Peoples of a Sonoran Desert Oasis: Recovering the Lost History and Culture of QuitobaquitoIn the southwestern corner of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, on the border between Arizona and Mexico, one finds Quitobaquito, the second-largest oasis in the Sonoran Desert. There, with some effort, one might also find remnants of once-thriving O’odham communities and their predecessors with roots reaching back at least 12,000 years—along with evidence of their expulsion, the erasure of their past, attempts to recover that history, and the role of the National Park Service (NPS) at every layer. The outlines of the lost landscapes of Quitobaquito—now further threatened by the looming border wall—reemerge in Peoples of a Sonoran Desert Oasis as Jared Orsi tells the story of the land, its inhabitants ancient and recent, and the efforts of the NPS to “reclaim” Quitobaquito’s pristine natural form and to reverse the damage done to the O’odham community and culture, first by colonial incursions and then by proponents of “preservation.” Quitobaquito is ecologically and culturally rich, and this book summons both the natural and human history of this unique place to describe how people have made use of the land for some five hundred generations, subject to the shifting forces of subsistence and commerce, tradition and progress, cultural and biological preservation. Throughout, Orsi details the processes by which the NPS obliterated those cultural landscapes and then subsequently, as America began to reckon with its colonial legacy, worked with O’odham peoples to restore their rightful heritage. Tracing the building and erasing of past landscapes to make some of them more visible in the present, Peoples of a Sonoran Desert Oasis reveals how colonial legacies became embedded in national parks—and points to the possibility that such legacies might be undone and those lost landscapes remade. |
Contents
| 1658 | |
| 1674 | |
And They Had Water Multiethnic Settlement | |
Science Conservation and NPS Placemaking | |
Quitobaquito 19001962 | |
Americas Most Dangerous Park Bordering Space | |
Quitobaquito 19372013 | |
Designs for an Impermanent World Blue | |
Glossary of Oodham and Spanish Terms | |
Bibliography | |
Common terms and phrases
A'al A’al Vaipia accessed Ajo Copper American archaeological Arizona Press Border Patrol Border Wall Construction boundaries C’ed O’odham C1 NARARMR Cactus Historical Research Cactus National Monument cattle CCF NARAMD Celaya Childs Chona Cooperative National Park cottonwood crossers Cultural Landscapes cultural resources ecological Eiler environment environmental federal fence folder Gila Hia C'ed O'odham himdag Hohokam human immigration impermanence indigenous ISDA Jared Orsi José Juan Orozco July Kino L. M. Lawson l'itoi land lived Mexican Mexico migrants Moräwe moved Nabhan National Park Resources National Park Service Native oasis October oral history Organ Pipe Cactus ORPI Papago Papaguería Park Resources Studies park staff Pima Pinacate Pipe Cactus National pupfish Quitobaquito Quitobaquito Springs Rankin Region Report research interview Resources Studies Unit saguaro Sand Papago Sonoran Desert Sonoyta southern Arizona Southwest Spanish stay put trails tribal Tucson University of Arizona Vazquez village visitors WACC WACC RMR Washington wilderness Wildlife