First timer? In this (hopefully) once-a-day blog, I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

Dan –  Gee whiz.  I was on a 4/5, but I’ve followed up with an 0/3 with another landing in . . . AZ; 75/68; 4/10; 3; 154.9.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to the Mexican Border and to a number of small towns with very peculiar names:

Here’s a broader landing view:

And this, my GE map, which shows yet another green swath, although this one is natural, not agricultural.

The green swath is associated with the San Simon Wash, which heads south across the border to Mexico.  After some painstaking research, I figured out that the wash discharges to a new river, the Rio De La Concepcion, which (I believe) discharges to the Gulf of California.

The only towns I could find anything about were Pisinimo and Sells.  This about the town of Pisinimo (or Pisinemo) from Wiki:

The name Pisinemo is actually a failed attempt by the Motor Vehicle Division to put the traditional name of Pisin Mo’o onto road side signs along Highway 86 which runs through the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation. Pisin Mo’o is Tohono O’odham for “Buffalo Head”.

And this about Sells:

The population of Sells was 2,799 at the 2000 census.  It is the capital of the Tohono O’odham Nation and the home of several of their tribal businesses, such as Tohono O’Odham Ki:Ki Association. Originally known as Indian Oasis, the settlement took its present name in 1918 to honor Indian Commissioner Cato Sells.

And this (amongst other biographical info) about Cato Sells, from Wiki:

He was the Commissioner at the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1913 from 1921.  In 1914 he banished books that taught anything concerning the Asian origins of Native Americans.

What the heck could he have against the Indians having Asian ancestry?  I wonder if the Indians were in favor of naming the town after this guy?  I have no clue . .

I landed in the middle of Tohono O’odham territory.  Here’s a cool picture of a Tohono O’odham gentleman, with the caption below the picture:

Carlos Rios, a Tohono O’Odham headman, before 1907, photo by Edward Curtis

About the Tohono O’odham, from Wiki:

The Tohono O’odham are a group of aboriginal Americans who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico.  “Tohono O’odham” means “People of the Desert.”  Although they were previously known as the Papago, they have largely rejected this name (meaning literally “tepary-bean eater”), which was applied to them by conquistadores, who had heard them called this by other Indian bands unfriendly to the Tohono O’odham.  The term Papago derives from Papawi O’odham, that with time became Papago.  Pawi is the word for tepary bean in the O’odham language, Papawi the plural.

And this about the unfortunate fact that an international border separates some of the Tohono O’odham people (from Wiki):

Most of the 25,000 Tohono O’odham today live in southern Arizona, but there is also a population of several thousand in northern Sonora, Mexico.  Unlike aboriginal groups along the U.S.-Canada border, the Tohono O’odham were not given dual citizenship when a border was drawn across their lands in 1853.  Even so, members of the nation moved freely across the current international boundary for decades – with the blessing of the U.S. government – to work, participate in religious ceremonies, keep medical appointments in Sells, and visit relatives.

But since the mid-1980s, stricter border enforcement has restricted this movement, and tribal members born in Mexico have found themselves trapped in a remote corner of Mexico, with no access to the tribal centers only tens of miles away.  Since 2001, bills have repeatedly been introduced in Congress to solve the “one people-two country” problem by granting U.S. citizenship to all enrolled members of the Tohono O’odham, but have so far been unsuccessful.  Reasons that have been advanced in opposition to granting U.S. citizenship to all enrolled members of the Nation include the fact that births on the reservation have been for a large part informally recorded and the records are capable of easy falsification.

OK, so maybe there are some glitches, but it seems cruel to separate an Indian tribe like this!!

Here’s a wonderful picture of a Tohono O’odham woman, with the caption below:

Luzi, a Tohono O’odham woman, circa 1905. Photograph by Edward Curtis

As mentioned above, the tribe used to be called Papago, which means “Tepary Bean eater.”  So, what’s a tepary bean?  From Wiki:

The Tepary bean is native to the southwestern United States and Mexico and has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean and is grown in desert and semi-desert conditions.

The name tepary may derive from the Tohono O’odham phrase t’pawi or “It’s a bean”.

Tepary beans are cooked like other dry beans after soaking. Some Native Americans would toast the dry beans, then grind them into a meal which was mixed with water before eating.

Recent studies from the United States and Mexico suggest that compounds from tepary beans may be useful as chemotherapy for treating cancer. However, further research is needed.

Here’s a picture of Tepary Beans:

And these, of Baboquivari Mountain near Sells (sacred to the Tohono O’odham):

About the mountain, from Wiki:

Baboquivari Peak is the most sacred place to the Tohono O’odham people.  It is the center of the Tohono O’odham cosmology and the home of the creator, I’itoi. According to tribal legend, he resides in a cave below the base of the mountain.

This mountain is regarded by the O’odham nation as the navel of the world – a place where the earth opened and the people emerged after the great flood.

How about that –  the Tohono O’odham (along with many spiritual traditions other than the Judeo-Christian) believe in a great flood (and they live in the desert!).  Here’s the Table of Contents in Wiki under the entry “Deluge Myth.”

• 1 Flood myths in various cultures
  • 1.1 Ancient Near East
    • 1.1.1 Sumerian
    • 1.1.2 Babylonian (Epic of Gilgamesh)
    • 1.1.3 Jewish
    • 1.1.4 Islamic
  • 1.2 Asia-Pacific
    • 1.2.1 China
    • 1.2.2 Lao (Indochina)
    • 1.2.3 India
    • 1.2.4 Andaman Islands
    • 1.2.5 Indonesia
    • 1.2.6 Australia
    • 1.2.7 New Zealand
    • 1.2.8 Malaysia
  • 1.3 Europe
    • 1.3.1 Greek
      • 1.3.1.1 Ogyges
      • 1.3.1.2 Deucalion
      • 1.3.1.3 Dardanus
      • 1.3.1.4 From The Theogony of Apollodorus
    • 1.3.2 Germanic
    • 1.3.3 Irish
    • 1.3.4 Finnish
  • 1.4 Americas
    • 1.4.1 Aztec
    • 1.4.2 Caddo
    • 1.4.3 Hopi
    • 1.4.4 Inca
    • 1.4.5 Maya
    • 1.4.6 Mapuche
    • 1.4.7 Menominee
    • 1.4.8 Mi’kmaq
  • 1.5 Polynesian

And the Tohono O’odham don’t even make the list!  I’ll close with this lightning shot in Sells:

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That’ll do it.

KS

Greg

© 2009 A Landing A Day