{"id":31225,"date":"2019-04-25T04:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/civileats.com\/?p=31225"},"modified":"2019-05-02T08:56:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T13:56:41","slug":"an-indigenous-community-deepens-its-agricultural-roots-in-tucsons-san-xavier-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2019\/04\/25\/an-indigenous-community-deepens-its-agricultural-roots-in-tucsons-san-xavier-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"An Indigenous Community Deepens its Agricultural Roots in Tucson’s San Xavier Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a quiet part of Tucson, Arizona, only a few miles southwest of the city center, the San Xavier Cooperative Farm<\/a> honors the agricultural legacy of the Tohono O\u2019odham<\/a>, a Native American tribe that has farmed the land for over 4,000 years. Located on the ancestral village of Wa:k, the 860-acre operation, one of the few farms on an Indian reservation at last count<\/a>, is a lush green oasis in the otherwise dry desert.<\/p>\n

Julie Ramon-Pierson, president of the San Xavier Co-op board, grew up hearing stories about her grandparents and great-grandparents cooking traditional O\u2019odham foods such as tepary beans, squash, and corn, and she remembers seeing her mother harvest and clean the native beans. She hopes the co-op will help resurrect narratives like the ones she was raised with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary goal of the co-op is to create economic development in the community, re-educate people about traditional foods so they can prepare them at home to adopt a healthier lifestyle, and preserve O\u2019odham values, like respect of land, plants, animals, and elders,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The Tohono O\u2019odham Nation<\/a> spans 4,460 square miles in Southern Arizona and includes 28,000 enrolled tribal members. The land is divided into 11 districts, and the San Xavier District is home to about 2,300 members. Founded in the early 1970s, the co-op leases farmland from the landowners, called allottees, and about 90 percent of its 25 to 28 employees are O\u2019odham tribe members, according to Gabriel Vega, the co-op\u2019s farm manager since 2018.<\/p>\n

\"The

While the co-op grows alfalfa as its primary money-maker, other parts of the property are home to orange, plum, and apple orchards; an assortment of vegetable crops; and native foods such as tepary, pima lima, black, and white beans, wild mesquite trees, and pima wheat.<\/p>\n

In addition to growing and selling crops, the co-op hosts blessing and spiritual ceremonies and provides educational opportunities for the tribal community. In early March, for example, it hosted a cooking and culture workshop for women tribe members.<\/p>\n

Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, is focusing her dissertation research on water and land rights, as well as the impact of the San Xavier Co-op. She sees the co-op\u2019s impact as three-fold: \u201cIt keeps traditional ecological knowledge alive, assists with food sovereignty, and allows the community to know its history,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

There is a real effort, says Ramon-Sauberan, to keep doors open and educate people. If a member of the O\u2019odham community wants to learn how to cultivate a certain food, she says, the co-op creates a teaching space to achieve this goal. More importantly, this attitude helps foster a \u201ccommunal spirit among the members\u201d that extends beyond the organization.<\/p>\n

Bringing the Water Back<\/h4>\n

Though the O\u2019odham has built an agricultural history in the Sonoran Desert over the course of thousands of years\u2014one that recently helped earn Tucson the honor of becoming the first U.S. city designated a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy<\/a>\u2014the tribe\u2019s farming legacy has been threatened in recent decades by a conflict over the desert city\u2019s limited water supply.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, the O\u2019odham people structured their fields to channel water into planting areas, using the Santa Cruz River as the main source. When Tucson began to develop, however, its water demands drained the aquifers from the area, and by 1950, Vega says, \u201cmuch of the agriculture ceased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Farm

When the farm formed in 1971, it fought to reclaim tribal water rights and reintroduce farming practices that had been halted during the dry years. In 1975, the San Xavier District sued the City of Tucson over water rights. Ten years later, the Southern Arizona Water Rights Settlement Act<\/a> granted an allotment of 56,000 acre-feet of water yearly from the Central Arizona Project<\/a>\u2014enough to sustain roughly 900 acres of land.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater to this community is a sacred element,\u201d Vega says. \u201cTo have a running flow of water is fulfilling the prayers of the O\u2019odham people.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the period when water supplies were nonexistent, the connection between the land and its people diminished, according to Vega. \u201cWells went dry [and] farming decreased,\u201d which led to the loss of agriculture and tradition, and a rise in diet-related diseases like diabetes.<\/p>\n

When water returned, it opened the door to reintroduce native foods, a healthier way of living, and a pathway to reconnect to the land. And that\u2019s where San Xavier comes in.<\/p>\n

