Gila River Research Articles

Gi’iko Ce:mo’oidag: A proposal for urban-agrarian development in the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona

The urban fabric of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (PMA) is becoming inhospitable. Contributing factors are: low population density, dependence on automobiles and air conditioning, Urban Heat Island effect, uncertain water supply, lack of sustainable policies, and low community connectivity. Failing to adapt could spell the end of the PMA’s life cycle. This paper highlights the Indigenous Akimel O’Otham as key agents of sustainable change in this region, on account of their espousal of sustainable values; and their water rights reclamation allocating resources for agricultural development, of which the tribe has already undertaken the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project (P-MIP). The design presented offers a possible avenue for the tribe to complement P-MIP’s ambitions with urban-agrarian development, diversifying the uses of their water supply. The proposal is accompanied by a speculative financial plan to ensure their independence from external investment. This could contribute to fostering urban change and promoting a more resilient future.

Topographic shielding and funneling for dust events associated with the North American Monsoon in the Sonoran Desert, central Arizona, USA

Dust storms are linked to large scale accidents and fatalities in the Central Sonoran Desert, specifically in the central Gila River Valley of the United States during the North American Monsoon. This study analyzes three events where the underlying topography impacts large summertime dust storms and their movement. All three examples demonstrate the shielding or, conversely, funneling effects associated the underlying terrain. The funneling between isolated mountain complexes, such as White Tank Mountains, the Sierra Estrella, the Sacaton Mountains, the San Tan Mountains, and the South Mountain Complex can combine to create substantially higher dust concentrations. Conversely, dust flow into these isolated mountain complexes can also lead to shielding, or blocking, of the dust such that area behind the topographic features experiences less dust while the windward side of the barriers have accented dust concentrations. These dust storm/topography studies provide a first opportunity to identify topographic influences on central Arizona dust storms. Significance statementThe purpose of this study is to identify Topographic elements of the central Sonoran Desert located in the Arizona region of the Southwestern United States that impact the movement of dust storms. Using IDW interpolation to analyze PM10 concentration levels and wind speeds, we find that stand-alone mountain complexes can provide significant dust shielding and funneling that effect the overall trajectory of a dust storm in this region.

Chapter 5. Finding and understanding ancient irrigated agricultural fields in southern Arizona

AbstractFor over a century, archaeologists have investigated the vast network of prehistoric Hohokam canal irrigation systems in the lower Salt River and middle Gila River valleys, as well as in other areas of southern Arizona. However, documentation of the agricultural fields in which prehistoric farmers irrigated their crops generally was lacking until the last 25 years. This is largely a result of the difficulty in identifying ancient fields, since they are not visible on the surface and have been obscured or destroyed by natural landscape processes as well as historic and modern disturbances. More recent archaeological investigations have revealed ancient irrigated fields through innovative methods and excavation techniques. The fields were constructed both by Hohokam irrigators (450–1450 CE) as well as by farmers from preceding cultural traditions during the Early Agricultural period (2100 BCE–50 CE). These discoveries occurred during projects conducted in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act. In this chapter, I highlight these important studies that have expanded the view of ancient agricultural landscapes in southern Arizona.

Report on new tree-ring-radiocarbon dates from Snaketown, Gila River Indian Community

Ceramic chronologies are crucial for archaeological dating, but in many areas very few tree-ring dates are available for the high-precision refinement of ceramic phases. This paper takes a step toward the objective evaluation of Hohokam ceramic chronologies with high-precision tree-ring-radiocarbon dates. Tree-ring sequences from pit structures spanning ca. 500 years at the site of Snaketown (Hohokam Pima National Monument), an important ball-court center in the Pre-Classic Hohokam interaction sphere, were dated with wiggle-match calibration. We compare the new absolute dates to probability distributions generated from ceramic assemblages and other information. The results indicate that Middle Gila phase designations based on pottery wares and house types overlap with the wiggle-matched dates, with good agreement observed in earlier phases. However, the highest density 50-year intervals of ceramic dates generated from floor assemblages thought to date to Middle Sacaton phases do not agree with the new independent dates. Our discussion explores explanations for instances of low agreement and points out the potential contributions of scaled-up wiggle-matching studies in the Hohokam region.

