During the Spanish Colony, this indigenous group were called “Pimas Altos” (High Pimas), but in the XIX century they were named Papagos, which means something like ‘bean eaters’ or ‘Pima bean eaters,’ since their main crop were beans.

Papagos are a binational group since the establishment of the border line between Mexico and the United States divided its territory and their members had to choose either one of the two nationalities. In the United States, the term tohono o'otham is mostly used, word with which they are referred to themselves, and that means “people of the desert.”

The Papagos are located in Arizona, United States, and in Sonora, Mexico. Since 1937, in the United States, the agreements of the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) divided the territory of the Papago reservations in 11 districts; each one of them has its own advice and counts with two representatives in the Tribal Papago Council. In 1983 it was created in Sells, the head of the reservation, the Tohono o'otham in Mexico Office, which is in charge of the relationships between both óotham countries.

The Mexican Papagos live in the state of Sonora in the municipalities of Caborca, Saric, Puerto Peñasco, and Magdalena. The localities where o’otham population has registered itself are: Carricito, Chujúbabi, El Bísani, El Carricito, El Cubabi, El Cumarito, El Quelele, Irabibaipa, La Espuma, La Lezna, Las Calenturas, Las Maravillas, Las Mochoneras, Las Norias, Pozo Grande, Pozo Prieto, Represa de Enrique, San Francisquito (seat of the Papago governor), San Pedro, Santa Elena, Sobaco. Some mainly racially mixed localities where o’othams live are Caborca, Magdalena, Pozo Verde, Quitovac, Sonoyta and Puerto Peñasco.

Public service infrastructure is almost nonexistent, only in Quitovac there is electricity generated by a small plant. The water is insufficient, it is extracted of excavated wells and in several cases it presents a high degree of salinity. In most of the localities of the Arizona reservations there is electrical energy and tubed water. In Sonoyta, Caborca or P Puerto Peñasco, urban localities of the Mexican side, or in Sells, in Arizona, there is telegraph, telephone and mail.

HISTORY

In the desert of Altar-Yuma, or Sonora desert, they were based for about more than tree millenniums, bands of hunters and pickers that already knew how to cultivate corn. The groups who developed more complex techniques of agricultural reproduction and forms of social organization, grouped in the cultural areas known as mogollón, anazasi and hohokam. Contemporary tohono o’otham thin that l’itoi, “Big Brother” was who taught them how to survive and develop their culture in a harsh environment with limited resources.

Their ancestors had a summer and a winter residence. This economic model stayed with few changes until the arrival of white people.

The Spaniards penetrated in the north of Sonora at the end of the XVII century. The name of “Pimería Alta” (High Pimería) was given to a vast territory that included most of the desert of Sonora and the fertile land that surrounded it.

In the colonial period, towards 1695, Jesuits penetrated into the Pimería Alta in order to evangelize and bring together the dispersed groups there were. However, the Spanish soldiers’ abuses against the Indians caused a great rejection towards the new colonists. By 1687, thanks to the missions promoted by the Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino, the Pimería Alta groups entered the colonial system.

By the ends of the XVII century, at the south and eastern part of Sonora, the Spaniards had ranches and mines. “Pimería Alta” represented for them a source of manual labor and land for cattle raising. Kino tried to resist the policy of indiscriminate expansion of the Spanish colonists and promoted to the colonial government the program of missions in the Pimería Alta. He founded the mission of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in Cosari town, place that would be its action center during the 24 years he lived in the Pimería.

Missions were founded in Dolores, Cocóspera, San Ignacio, and Tubutama, where each of them had its own cattle. They also introduced new crops and agricultural techniques. The apparent peace broke up in 1695, when indigenous nomads’ attacks increased over the Spanish ranches and lots of Pimas suffered unfairly reprisals. Revolted Pimas recruited people in some settlements and attacked Altar and Caborca, burning temples and killing Padre Saeta. The Spanish reprisal came over soon. In more than one occasion, Kino acted as a mediator between Indians and Spaniards, however many Indians were massacred. Besides the internal conflict in the colonial administration, the attacks and Apache’s incursions caused a general depopulation in the region, and the impossibility to strengthen the colonial expansion in the Pimería Alta. In 1751, there was a second rebellion from the Pimas Altos (High Pimas), leaded by Luis Oacpicagigua; it started in Saric and extended all the way to the evangelized Pima populations.