Even with the busy undercurrent of activity, the farm is a tranquil space where a palpable sense of peace permeates the air. This isn\u2019t accidental, according to Vega. \u201cMany of the O\u2019odham elders wanted this area to return to an agricultural community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Sustaining Tradition by Saving Seeds and Cultivating Wild Plants<\/h4>\n

Although the water has returned to the area and re-enabled agriculture, healthy eating habits are slower to catch up. Vega says for many people the reality of day-to-day life on the reservation includes fast food.<\/p>\n

To reverse this trend, San Xavier Co-op is preserving the \u201cgenetic resources\u201d stored in seeds. Though the O\u2019odham have 19 different varieties of corn, San Xavier has access to only two. Recently, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded the farm a grant to build a 2,400-square-foot cold storage facility to preserve its seeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan is to go door-to-door in the community and see if families have corn seeds that were lost in the last few decades,\u201d Vega says.<\/p>\n

\"A

Organizations like Native Seeds\/SEARCH<\/a> (NS\/S) help preserve indigenous seeds and serve as a repository to protect cultural heritage. Although there isn\u2019t an official partnership in place, Laura Neff, an associate at NS\/S, says that San Xavier Co-op recently received two community seed grants<\/a> from the organization. Additionally, San Xavier sells its products in the Native Seed\/SEARCH retail store. With efforts like these, the O\u2019odham people may be able to return to the foods their ancestors enjoyed.<\/p>\n

Another focus at San Xavier is cultivating wild foods. In the past, the O\u2019odham relied on the pods of mesquite trees to supply them with protein. Once the pods dry, the O\u2019odham harvest, mill, and eventually turn them into flour. \u201cTraditionally it was eaten with water, and these high nutrients provided energy,\u201d Vega says.<\/p>\n

Diversity of Sustainable Crops<\/h4>\n

San Xavier Co-op remains viable\u2014and able to aggressively pursue growing native foods\u2014\u201cbecause it invests in alfalfa crops, its best-seller on the farm,\u201d Ramon-Pierson says. But the focus on income doesn\u2019t mean sacrificing what is good for the land, Vega emphasizes. The co-op is Certified Naturally Grown<\/a>, he says, which means it grows everything without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or GMOs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis farming community has been here for several thousand years, and there is an intentional purpose to how the O\u2019odham use the land,\u201d says nursery coordinator Cie\u2019na Schalaefli. Keeping it chemical-free helps the tribe maintain its traditional values.<\/p>\n

\"Orchards

The co-op has also formed a partnership with the Compost Cats<\/a> program through the University of Arizona, a student-run organization that collects food waste and scraps from local businesses, processes the material at the San Xavier Co-op, and sells it as compost to the community.<\/p>\n

The co-op constantly looks for ways to diversify its offerings in order to stay afloat, Vega says. San Xavier has a blossoming partnership with both the food bank community and Tucson schools, says Ramon-Pierson, where it sells broccoli and melons. It also runs a catering business that blends seasonal indigenous O\u2019odham foods with non-traditional items like tortillas and tamales.<\/p>\n

Several other projects are in the works or already underway, Vega says. \u201cBridgestone, the tire company, recently contacted the co-op about the Gualye, a woody shrub which thrives in the desert Southwest,\u201d he says. The interest is to produce rubber for tires. There\u2019s also the possibility that hemp production could begin on the property, he adds.<\/p>\n

Giving Back to the Community<\/h4>\n

Even though the farm looks for numerous ways to be profitable, the O\u2019odham Nation is the first priority. Workshops like the Wild Harvest<\/a> teach community members how to harvest, process, and prepare traditional foods such as cholla buds from a cacti, also known as ciolim, mesquite, and prickly pear.<\/p>\n

\"A

\u201cOnce they learn how to harvest, they can do this on their land at home, bring it back to the farm, and we pay them by the pound,\u201d Vega says. This fosters economic resiliency and a way to reintroduce traditional foods to children and families.<\/p>\n

The workshops also cover the basics of how to cook foods like tepary beans\u2014which can easily boiled in water with chiles\u2014and sends participants home armed with how to search for online recipes used in making traditional O\u2019odham meals. A resurgence of traditional foods, according to Ramon-Sauberan at the University of Arizona, is working to reduce the rates of diabetes and other health issues among the O\u2019odham people.<\/p>\n

San Xavier Co-op’s multi-pronged approach to caring for its community, is merely a “continuation of what’s in their ancestral genes,\u201d Vega says. \u201cNot many spaces that allow you to pay your bills, take care of your elders, and adopt a healthy way of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct Gabriel Vega’s time working on the farm and the fact that the tribe is looking at producing hemp as a new crop.]<\/em><\/p>\n

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