n.
or Tohono O'odham
North American Indian people linving mostly in a region straddling the U.S.-Mexico border.
Their language belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language stock. They rejected the name Papago, from a Piman word papahvi-o-otam meaning "bean eaters," in the 1980s; they call themselves Tohono O'odham, meaning "Desert People." Closely related to the Pima , they probably descend from ancient Hohokam peoples. On their traditional territory, vast stretches of desert regions of Arizona, U.S., and northern Sonora, Mex., the Papago practiced food gathering and flash-flood farming. Because of the wide dispersal of their fields, their largest viable political unit was a group of temporarily related villages. They had less contact with whites than other Indian groups and have retained elements of their traditional culture. They number some 15,000.