A Native American tribe formerly known as the Papago, the Tohono O'odham live on four reservations in southern Arizona, west of Tucson. Numbering about 20,000 people in 1993 the Tohono O'odham tribe gains most of its income from mineral leases with some irrigated farming. The Ak Chin Reservation of 21,000 acres (85 km˛) has a 10,000 acre (40 km˛) farm which mostly grows cotton. The Papago, San Xavier, and Gila Bend Reservations have a common government with headquarters at Sells, Arizona and a total of 2.8 million acres (11,000 km˛), mostly desert.
Mission San Xavier del Bac, the "White Dove of the Desert," built in 1783 is on the reservation and still used as a church. It is open to the public on weekdays and Saturday. Founded in 1700 it is one of the many missions built in the southwest by the Spanish on their northern frontier. The San Xavier Fiesta is held in the evening of the Friday after Easter and features a torch-light procession of tribal members, a children's dance and booths. The mission is about 10 miles south of Tucson off I-19.
In late November the All-Indian Papago Tribal Fair and Rodeo is held which includes a pow-wow, rodeo and a Miss Pagago contest. There is also bingo. Camping is available in some locations but you need to contact the district of the reservation you intend to camp in for a permit. There are a few archeological sites open to the public including Hohokam ruins at Forteleza Ruins. Some archaeological theories propose that the Hohokam were the ancestors of the Tohono O'odham.
At the Ak Chin Reservation there is a festival honoring St. Francis in October. Ak Chin also has a unique "eco-museum" which feature exhibits throughout the reservation, many designed and maintained by families who live there.
Papagos had been given this extraordinary powers in January 1949 and it is thought (at least by some) that this contribued to final victory over the communists in August of the same year.
In the mistaken belief that Papagos had been "forced" to resign,and wishing to preserve him as head of the army (which also help them maintain their own influential positions) IDEA officers staged a coup in the early morning hours of 31 May 1951.
But in this context, Papagos' relations to the crown were not at all cordial (this does not mean that Papagos wanted a republic at the time!) and, since the IDEA officers were sympathetic to him, they were not sympathetic to the Crown either.
Impressed with the Papagos’ lack of possessions, the agents undertook as one of their first acts the free distribution of knives, shovels, hoes, and other agricultural implements.
The Papago pattern of life rested on a combination of hunting and gathering of wild food (cactus fruits and mesquite beans) with very small-scale flood farming along the intermittent streams.
Papago villages were small, rarely consisting of more than a hundred people, and were organized as land-using, political units, laying claim to some permanent water supply in the mountains and to an area of arable fields in the valley.
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