PAPAGO

also called Tohono O'odham (Papago: Desert People), North American Indians who traditionally inhabited the desert regions of Arizona and northern Sonora, south of the Pima Indians (see Pima). The Papago speak a Uto-Aztecan language, a dialectal variant of Piman, and culturally they are similar to the Pima (see also Uto-Aztecan languages). There are, however, certain dissimilarities. The drier, harsher habitat of the Papago made intensive farming difficult and increased their reliance on wild foods. The lack of water necessitated a sort of seasonal nomadism, whereby the Papago spent the summer in field villages and the winter in well villages. The Papago did not have irrigated fields like those of the Pima but practiced flash-flood farming. After the first rains, seeds were planted in the alluvial fans at the mouths of washes that marked the maximum reach of the water after flash floods. Because the floods could be heavy while they lasted, it was necessary for the seeds to be planted deeply, four to six inches usually. Reservoirs, to impound runoff waters along the flood channels, and some ditches and dikes were constructed by Papago men. Women were responsible for gathering wild foods. The shifting residential pattern and the wide dispersal of the Papago fields made large villages and tribal political organization impossible. The largest organizational unit appears to have been a group of related villages. Villages tended to be composed of several families related through the male line. The Papago have had much less contact with whites than the Pima, and they have retained some elements of aboriginal culture. In the late 20th century they numbered about 8,300 located on three reservations in southern Arizona (the Tohono O'odham [formerly Papago], Gila Bend, and San Xavier reservations) and a few hundred more in scattered villages in northwestern Sonora.