceremony to bring rain so the crops can be planted.

The gathering season lasts a week or more. The women go out twice a day into the area which is their acknowledged region, visiting every cactus plant in the area once in four or five days to allow ample time for the fruit to ripen. Every woman carries a basket to receive the pulp. At some convenient location a large water tight basket is used as a general receptacle.

The saguaro cactus grows to a height of ten to twenty-five feet. The fruit is found at the extreme top of the shaft or on the tip of the arms and is knocked down with long slender poles. If the fruit is fully ripe it breaks open when it hits the ground; otherwise the woman splits it with her thumb nail and throws the pulp in her basket. The shells are always dropped on the ground carefully so that the red lining falls uppermost. This, it is believed, will hasten the rain.

The pulp is soaked over night and the seeds are removed, for they are later dried, ground into flour, moistened with water, and made into a thin cake which is very nutritious. The pulp with double the amount of water is brought to a boil in an earthen pot, cooled, and poured into a straining basket. The liquid is then drained off and boiled to a syrup, which is set aside from day to day. When all the fruit gathered has been treated in this manner the syrup is hermetically sealed in pottery jars. Each family contributes a part of this liquid to make (navai't), the ceremonial drink to be fermented when the time of the general ceremony arrives.

There is always a pulp left in the baskets after the juice is drained off. From it the Papago make cactus jam the most important sweet in their diet.

The organ pipe cactus bears fruit twice a year, but it grows only in the southern part of the Papago country and is not so plentiful as the saguaro. The fruit is as highly prized as the saguaro and treated in the same way.

The fruit of the prickly pear cactus is plucked with tongs, spread on the ground and brushed vigorously with branches of the creosote bush to remove the spines. Most of it is eaten fresh but some is dried or made into syrup. Pinole ((pe-no'lay) is ground parched wheat made into a beverage or cooked as a cereal and eaten with milk. Brown and white tepary (t'pawi) beans, a type of bean developed by the Papago, are used as is any bean, and the crop is a never failing one. Teparies are planted at the beginning of the rainy season in holes about three feet apart and six inches deep. To harvest the crop the vines are laid on the ground and the beans whipped out with a stick; or if the crop is very large it may be threshed with horses like wheat. The pods and beans of the mesquite tree are eaten raw or as gruel or soup. Occasionally the mesquite beans are ground into flour and made into cakes. The meat of the wild pig, the deer, and the rabbit is dried and used as needed. The original Papago variety of corn is a staple food and is commonly used in meal form for tamales and other dishes. Beans and tortillas are staple food eaten three times a day. The tortillas are made of either wheat flour or corn meal, a little baking powder and water, patted into thin cakes, and cooked on top of the stove or on a piece of tin heated over an open fire. A variety of dishes is made with the tortilla as the base. One of the favorite dishes is prepared in this manner: Several uncooked tortillas are broken into small bits and dropped into a kettle of boiling water. To this is added cheese, chopped onions, and green chili. A favorite dish especially among the older people is a form of succotash, made from dried teparies and corn kernels.

tamales and other dishes. Beans and tortillas are staple food eaten three times a day. The tortillas are made of either wheat flour or corn meal, a little baking powder and water, patted into thin cakes, and cooked on top of the stove or on a piece of tin heated over an open fire. A variety of dishes is made with the tortilla as the base. One of the favorite dishes is prepared in this manner: Several uncooked tortillas are broken into small bits and dropped into a kettle of boiling water. To this is added cheese, chopped onions, and green chili. A favorite dish especially among the older people is a form of succotash, made from dried teparies and corn kernels.

Drinks for refreshment are made by steeping seeds of pepper grass, tansy mustard, broomweed and sage. The characteristic dwelling on the Papago Reservation is a one room house built of ocotillo or saguaro ribs and plastered with mud. Such a house is commonly about sixteen feet by twenty feet. The floor is of adobe and is as hard as concrete. Each house has an outdoor arbor, or ramada (wah-toe), as large or larger than the house. The ramada is a rectangle of upright posts, roofed with brush which is plastered with a coating of adobe. It is open on all sides so as to catch every breeze. Most of the home life activities take place in ramadas. Each household also has a storage shed of the same construction as the ramada and a rustic corral.