Multiscale analysis predicts native species presence based on habitat and nonnative species abundance

AbstractObjectiveThe loss and degradation of aquatic habitat through fragmentation, water extraction, and climate warming contribute to declining native stream fish diversity. In response to these declines, a large‐scale repatriation program was established in Arizona and New Mexico to expand the distribution and abundance of native fishes. This program has had variable success, with imperiled fish populations establishing and persisting in some streams, while other populations failed to establish.MethodsTo identify factors contributing to the success of repatriation, we conducted a study investigating how biotic and abiotic variables affect native fish presence or absence at differing spatial scales throughout the Gila River basin. We conducted fish and habitat surveys in 29 river reaches at three spatial scales: the 1‐km, 0.1‐km, and mesohabitat scale. We used generalized linear models to identify associations among species presence, habitat characteristics, and nonnative species abundance across spatial scales. Logistic regression models were also used to test associations with heterogeneity of habitat characteristics and species presence.ResultModels indicated strong species‐ and scale‐specific responses to these variables. Nonnative abundance was less influential than other habitat variables in predicting the presence of native fish, although the majority of associations that emerged were negative. Further, we were able to identify that water velocity, depth, and substrate size were the most common variables associated with species' presence across all scales and age‐classes, with most species responding positively to elevated velocities and variable responses for depth and substrate size. Response to variation in habitat was species‐specific, with some associations positive and others negative.ConclusionCollectively, the information from this study will help identify locations with a reasonably high likelihood of supporting native fishes and broaden our understanding of species responses to habitat and nonnative species across multiple scales.

Trajectory analysis of central Sonoran Desert dust storms

Dust storms are a major cause of central Sonoran Desert weather fatalities. Through back-trajectory analysis of North American Monsoon dust storms in central Sonoran Desert of the United States. This study is specific to central Arizona (USA) from 2009 to 2022 using the HYSPLIT model. Our findings have shown that dust storms originate from southerly or near-southerly regions. The dust storms displaying the highest concentrations of particulates show a preference to originate from the southwest. This coincides with the development of a 500 hPa ridge to the east of the study area. The highest concentration storms’ back-trajectories display the lowest heights above the ground. Given their southwestern origin, these storms travel upslope along the seasonally dry river beds of the Gila River and its tributaries. Weaker dust storms originate over a wider area with a shift to a southerly direction. Such origination indicates that weaker dust storms are traveling downslope through the washes and channels of the dry Santa Cruz River. As dust concentrations drop, storm direction drifts east and dust height is suspended higher. This paper highlights the spatial variations in central Arizona dust storms, showing the likeliest paths of the strongest events and assists in identifying aeolian dust origins.

Introduction: Recent research on iron-ore mirrors in Mesoamerica and Central America

AbstractThis Special Section focuses on recent research centered on iron-ore mirrors in Mesoamerica and Central America. Iron-ore mirrors are rare and esoteric artifacts, mainly crafted by specialized centers in the Maya, central Mexico, and Zapotec areas from the Early Preclassic to the Postclassic. They were found in numerous archaeological sites and cultures, from the Gila River in the United States to the isthmus of Panama.In this introduction, we present a temporal, geographical, and contextual framework for the actual knowledge on mirrors, in order to fully understand the complexity and importance of the research on these prestigious artifacts. Indeed, the mirrors combine spiritual and political power in a portable and material way, giving a great insight into Mesoamerican beliefs and leading to important information on the relation between rulers of different political centers from different cultural areas.Finally, we present the articles of the Special Section and give an overview of their content and relevance to the topic.

Mexican Gartersnakes (Thamnophis eques) along the Gila River in Southwestern New Mexico

Mexican Gartersnakes (Thamnophis eques) along the Gila River in Southwestern New Mexico

Riparian vegetation response amid variable climate conditions across the Upper Gila River watershed: informing Tribal restoration priorities

Riparian systems across the Southwest United States are extremely valuable for the human and ecological communities that engage with them. However, they have experienced substantial changes and stresses over the past century, including non-native vegetation expansion, vegetation die-offs, and increased fire activity. Vegetation management approaches, such as ecological restoration, may address some of these stressors as well as reduce the risk of future impacts. We apply remote sensing to inform restoration priorities along the upper Gila River within the San Carlos Apache Reservation and Upper Gila River watershed. First, we develop a spatially and temporally explicit trend analysis across three observed climate periods (1985–1993, 1993–2014, 2014–2021) using the Landsat-derived indices to quantify changes in riparian vegetation conditions. These maps can be used to identify areas potentially more at risk for degradation. Second, we analyze changes in riparian vegetation within a climate framework to better understand trends and the potential effect of climate change. Vegetation greenness has largely increased throughout the watershed despite intensifying drought conditions across our study period, though areas within the lower watershed have shown increased stress and higher rates of wildfire and other disturbances over the past 5-years. Nevertheless, small-scale restoration activities appear to show improving vegetation conditions, suggesting efficacy of these restoration activities. Results from this study may be integrated with restoration objectives to develop a restoration plan that will help riparian vegetation communities adapt to change.

