The Tohono O’odham have been popularly known as Papago. Tohono O’odham, their Native name, pronounced TO-ho-no oh-OH-tum, means “desert people.” Papago, pronounced PAH-puh-go, from Papahvio O’odham, given to them by the neighboring AKIMEL o’odham (pima), means “bean people.” The Tohono O’odham occupied ancestral territory in the Sonoran Desert near the Gulf of California in territory now along the international border between southwest Arizona and northwest Sonora, a state of Mexico.
The Tohono O’odham speak a dialect of the Uto-Aztecan language family, similar to that of the Akimel O’odham. Anthropologists classify both the Tohono O’odham and Akimel O’odham in the Southwest Culture Area (see SOUTHWEST INDIANS). They theorize that the two tribes were descended from the ancient Hohokam Indians (see SOUTHWEST CULTURES).
O’odham also practiced desert irrigation and were able to live in permanent village sites year-round. The Tohono O’odham, however, were seminomadic, with two different village locations. They passed the warm weather months—from spring until the fall harvest— in the desert, usually at the mouth of an arroyo where flash floods from rainstorms provided water for their fields of corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and cotton. They called these sites their “field villages.” Winter was spent in the sierra, near mountain springs. These were the “well villages.” Here tribal members hunted deer and other game for food. In times of famine, Tohono O’odham families sometimes moved to the Akimel O’od-ham villages along the Gila River and worked under the supervision of the host tribe to earn their keep. While working with their kinsmen, the Tohono O’odham might sing the following corn song:
World History