The ramada is generally better furnished than is the house. It contains beds, tables, chairs, and whatever modern furnishings the family may possess. Here, also, are the open fireplace, the metate and mano (hand stone for grinding grain), pottery cooking pots, water jars, and willow baskets. The willow baskets, which are tightly woven and waterproof, are often used for dishes and are serviceable in other ways. There is a marked tendency, at the present time, to regard the homes as permanent and to take pride in making them more attractive and comfortable, for drilled wells and other improvements have made the former seasonal migration less imperative. Around Sells, Santa Rosa, and on the San Xavier Reservation, the native type of house has been largely replaced by adobe houses. Papago women make most of their cooking utensils, cups, bowls, and other dishes for everyday needs. They make pottery and baskets. During the months of March and April the women and girls gather the necessary materials on the desert.

The basket materials consist of devil's claw, yucca leaves, and bear grass. The weaving is of four kinds-plaiting, close coiling, coarse coiling, and lace coiling. Many baskets and floor mats for the homes are made by the plaiting technique. The close coiled basket is made of a rope of bear grass, coiled counterclockwise, and wrapped with strips of raw green or bleached white yucca with designs done in black with the cured peeled pod of the devil's claw. This close coiled type of basket, in reality a sewed rather than a woven product, is the most commonly offered for sale. In coarse coiling the rope of bear grass is not completely covered by the wrapping but is al lowed to show through. The wrapping is merely a tie for the coils. The technique of lace coiling has almost disappeared. It is used for making carrying baskets of an open-work, lace-like fabric out of the fibre of the yucca leaf.

The pod of the devil's claw has a rib on each side, something like a string bean, but the ribs extend beyond the pod in long hooks. These pods are very tough in texture and before they can be split and bent as sewing withes they have to be softened in lye and water. The women sprinkle wood ashes over them for a week. Just before they are to be used they are buried in wet sand. The next morning they are sufficiently softened so that the ribs and hooks can be split off. A rib and hook together form a strip about ten inches long. The strip is split in the middle making two sewing strips, each a quarter inch wide. While the woman works, the strips are kept soaked in water so that they will be soft and pliable. This is a native undyed element, one of the few blacks in nature. If properly gathered and prepared, it is fadeless.

For pottery the women and girls get the clay, mesquite gum, and roots, from which colors are made, from the clay pits and from the desert. In making the pottery, much time is spent in kneading and tempering the clay, moulding the vessels and smoothing them with a small stone. Papago pottery is not coiled as is the Hopi pottery, but is paddled into shape with pieces of wood, one for the sides of the vessel like a meat cleaver, and one for the bottom shaped like a butter paddle. After the clay vessels are dried, designs painted on them and they are fired to make them strong and durable. The firing is done in a shallow pit in which fire is kept for some time to dry the earth thoroughly; then a few pieces of dry mesquite are spread in the depression, and the vessel is laid upon the wood and entirely covered with mesquite sticks. The pottery may be red decorated with black designs or white decorated with black designs. Besides cooking utensils the Papago make large water jars which are porous. The water, sweating through, keeps the contents cool by evaporation.

Formerly the Papago cradle-board was an oval frame of willow, mesquite root, or catclaw twigs with pieces of giant cactus ribs bound across the frame with deer sinew. The cross pieces did not extend to the rounded end, where coiled work in the shape of a basket was lashed to hold the baby's head, so it would not be flat. The cradle board was padded with a mat of soft fiber. The baby was laced to the cradle with strings of buckskin. The most common cradle in use now is like a hammock with a blanket folded over the ropes.

In former times groups of men worked together to clear land, build houses, and gather crops. At present the only work party larger than that of the men of the family is the annual round-up of cattle. Every man who owns cattle is expected to help with the roundup and branding.

The women wear rather full and often long skirts and a loose hip length blouse made of cotton cloth-print, percale or calico. A black silk scarf is usually worn for a head covering by the older women. The men dress in blue JANUARY, 1942 jeans, a blue cotton shirt, and usually a broadbrimmed cowboy hat. Both men and women wear shoes of American manufacture. Such jewelry as is worn by the Papago is obtained through trade with other tribes or at the stores. In recent years bead work has been introduced and beaded belts and hat bands of artistic design are made and worn.

The Papago family is the basic social unit; a number of families make up a village, and one or more villages make a district. The Papago Reservation is composed of nine dis tricts, while the Gila Bend and San Xavier Reservations each make one district. There are five or more councilmen to each district. One of these councilmen acts as head man of the district, and two of the councilmen are representatives to the Papago Council at the Sells Agency. This district organization is in accordance with the Indian Reorganization Act, the constitution and by-laws for the Papago tribe having been approved by the Secretary of the Interior on January 6, 1937. The office of councilman is political rather than religious.

Marriage is by religious ceremony and one may not marry a close blood relation. Divorce is permitted upon grounds of laziness or incompatibility, but is not looked upon favorably. It has never been common.

