Basket Shopping in Papagolad

Basket Shopping in Papagoland

"... a fine basket... [is] a work of love, a striving after the ideal, a reverent propitiation of supernatural powers, a nation's art expression, a people's inner life of poetry, art and religion."

A drive through the Papago Indian Reservation in southern Arizona is, in many respects, like a tranquil journey back through time. Much of the same raw beauty that Coronado saw when he passed through in 1540 still exists today. And many of the people still live much as their ancestors did, with no electricity and no running water. The explanation for this may be the relative isolation of the reserve, which sprawls across the arid northern section of the Sonoran Desert.

But while living there has definite drawbacks, the isolation also gives the Papago people their distinct charm.

And, just as important, it gives their arts and crafts, particularly their basketry, a sensitive beauty which keeps aficionados returning again and again. Papago baskets are the original multipurpose tool. They were probably made first to serve utilitarian functions: to hold gathered food, to aid in harvesting, to store materials, and to help in transporting heavy loads. These soon led the art down other paths, including serving as tools for winnowing and parching, for sandals and mats for sleeping, as well as cradles, strainers for wine, medicine and trinket holders and cooking containers.

Records also indicate that Papago baskets have been used to water horses, dig irrigation ditches and draw water from wells. Even sacred scalps were kept in baskets.

As the craft progressed, the weavers used the art to express themselves through original forms and designs. And the woman who could weave the finest baskets attained the highest stature in her community, much as she would today, where the art still exists.

If you're eager to make a Papago basket your own, select a cool, cloudless day and gather up a few friends for a day-long tour. You can begin your trip south of Casa Grande on Highway 15, which will take you to the threshold of the reservation.

Buying baskets on the reservation doesn't require any special knowledge or technique. You simply take yourself to the "supermarket," the trading post. Currently, there are three posts actively engaged in promoting, buying and selling basketry, and they have been at it for many years: Santa Rosa, Quijotoa and Pisinimo. Each has a large and distinctive display from which to choose. And prices are fair.

The Papago live on the second largest reserve in the United States, next to the Navajo. It covers almost 3 million acres and consists of three distinct parts: San Xavier, near Tucson, to the east; Gila Bend to the north; and the main portion which borders Mexico to the south for more than 60 miles.

As you continue moving south, the Sonoran Desert unveils its variety ofgreen and growing things: mesquite, ironwood and paloverde trees, saguaro, cholla, prickly pear and barrel cacti, as well as the ever-present creosote bush. In a short time, several Papago villages will appear: Chuichu, Jackrabbit, North Komelik.

Only nine of the 74 inhabited villages have populations of more than 100, and the existing ratio of one Papago to every 317 acres temporarily dis-misses thoughts of over population.

Many of the dwellings are still made of adobe blocks and saguaro ribs, with dirt floors that are kept immaculately clean.

Wood-burning stoves are in the majority of the houses, and outdoor toilets are the mainstay. Almost every house also has a ramada attached to it. This is a roofed structure made of saguaro ribs and open to the breeze. It is in this section of the house that most summer living is done.

Approximately 40 miles south of Casa Grande, you can look off to the west and see a distinct hole or window in the Cimarron Mountains. Nearby is Ventana Cave where, in the 1940s, archeologists discovered evidence of inhabitance some 10,000 years earlier.

Five miles beyond this point is Santa Rosa. To the west of the highway is the modern Santa Rosa school complex, and on the east is the village with a Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Na-tive American church and a feast house. The Santa Rosa Trading Post is at the village's southern extreme. There, as in all the posts on the reservation, you can purchase gas, soda pop, groceries, many miscellaneous items, and, of course, beautiful Papago baskets.

Don Robinette, owner of the Santa Rosa Trading Post, and his brother, James, owner of the post at Pisinimo, first came to the reservation in the mid'30s with their father. They peddled oranges, melons and other fruits from village to village and slept under the stars. “The reservation is more like a home to me than Casa Grande, where we were brought up,” Don says.

“I've known the land and the people all of my life. They've been great friends and neighbors” Robinette and his wife cherish a host of memories since taking over the post from his older brother, Babe, in 1966. They then lived in the middle of where their present store is located and had a big picture window in their living room.

“When we brought our first TV down from Casa Grande, I'll never forget turning it off one night and glancing Over to our window to see several Papago youngsters, their faces pressed against the glass, trying to figure out what was going on inside that box.

After leaving Santa Rosa, and continuing south, the land gains elevation as you near the next trading post. Quijotoa is Papago for “mountain shaped like a carrying basket.” Many mountain ranges punctuate the landscape at this point, with elevations varying from less than 2000 to more than 7000 feet.

In the far distance, to the east, is Kitt Peak, laden with huge telescopes, and, farther south, Baboquivari Peak comes into view. Its 7730-feet peak is the highest point on the reservation and is the mythological home of litoi, or Elder Brother, the Papagos' legendary herocreator.

“The Man In The Maze,” the tribal symbol of the Papago, often woven into baskets and plaques, shows Elder Brother at the top of his mountain home. The design traces his journey through life, with all its bewildering turns, to the center of the basket, or his death.