There were missioners, miners, and soldiers at the Pimería Alta. In 1736 a silver fever attracted many miners and fortune hunters. When the Jesuits were expulsed from Nueva España in 1767, they handled more than 24 missions and visits in the Pima territory. In 1768, Franciscans entered the region to continue the work initiated by the Jesuits. At the east and southern part of the Pimería Alta, where there was fertile land, the Hispanic influence penetrated quickly. Many colonists emigrated to the territory and occupied illegally land and water sources, most of all on the outskirts zones of Caborca, which caused the Papagos to rebel in May, 1840. They were calmed down until 1843.

Alter the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and the Treaty of Gadsen or “Sale of the Mesilla” (1853), Pimería Alta was divided into two halves; one remained in Sonora and the other one in Arizona. In Sonora, even the cattle raisers, miners, and farmers took control of the land and stripped many indigenous communities. In 1898, there were violent confrontations, some Papagos were murdered and many others drifted to Arizona. During the first two decades of the XX century, the colonists, supported by the Mexican Army, took away the Papagos’ crop lands in Caborca, Pitiquito, and Sonoyta.

In the American territory, it was officially established the Papago Indian San Xavier Reservation in 1874, that was gifted with 71 000 acres (30 859 ha). In 1882, the Gila Bend reservation was created (officially named Papago Indian Gila Bend Reservation), gifted with 10 337 acres. In May, 1911, the Papago Indian Good Government League was founded, which pretended to represent and unify the whole tribe.

Due to the strip of land and water in Sonora, many o’otham migrated to the reservations in Arizona. The lack of land and the breaking-off of communal relationships, forced its residents to depend much more from the wage-earning work outside its communities. With the territory division, its sacred places also remained from one and other side of the border; currently the movement for the celebration of certain ceremonies in either one or another country causes them migratory and customs troubles. The delimitation of the Papago reservations in the United States, respected in a certain way the ancient territory of the tribe. The different historical and cultural development of the o’otham communities of Sonora and Arizona has generated a division between them, but they share a common cultural substratum and the feeling of belonging to a same group.

LANGUAGE

According to several linguistic studies, the Papago language classifies within the Pima group (also called Pimano or Tepimano), branch nahua-cuitlateca of the stock yutonahua. It has close relationship with the pima language, with the dialectal variants of the tepehuanos (ódam) and also with the taracahítas languages (Mayo, Yaqui, Tarahumara, Guarijío and Opata).

Some studies of the Instituto Nacional Indigenista (Native National Institute) indicate that Papago is a dialect of the Pima variant known as High Pima. Papago speakers were registered in the Sonoran municipalities of Caborca (54 speakers), Altar (26), Puerto Peñasco (66), Saric (15) and Santa Ana (13). In 1992, 386 Pima speakers were registered, 101 of them spoke High Pima, and 285 spoke Low Pima. In all of these languages, more than 95% of the speakers are bilingual.

In México, there are the adults, especially old people who use the most in Papago in their conversations. Among the tohono o’otham of the United Stated, there is a high number of bilinguals who speak English and Papago. Some o’otham of both countries who live near the border line, speak Papago, Spanish, and English.

CRAFTS

Papagos make wooden carved figures, pottery pieces, and baskets. Their pottery is rustic, but however their best and most fine hand-crafted pieces are baskets. “Coritas”, made of palm leaves and torote (desert plants that women collect, prepare and weave), may reach very high prices in the United States. Within the designs of “coritas”, Papagos manifest symbols related to the o’otham mythical thinking. Basketmaking is a female task that involves women of the Arizona reservations, and it’s a very important source of income. However, in Mexico, “coritas” elaboration has practically disappeared among the o’otham.

Papagos carve figures in mesquite, iron wood, or other tree’s wood. This task is mainly masculine, although there are just a few great carvers in both side of the border line.

RELIGION

Papago’s ceremonies conserve a mythological background; an important element of their world view was a myth of the Creation that involved two supernatural beings that created several human races and then destroyed them. These gods fought against each other, the “earth magician” disappeared, leaving the world in l'itoy hands, who finally created Papagos. This divinity expelled the first created men and took their territory.