In many of the villages there is a ceremonial house where only men are permitted and where certain ceremonial rites are conducted. This ceremonial house is enclosed by a fence of ocotillo stalks. The enclosure, large enough to accommodate the population of the village, contains a large fireplace, dome-shaped ovens, and tables. The social activities and the religious activities not held in the church take place here.

The Papago medicine man has a dangerous calling: His powers are both good and evil; that is they both cure and cause illness and death. In former times a medicine man who was suspected of witchcraft and causing death was killed by relatives of the dead person. Other men may help each other and receive only food, and hope the favor will be returned when they need it. But the medicine man receives a handsome reward for his services, and may grow rich from his fees. Whatever he demands cows, horses or dressed buckskin no one dares refuse him or make him an enemy. Some other medicine man fearing for his own safety and hoping to escape punishment, may accuse his colleague in some other village of causing death. When one medicine man accuses the other it is the least aggressive who goes down in defeat. Among the Papago it is a brave ambitious man who takes a chance in medicine.

The power of a medicine man as a rule does not enable him to cure. He is a sort of diag nostician, who "sees" the cause of sickness after singing and smoking to bring himself to the clairvoyant state. He can then tell the family what caused the illness. Then some one else must cure it. Probably that person is just an ordinary "dreamer" who receives no pay except his food. It may be the rabbit, the badger, the eagle or some other offended animal that caused the sickness or it may be caused by the breaking of a ceremonial rule. Some person who has dreamed of badger, eagle or rabbit must be sent for to sing songs to remove their power. If a ceremonial rule has been broken the whole ceremony must be reenacted by the patient's bedside.

When a medicine man is called he generally arrives at night that is the time the singing is done. He carries his implements, four eagle feathers from the top of the eagle's wings and a gourd rattle, in a deerskin sack. Concealed about his person are his "shining stones" that light the way for him to see the enemy or disease.

Sitting cross-legged before the patient he gazes at the shining stones while he smokes a cigarette. Then he begins a low hoarse hum which continues for some time before the words of his song are sung. Those who have gathered to watch the medicine man perform do not know his songs for they are too highly esteemed to be learned by the ordinary person. After the words of the song are sung, he hums again.

All during the singing the medicine man moves the rattle in his right hand. When he hums the rattle is shaken horizontally and when words are sung there is a sharp vertical movement. This continues in one direction or the other all night.

There is a pause after each song, and the medicine man slowly waves the feathers over the patient, "cleaning him." Different techniques are used by different medicine men; some jab the eagle feathers at the patient. He draws on his cigarette and blows the smoke over the patient, sometimes he blows saliva with it. The "holy smoke" is believed to be a most powerful factor in curing a sick person.

The songs sung by the medicine man have nothing to do with his patient. They may be comic songs or they may tell of his strange experiences. They always tell of his own dream. It does not matter what the dream is about so long as it takes him out of his daily life into a kingdom where he can obtain power.

The modern Papago is Roman Catholic, although there are some curious divergences from the orthodox creed. In some villages there is an organization known as the Sonora Catholic Church, existing beside the missions founded by the Franciscans. Its members refuse to accept the American priests as Catholic and continue with native priests or lay readers; their rites are similar to the old Spanish. According to U. S. Census, report Religious Bodies: 1936, the Papago have thirty-six Sonora Catholic, thirteen Roman Catholic, and five Presbyterian churches.

A group of Papago has a belief that Elder Brother of their own primitive myths, Montezuma, Emperor of the Aztecs, and Jesus Christ are identical. This group, which has a large following among the older members of the tribe, bears some resemblance to the independent Catholic church of the Yaquis, who were neighbors of the Papago in Spanish times in Mexico. The ceremonies consist largely of observance of many saints' days, of pilgrimages to sacred spots in Sonora, and more revivals of ancient tribal practices than favored by the modern church. An example of the tribal practices is their observance on November second of Poor Soul's Day, when the Papago offer food to their dead. The graves are decorated with bright colored paper flowers, ribbons, and tinsel. A candle is placed at the head on each side of the grave. At sunset the candles are lighted, and the food is placed near the graves. The women cook all of the good things they can, principally squash, beans, tamales, tortillas, and raised whole wheat biscuits. From the store they buy canned fruit, cookies, candy, bananas, oranges, and apples. At midnight they eat what the spirits leave. Ritual Indian dances by the old men and women start immediately after the feast and continue for about three hours. Then the young folks dance modern dances to the accompaniment of fiddles and guitars until sunrise.