At the junction of highways 15 and 86 is Quijotoa Trading Post. The junction is the meeting place of the only two paved roads connecting the Papago Reservation with the rest of Arizona. Highway 15 dead-ends at Quijotoa. Highway 86 bisects the reservation east and west, with Tucson and Ajo at either end.

Quijotoa and its neighboring village, Covered Wells, are nestled in the foothills of the Quijotoa Mountains.

Quijotoa has the most colorful history of all the little towns on the reservation. It was there, in the late 1800s, before Arizona's statehood and the establishment of the reservation, that several thousand miners hit pay dirt. At that time, Quijotoa was actually four mining camps grouped together, with its own newspaper, 20 saloons, and a stage line running coaches to Tucson twice daily.

Nothing is left of the town today. Its eerie site lies punctuated by the remains of old diggings and rusting mining machinery.

Bill and Martha Parsons, owners of the Post at Quijotoa, encourage good work in basketry in their area, and you can see the result in the variety of pieces in their basket room. Like the other post owners, they also offer weaving materials to the women, at no profit, to try to help foster the craft. “We're now seeing a few more younger girls taking up basketry,” Parsons says, and a few of the schools on the reservation are now employing some of the older weavers to teach the young the art as part of the heritage curriculum. You shouldn't leave Quijotoa until you have seen the Catholic church. It's less than a mile west of the trading post. Inside is the most interesting. The ceiling is done in a beautiful her-ringbone pattern of saguaro ribs, and the windows display colorful Papago designs.

Heading southeast from Quijotoa toward the post at Sells, you travel one of the longest, straightest stretches of highway in the state. This photogenic strip of asphalt runs for almost 20 miles perfectly unbent. When the stretch ends the road winds into Sells, the capitol and largest village of the Papago Nation. Sells was originally known as Arte-sia, then it became Indian Oasis, before being named after Cato Sells in 1918, a commissioner of Indian Affairs.

After making a right turn at the Tex-aco service station, you will find the Papago Trading Post just across from the school playground. Randy Graham is the trader at this post, built of stone in 1924, as were the surrounding tribal buildings and houses. The Papago Trading Post, which serves Indians from many surrounding villages, has its striking basket display room in a con-verted cafe. There you will be able to see a variety of new baskets alongside the reservation's largest display of old baskets all for sale.

Less than a block away is the Tribal Arts and Crafts Shop, a cooperative enterprise where your salesperson might be an older weaver or potter.

A little more than 10 miles to the east, the road passes the Baboquivari and Coyote mountains and enters the most lush, grassy part of the reservation. Up off the desert floor, this area catches more rain and attracts hundreds of visitors each spring, who come to see its splashy display of wildflowers. From there, most visitors take the 12-mile drive up to Kitt Peak to observe the greatest concentration of telescopes anywhere in the world.

Journeying westward now from the junction at Quijotoa, you'll see choppy hills come into view. They support deer, coyote, fox, bobcat, quail, big horn sheep and some of the thickest stands of saguaro cactus on the reservation. When these giants bear their juicy redfruit in July, the Papago harvest them with long poles to make jelly and a po-tent wine. The wine is consumed at their annual feasts, in accord with an-cient tradition, the wine symbolizing the summer rains, which saturate the land and nourish their crops.

Twelve miles from Quijotoa is the village of San Simon, also called Tracy.

A newly paved road to the south leads to Pisinimo.

The trading post at Pisinimo was built by James Robinette and his wife, Jodie, in 1955. It is the most remote on the reservation, even though only a 10-minute drive from Highway 86.

Like Santa Rosa, Pisinimo sits in a low plain surrounded by thick stands of creosote bush and paloverde trees. Pisinimo means buffalo head in Papago. Legend has it that long ago a buffalo skull was found nearby "The last 25 years have been rewarding in many ways," says Robin-ette. "Many times I've been awakened at midnight by an about-to-be mother in labor and have had to race the stork either to Sells or Ajo."

After you've checked them out, be sure to visit the village church. The Papagos, with their unique blend of Indian religion and Catholocism, have decorated the walls with their own special designs as well as baskets and pottery. On the wall behind the altar is a breathtaking mural of The Last Supper.

By this time you will have absorbed much of the atmosphere of the Papago Reservation, seen what it has to offer, and learned what is to be learned about Papago basketry. And you'll probably feel that all of it has gripped you strongly.

You won't be alone.

A few years ago, when Maxine Norris, Miss Papago, became Miss Indian America and toured the country, she was asked what she would do after her reign was over. She replied simply that she would return to her village of Chuichu to live because she missed the feel of the dirt floors beneath her feet and the sound of coyotes howling at night.

A strong grip, yes, but obviously an affectionate one.