Treatment of Native Youth Requires Incorporating Culture, Recognizing Trauma

Treatment of Native Youth Requires Incorporating Culture, Recognizing Trauma

Rio Grande cultural remains on the middle Gila River, Arizona: The Pueblo Revolt and the Eastern Puebloan diaspora

Data recovery investigations in the Blackwater area along the middle Gila River in south-central Arizona identified ceramic and lithic artifacts derived from the Rio Grande region. These remains were collected from GR-1425, which is located at the heading of the Blackwater canal system within the Gila River Indian Community. The site lacks evidence for permanent occupation, and instead only short-term habitation occurred. Extensive evidence for weapon manufacturing suggests that the temporary relocation was associated with conflict, and radiocarbon dates suggest that the cultural remains were deposited after the Hohokam Classic period ended circa CE 1450. The most parsimonious explanation for the data from GR-1425 is that a group of Eastern Puebloans temporarily moved to the middle Gila River around the time of the Pueblo Revolt in CE 1680. As a result of increased interactions of disparate populations brought together by the extensive population movements that occurred at this time, substantial changes in regional ceramic traditions occurred, and data from GR-1425 suggest the extent of these interactions was more wide-scale than previously recognized.

Field estimates of crayfish mortality associated with passive integrated transponder tagging

Abstract Mark–recapture studies of crayfish using internally implanted passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags is a promising method for understanding details of crayfish ecology. The size of crayfish that can be marked is dependent on the size of the PIT tag. Several studies have examined mortality rates associated with the insertion of the smallest currently available PIT tags (Biomark MiniHPT8, 8.4 × 1.4 mm) using different insertion locations and husbandry conditions. Here, carapace length‐ and sex‐dependent mortality rates were evaluated for three ventral PIT tag insertion locations (central, pleopod and lateral) in a field experiment focusing on the northern crayfish (Faxonius virilis) in the Gila River Basin where it was introduced several decades ago. The central insertion method was the only treatment group that did not exceed background mortality in two trials for all individuals combined. When evaluated by sex, no insertion method exceeded control mortality in males, and only the lateral insertion method exceeded control mortality in females. The relationship between carapace length and mortality was different depending on the PIT tag insertion location and sex. Regardless of sex or size, F. virilis responded with lower mortality rates when the PIT tag was inserted using the central insertion method, and this method is preferred for tagging F. virilis of ≥20 mm carapace length. Crayfish are large‐bodied macroinvertebrate omnivores with important roles in freshwater ecosystems. This article identifies best practices for internal PIT tag placement, provides estimates of mortality associated with tagging, and thereby advances ecological research focused on the conservation of imperilled or sensitive crayfishes. It also provides useful guidance for studies of non‐native crayfish in communities where they have become invasive.

Serum lipidomic determinants of human diabetic neuropathy in type 2 diabetes.

ObjectiveThe serum lipidomic profile associated with neuropathy in type 2 diabetes is not well understood. Obesity and dyslipidemia are known neuropathy risk factors, suggesting lipid profiles early during type 2 diabetes may identify individuals who develop neuropathy later in the disease course. This retrospective cohort study examined lipidomic profiles 10 years prior to type 2 diabetic neuropathy assessment.MethodsParticipants comprised members of the Gila River Indian community with type 2 diabetes (n = 69) with available stored serum samples and neuropathy assessment 10 years later using the combined Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) examination and questionnaire scores. A combined MNSI index was calculated from examination and questionnaire scores. Serum lipids (435 species from 18 classes) were quantified by mass spectrometry.ResultsThe cohort included 17 males and 52 females with a mean age of 45 years (SD = 9 years). Participants were stratified as with (high MNSI index score > 2.5407) versus without neuropathy (low MNSI index score ≤ 2.5407). Significantly decreased medium‐chain acylcarnitines and increased total free fatty acids, independent of chain length and saturation, in serum at baseline associated with incident peripheral neuropathy at follow‐up, that is, participants had high MNSI index scores, independent of covariates. Participants with neuropathy also had decreased phosphatidylcholines and increased lysophosphatidylcholines at baseline, independent of chain length and saturation. The abundance of other lipid classes did not differ significantly by neuropathy status.InterpretationAbundance differences in circulating acylcarnitines, free fatty acids, phosphatidylcholines, and lysophosphatidylcholines 10 years prior to neuropathy assessment are associated with neuropathy status in type 2 diabetes.

