Angelo Joaquin and a weird desert

The Desert Rain Cafe was warm and bordered a main thoroughfare through Sells, the largest population center in the Tohono O'odham nation. Angelo Joaquin was eating lunch with us here and discussing native american education and food culture. In between bites, he stated, "the desert is weird anyways, people don't want to know about it." I looked up from my meal and began to think.

I thought about assimilation programs enacted by the U.S. on the many native tribes, forcing young native americans into boarding schools away from their lands. I thought of the high prevalence of diabetes amongst the Tohono O'odham people. I thought young Tohono O'odham tribe members more focused on avoiding darker skin from prolonged exposure to the sun than on understanding their tribal heritage. Angelo Joaquin said this, somewhat sarcastically, referring to the desire among many tribe members to leave the desert and their culture. I understand the desire. Objectively, there is lower poverty, better infrastructure, and even more wealth in places off the reservation, away from the weird desert. But the Tohono O'odham are a desert people. They are hyper adapted to their ancestral environment, even to the point where their health fails upon adapting non-traditional diets. Individuals like Angelo Joaquin or Joe Joaquin understand this. They fully grasp the need for heritage and O'odham culture among the people. The desert is their home. It is the only home they have ever known. It is the home their cultural constellation, biological makeup, and outlook have been adapted for.

The people of Tohono O'odham nation are perfectly capable of operating within a western world. But they were born as something special, a people capable of thriving in an environment which few other people are capable of. The tribe members understand the importance of their culture and are working to preserve their way of life. For Angelo Joaquin this preservation is centered on food and art. It is people like him who will continue to keep people caring about the weird desert.