Saguaro National Park

"Once graffiti is 150 years old its petroglyphs." A Saguaro National Park park ranger said this as we discussed the increasingly complicated relationship between national parks, the federal government, and native tribes. It was apparent from our visit at the Saguaro National Park that an effort was being made to co exist with the nearby native tribe. Items of historical and sacred importance, found on National Park lands, had been transferred to the Tohono O'odham for their safekeeping, and Angelo Jaoquin had been able to enter the nation park lands on his own volition to pick Cholla Buds with only some resistance. But, nevertheless, the Saguaro National Park lies on traditional Tohono O'odham lands. Sacred sites have been marked and altered, petroglyphs have been inscribed with the initials of park visitors, and it is all because the park, being public land, can not really be restricted.

The park ranger correctly identified the reality when he said that "everything in the desert is sacred to the O'odham." The Tohono O'odham are a tribe who have been hyper-adapted to their surrounding and have hyper-spiritualized their surroundings. It is nearly impossible for outsiders to occupy the desert without infringing upon some spiritual item to some degree. Even though the national park's mission is to preserve and protect, they will always fail to preserve and protect some of the spiritual importance of the land. The park works to maintain a close, face-to-face relationship with the Tohono O'odham, even keeping a tribe member on staff, and this may be the best the best they can do, and in times like these, a union between the national park and the Tohono O'odham could be the most effective safeguard of the land from shortsighted outside interests.