After the Jesuit Evangelization, Christian elements were adapted to their old religion. With the missionary efforts, as well as Jesuits and Franciscan efforts, they conformed the “Iglesia Católica de Sonora” (which is an indigenous version of Catholicism), and whose rites and beliefs are centered in the cult of San Francisco. In bigger settlements, followers meet together around adobe chapels, in where saint bulks receive prayers and praises, as well as candle burning. Faced with the absence of official priests, the cult has remained in o’otham’s hands.

In agreement with Jacques Galinier (1991) in tohono o’otham’s religion, there is a form of syncretism; Christian beliefs and symbols were gotten up to forms, values and existent interests in the indigenous religious scope. An example is the identification of Christian divinity (San Francisco) and native l’itoy. Both cults were fused in one single one that combines the rain request treatment.

Since the beginnings of the current century, several churches and sects have been carrying out religious proselytism campaigns among the tohono o’otham. After a troubled start, the relationships among Protestants, Catholics and followers of the native religion have improved slowly.

FESTIVITIES

The Jesuits introduced the cult to San Francisco Javier, after the Franciscans tried to impose their patron, San Francisco de Asís. The main festivity is celebrated on October 4th, day of the Franciscan saint, but the venerated image corresponds to the representation of the Jesuit patron. In Magdalena, the figure of San Francisco is identified with Padre Kino. Each year, an important number of o’otham pilgrims from Sonora and Arizona, visit the miraculous saint.

Among the old rituals, the bi’ikita and the khuijin (annual deer hunting) have been conserved, celebrated by the most traditional factions of the group. They also celebrate some festivities of the Christian liturgical calendar: San Francisco, Holly Week, the Virgin’s Assumption, Día de Muertos. In the religious and profane celebrations there are dances with musical sets.

In Sonora, the main festivities are the bi’ikita, celebrated in Quitovac on July. In the Papago reservations in Arizona, the main celebrations are: the Virgin’s Assumption in San Xavier de Bac on August, the Tucson Festival on April, San Francisco de Asís on October 4th, Fieles Difuntos on November 2nd, San Francisco Xavier on December 3rd, Deer Hunting (khuijin) during La Angostura summer, and a celebration that brings together members of several tribes in North America: the Rodeo Fair at Sells on October 20th.

RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER TOWNS

In the limits of the desert, they also live the seris or konkaaks who occupy the coastal strip, and the small groups of yumanos from the north of Baja California (Kiliwa, Pai-pai, Cochimí, k'umiai).

It is possible to say that among the tohono o’otham of Sonora there are two sub-groups: the first one, most like a half-breeded one, nor longer conserves its language nor participates in collective ceremonies, its members reisde in Quitovac, La Espuma, Las
Norias and in the urban localities of Sonora; the other sub-group is conformed by those who maintain a close contact with o’othams from the Arizona reservations, they live in Pozo Verde, El Bajío, Cubabi and El Cumarito, they use the vernacular language (many are bilingual or trilingual), and actively participate in the ceremonies. The o’othams of Arizona although they use material and nutritional satisfactors as the life style of the reservations, they have more ethnic conscience. The o’othams that live in the border communities of Sonora, tend towards a greater contact with Arizona, due to the fact that they haven’t resolved their old conflicts of land possession.

INTERESTING FACTS

- The Papagos have efficiently helped the government to maintain peace and in order other rebellious tribes.
- They practice Catholicism, they dress and maintain the same traditions as white people, and although they conserve their own language, they frequently use Spanish to communicate to each other.
- The most common crime among this tribe has been the livestock theft.
- When ancient Papagos smoked with people from other nations, it meant alliance.

Source:

Instituto Nacional Indigenista, http://www.ini.gob.mx

Links:

Tubac Through Four Centuries –
http://www.library.arizona.edu/images/dobyns/cpt6-F2.htm (English)
Tepiman Family - http://www.sil.org/mexico/pimana/familia-pimana.htm (English)
State of Sonora - http://www.visitmexico.com/destinations/r_nor/s_son/ (English)
Papago-http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/cultural/northamerica/papago.html (English)
Pueblos Nativos del Noroeste de México –
http://www.geocities.com/pueblosnativos/bibliografia/tohono.htm (Spanish)