Editor's note: Terry DeWald is the author of the softcover book The Papa-go Indians and Their Basketry, re-viewed this month in "Bookshelf" on A journey through Papagoland includes a wide variety of moods, feelings and visual images. (Left) Sacred Baboquivari Peak, 7730-feet high, is said to be the center of the universe. Ray Manley Studios (Below) Santa Rosa Mission at sunset. Jerry Jacka (Bottom) Horses graze the vast desert lands near Santa Rosa. Jerry Jacka

Bookshelf

by Mary Lu Moore Inquiries about any of these titles should be directed to the book publisher not ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. Book prices listed do not include postage.

Arizona II. By Josef Muench, text by Tom C. Cooper. Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co., 2000 N.W. Wilson, Portland, Oregon 97209. 1979. 127 р. $27.50, hardcover.

Published in the quality tradition for which the Graphic Arts Center has become renown, Arizona II is a beautiful example of what the term "coffee table book" should mean.

Here, in a large format 10 x 14 inch size, is an incredible variety of Arizona. You can skirt the edge of danger down steep trails to the bottom of mile-deep canyons and climb the dizzying heights to the cave dwellings of Montezuma's Castle. You can touch the bright snow on mountain peaks of a summer's day and descend to flowering groves where the scent of orange blossoms fills the air. You can go from the tall pine forests to stretches of sagebrush or grama grass, to expanses of mesquite and cactus or to desert lands of creosote bush and yucca.

Josef Muench is one of the world's most famous landscape photographers, with his work appearing in major publications throughout America and Europe. He began teaching himself about the world of photography while he was still a teen-ager in his native Bavaria, Germany.

His first experience with the vast beauty of the West and Southwest came during the course of his travels and daring explorations in a Model-T, during the early 1930s. Since that time the magnetic quality of the region has continued to exert a never-ceasing attraction for him. Since 1939 he has been a regular contributor to Arizona Highways Magazine.

Josef Muench has moved with the sun and the seasons, reaching into every part of the land, capturing the ephemeral moments of beauty and creating this unique, full-color portrait of Arizona.

The Papago Indians and Their Basketry. By Terry DeWald. Available from: Terry DeWald, P.O. Box 5214, Tucson, AZ 85703. 1979. 48 p. $7.95, softcover.

Still another contribution to the growing number of publications on southwestern Indian crafts is this well illustrated work by a trader among the Papago schooled in Southwestern history and anthropology. DeWald's style is personal, informal, almost conversational. He is at his best when imparting information about what he knows intimately-recent Papago lifeways and basketry. However, historians and ethnologists will take exception to such errors of fact as, "The Papago were probably the first American Indians to come under the influence of Christianity" and confusing use of the term "Anglo" to include all non-Indians, even in the period of Spanish occupation. Lack of a knowledgeable editor to bring better organization and grammatical construction to this essay is unfortunate.

Photographs in color and black and white from collections at the Arizona Historical Society, Arizona State Museum, Papago Reservation sources and those taken by the author are a distinct asset in illustrating the striking domain, basketry and other wares of the Papago. So, too, is a general bibliography. As an introduction to the Papago Indians and their crafts this rather expensive booklet can be helpful, particularly the author's emphasis on the amount of time needed to gather and prepare materials and execute a fine work of art.

Border Patrol. By Clifford A. Perkins, assisted by Nancy Dickey. Texas Western Press, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas 79968. 1978. 132 p. $10.00, hardcover.

Perkins' anecdotes and reminiscences are as relevant today as they were when he was an officer of the U.S. Immigration Service, along the Mexican border from 1910 to 1954. The Wisconsin native had come to El Paso to improve his health and soon found his life's work. From posts of increasing responsibility in Tucson, Douglas, El Paso, San Antonio and Tijuana, he dealt with problems of smugglers, illicit drugs and liquor and illegal aliens. He experienced the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa's raids, brushes with death and much more. Urged by family, the officer dictated the 600 pages of his memoirs to Nancy Dickey. C. L. Sonnichsen, the Southwestern editor's editor, noted the value of Perkins' experiences and extracted materials for this Border Patrol history. Sadly, Inspector Perkins died shortly before the finished product came off the press. Black and white photographs from the W. D. Smithers Collection at the University of Texas, Austin, though somewhat lacking in clarity, illustrate some of the action and personnel of the early Border Patrol. A good index concludes the volume. All in all, this is a commendable work by all parties concerned.

In the House of Stone and Light; A Human History of the Grand Canyon. By J. Donald Hughes. Grand Canyon Natural History Assn., Grand Canyon, Arizona 86023. 1978. 137 p. $7.50, softcover.

Originally published as The Story of Man at Grand Canyon in 1967, this revision has been extensively updated and rewritten to include a larger geographical area and a broader perspective of human relationships with the Grand Canyon. Hughes, a ranger and naturalist at the Canyon for a number of years, thoroughly traces man's attempts at exploration, farming, mining, business, reclamation, tourism and other activities. All of these endeavors are placed within the broader framework of natural history and archaeology. The author's narrative is elegantly supported by high-quality illustrations and photographs from nearly every era and facet of Grand Canyon history. Chapter notes, bibliography and index are superior. Anyone seeking to understand the full measure of Arizona's northern wonder will want to acquire a copy of this publication for reading and future reference.

Yours Sincerely

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