Baboquivari

The jagged peak rises above its companions, a commanding presence over the desert. At 7,730 feet tall, with its own unique shape, it is easy to see why Baboquivari was selected as the residence of I'itoi, the creator of the Tohono O'odham, and one of the primary sacred sites for the nation. Many of the surrounding facilities are named for the jagged mountain, including Baboquivari high school. Somewhere within the mountain a cave opens: this is I'itoi's home. According to O'odham tradition, we are not supposed to visit this cave. Nevertheless, we still drive to Baboquivari to hike the much of mountain, while avoiding the cave.

At least we intended to hike much of of the mountain...

It is unclear when we lost the trail. I am of the opinion that we never really found it. Upon arriving at Baboquivari, we unloaded and prepared to hike. All the sites said that the trail was clearly marked all the way up. But after poking around the parking area, we had still not found the trail in earnest. Eventually we found something. It looked like a trail, it was marked every step with multiple cow pies and was obviously frequented more often by the bovine genus. In retrospect, what we found was probably not what we were looking for. But the hike went on.

The area around Baboquivari is characterized by numerous lesser mountains and a far lusher environment than the surrounding flatlands. An honest to god stream was flowing down the mountain, and it was the only running water I saw in the entire desert. The tall saguaros still rise out of the mountainous landscape, but they are accompanied by a healthy underbrush, which, as we soon discovered, was mostly very thorny.

Eventually the cattle trail ended, and we found ourself moving through the low underbrush, and up a relatively steep cliff face. We were hoping to swing around a nearby ridge and towards Baboquivari. As we bushwhacked our way up the mountain, we found ourselves spread out across 400 yards of ridge line. At this point, the lack of trail , the numerous scrapes and bruises, and group disorganization led us to turn back toward the vans, but not before we took in some incredible views and wild javelinas.

Food Choices

As we learned from our readings and from our trip, diabetes is one of the biggest issues facing the modern Tohono O’Odham. The prevalence of the disease within their population is largely due to changes in dietary habits away from traditional foods. However, the population does not seem too eager to work towards decreasing this problem. Basha’s, the only grocery store on the reservation, agreed to try selling healthy foods to help the community work towards combating diabetes. This change was short-lived, because people did not buy the healthy options they offered. As a business, Basha’s has no reason to keep selling healthy food if no one is buying it. It was respectable of them to agree to even try it out, knowing that if it failed they would lose money during the trial period. There is only so much that businesses or organizations can do if people are not making healthy choices themselves.

            The Tohono O’Odham Community Action group (TOCA) was founded in 1996 to reconnect the Tohono O’Odham with their history and culture, including traditional foods. TOCA works to reintroduce traditional desert foods into people’s diets, but I am not confident that their actions are effective. Both days that we went to the Desert Rain Café, one of TOCA’s main initiatives to promote traditional foods, the clientele appeared to be almost exclusively non-native. While I cannot draw an accurate conclusion based on this experience alone, it makes me wonder how many tribal members dine at the Desert Rain Café. The food is not overpriced, but it is certainly more expensive than buying unhealthy foods at Basha’s, which lies in the same plaza. Some people may simply choose not to eat desert foods, but others may not be able to afford them. The International Sonoran Desert Alliance works to help people cultivate traditional foods, which is certainly less expensive than buying them, but growing your own food requires a significant time commitment. TOCA makes a valuable contribution to the community by making these foods more available at the Café and through cooking classes, but if people cannot take advantage of these options, no change will occur. Combatting diabetes on the reservation will require significant lifestyle changes, that can be expensive and time consuming. Agencies like TOCA and the Desert Alliance cannot alone induce change, they require widespread support and willingness to act.

Ajo: Closed for Major Business

Ajo’s situation of poverty and lack of economic development is something that many developing nations experience: The Resource Curse.  The resource curse is the notion that if any developing region has lots of a single valuable resource, they will not prosper.   As Professor Guse noted, a nation in Africa is in big trouble if they have diamonds.  Just look at Angola: 99.3% of their exports come from oil and diamonds.   Ajo’s massive dependence on copper made the town expand rapidly when the price of copper was high.  But a strike by the miners, and a slight drop in copper prices caused the company to close shop.  While it does have the potential to open, the mine likely will stay closed until the price of copper massively increases as the rail road closed and trucking out the ore would be expensive.  Also it needs a new smelter. 

Current life in Ajo is far different from when the mine was operating.  The town is aging rapidly, with the median age at 52 years old.  Further, 22.3% of those living there are under the poverty line with the median income level at around 14.5 thousand dollars.  The climate at Ajo is not suitable for growing either as it is considered to be a Food Desert by the FDA.  Despite attempts by the Sonoran Dessert Alliance, I believe that food production there will never be efficient or feasible.  While the town is beautiful, there is very little chance for economic growth.  They only way to save it would be major outside investment.  To sustian this investment though the economy would need to diversify. 

Cacti!

The desert is an extremely diverse ecosystem. Contrary to representation in popular media, the desert is not a barren expanse of dirt and sand. It is filled with numerous species of cacti and other plants. I was surprised to see cacti growing along roads in Phoenix and Tucson, and even more so when we went to the desert museum. I was not aware that so many different types of cacti existed, or that there were so many plants that can survive, and even thrive, in such an extreme climate. They survive by having relationships with other species. For example, the hummingbird pollinates the ocotillo, while the ocotillo flowers even when other plants are not. This gives the hummingbird a guaranteed source of pollen.  While the presence and beauty of these plants is incredible alone, their uses in the desert further illuminate them.

According to members of the Tohono O’Odham Nation, there are anywhere from 200 to 400 edible plants that grow wild in the Sonoran Desert. This is an extremely large number of plants to even grow in the desert, much less to be edible. Of the many plants we saw, I could not identify one that also grows wild in Virginia. It is astonishing to think that over time, this group discovered several hundred unique desert plants to sustain their life style. They learned from the cacti and other plants, and thrived in an environment most humans could not endure for even a short period of time.