Akimel O'odham/Pima Community & Tohono O'odham/Papago Community

The Akimel O'odham community's traditional homelands lie in the Gila River drainage in central Arizona. They practiced dry and irrigation farming and stewarded the drought-tolerant heritage cotton plants that took their colonial name of Pima. The films in this section represent a distinct genre of midcentury educational film: those sponsored by individuals invested in perceived social uplift. Such films often draw upon contemporary stereotypes, and foreground the role of the government in Native life. Of particular interest here are methods of mesquite bean harvest and milling. Note: Akimel O'odham people have in the past been referred to as "Pima." We have maintained this term for discoverability and historical context, but we do not condone its use.

The Tohono O'odham people's traditional homeland lies in the Sonoran desert, with lands now situated in the states of Sonora, Mexico and Arizona, USA.  The desert has traditionally provided food, housing, material objects, and cosmology to the O'odham people  The films in this collection were made for the educational audience, to be shown in mainstream K-12 classrooms in the middle years of the 20th century.  In some cases, filmmakers believed that child protagonists would make the film narrative more relatable to child audiences. Locations and even the faces of some children in these films have been identified by O'odham community members. Note: Tohono O'odham people have in the past been referred to as "Papago." We have maintained this term for discoverability and historical context, but we do not condone its use.

 

Films are open to the public via a combined unrestricted community protocol. We will happily restrict a film to either Akimel O'odham or Tohono O'odham community's protocols at any point upon request.

 

Akimel O'odham/Tohono O'odham dictionary words were derived from Tohono 'O'Odham-English Dictionary (Madeleine Mathiot, et al./University of Buffalo) Volume I and Volume II, as well as http://www.native-languages.org/papago.htm. Contributed by Melissa Dollman, who is a neither a Akimel O'odham nor a Tohono O'odham speaker. We very much welcome community vetting of these vocabulary words, and recommendations for additional resources.

 

Recent DH Items
Community
Akimel O'odham/Pima Community & Tohono O'odham/Papago Community
Collections
Needs Review by Tohono O'odham/Papago Community
Category
Sponsored and Educational Films
Summary
TV program visits the Santa Rosa Ranch School and Tohono O'odham village of Sil Nakya. The host interviews and performs for local school children, and also a prominent family in the village and women cooking, and features a ceremonial wine dance.
Community
Akimel O'odham/Pima Community & Tohono O'odham/Papago Community
Collections
Needs Review by Tohono O'odham/Papago Community
Category
Sponsored and Educational Films
Summary
The narrative follows the daily routines of two Tohono O’odham children, their family and their community. Includes cooking, tending their fields, water gathering, picking prickly pairs and attending bible study and church.
Community
Akimel O'odham/Pima Community & Tohono O'odham/Papago Community
Collections
Needs Review by Akimel O'odham/Pima Community
Category
Sponsored and Educational Films
Summary
This film follows the plight of Akimel O'odham farmers and how local irrigation efforts, San Carlos Irrigation Project, and the Coolidge Dam factor into their modern practices. Also covers food preservation practices and basket weaving.
Community
Akimel O'odham/Pima Community & Tohono O'odham/Papago Community
Collections
Completed Alternate Audio Narrations -- Akimel O'odham/Pima or Tohono O'odham/Papago
Category
Sponsored and Educational Films
Summary
An A/O grandfather tells his grandson about wedding customs and other things depicted in petroglyphs; also what may be a mock wedding ceremony. Narration incl. the roles of family members (esp. wives) using saguaro and cholla cacti as illustrations.

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