San Xavier Del Wa:k’s Late-Eighteenth-Century Fortified Village Revealed in Early Imagery and Texts

Abstract

Some of the earliest historical drawings and photographs provide a fragmentary look at a long-gone defensive village occupied by San Xavier del Bac’s O’odham residents. Together these images reveal the character of a village that had been lost to history. Having moved the village south sometime between 1772 and 1780, during the Franciscan period, the new Wa:k O’odham village took on a form that differed substantially from the traditional Sobaipuri O’odham layout and house style that characterized the earlier village to the north. Structures were for the first time constructed of sun-dried adobes and formed rows of rectangular houses positioned in a square in what is now the church plaza. Passersby casually commented on this village, verifying the character and life span of this fortified O’odham village.