We Are the Land: A History of Native California

Historians Damon Akins and William Bauer unveil a fascinating narrative about California Indians that breaks free from conventional boundaries of time and space. In this work, they argue that Indigenous people are central to the history and future of California as they continue to fight against the idea once held by colonial entities that abundant natural resources were meant to be exploited and “could not be Indigenous land” (p. 4). Akins and Bauer achieve their goal of correcting misconceptions about the history of Native California and of demonstrating that Indigenous peoples are still here despite the violence, slavery, genocide, and state policies perpetrated against them.The authors rely largely on secondary sources interspersed with oral histories of Indigenous people. The book is evenly divided in its coverage of topics, from pre-Hispanic Native practices, stories, and uses of the environment through Native peoples' struggles during the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods; the last four chapters are devoted to the twentieth century. The topics—from the interaction with explorers and settlers to governments, laws, and activists—range broadly enough to pique interest in many quarters. While some scholars may question the omission of notes and a bibliography, each chapter ends with a section on sources discussing interdisciplinary evidence and various debates. A pleasantly surprising aspect of the authors' methodology is the placement between chapters of so-called “Native Spaces” sections, which offer vignettes about Indigenous peoples in big cities and other important places in order to supplement the history of missions, ranches, and reservations. These sections weave the past and present together in the authors' attempt to “resist the erasure of California Indians” (p. 9).Many stories of violence, adaptation, and resistance emerge from the chapters and these “Native Spaces” sections. For example, the region around Yuma witnessed the Quechan fight over control of the Colorado and Gila River crossings against the Spanish and American conquests in 1781 and 1851, respectively; more recently established in the region were the Cocopah Casino, a hospital, and the Ten Tribes Partnership, which, by retaining possession of significant water rights to the Colorado River, makes Indigenous people “vital and powerful stakeholders” amid the dominance of agricultural, military, and transportation industries (p. 35). Other spaces have captured national headlines, such as Ishi Wilderness, established by the federal government in 1984. The wilderness area is near the town of Paradise, California, infamously destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire—just the type of destructive wildfire that Native practices of burning, pruning, and harvesting, ignored under the 1964 Wilderness Act, would have helped to prevent. The authors point out that settlers who in the 1840s entered this area, which became known as the Lassen foothills, imagined it as a space that required conquering Indigenous peoples; by the twentieth century, convinced of their success, these settlers “grew nostalgic for an imagined past that could act as a prophylactic against the ills of the modern, urban world” (p. 195). Yet for the Native peoples this was not a wilderness; it was their land. These and many other accounts demonstrate how the public, politicians, and scholars would be better informed and have a greater understanding and appreciation of the natural environment if they were familiar with stories by Indigenous peoples.Indeed, this book's audience is not just other historians but the general public, though it would work well among college students. The authors intermittently refer to the history of Native California as one of genocide but also of resistance, perseverance, and survival in the present. Moreover, as they insightfully show, Indigenous peoples saw uplift in their own way, desiring “to take greater control over their lives, to live as both Indian and American” (p. 228). The authors' organization of the book and writing style are refreshing and make for a clear narrative that flows from start to finish. Anyone interested in the history of Indigenous peoples will wish to read and enjoy it.

Peregrination 2036

Peregrination 2036 Mika Kennedy (bio) 2036 miles, as the crow flies. 2021 Bury the bird. It is the most and least fragile thing—all bones and air, delicate. But you could never touch a bird like that. This is a corpse. Pulled from the grille of your sister’s car, where it was impossibly contorted, its bean-like insides having evacuated its body and spilled outward, twisting around car plastic at seventy miles per hour. Bury it among red ants, under sage and sand, in the shadow of Stoke’s Castle. The corpse is two hundred miles from its home. From where it had last flown. You know Kansas, Colorado, Utah almost by heart. You know the road from Atwood to Denver to Goblin Valley to Topaz. The day before, you’d made your fourth trip to Topaz, though you’ve never headed all the way west, so this part of Nevada is new to you. It’s where the train would have run in 1942, passaging through the desert with its Japanese American soon-to-be-prisoners (so-called “evacuees,” so-called “pioneers”). Standing under the American flag at Topaz, you told your sister, If our family had lived in Fremont during World War II, this is where they would have ended up. Why? she says back, already tired of Utah. She hasn’t spent the last however many years earning her PhD in stories about the past— stories that take place here, stories that can withstand the desert. Your sister reads the plaque. Then she says, I hate it here, and you drive away. Headed west on US-50, America’s Loneliest, you create an exquisite corpse. It has the wings of a bird and the entrails of a serpent. [End Page 181] Unlike your sister, you’ve spent almost a decade in a PhD. “In” is the appropriate preposition, because there’s not much that is adjacent about a dissertation. You’ve tried to tie yourself to place this whole time, studying literature and its relationship to both the mythic and material, which is a literary way of saying it started with Manzanar, when you were at college in California. Then Amache (Colorado). Poston and Gila River (Arizona). Topaz (Utah). Jerome and Rohwer (Arkansas). But your dissertation isn’t really sited there, even if its subject matter is. Outside of a few weeks out of the last eight years, the entire time you’ve written about the West you’ve been in Michigan, which is in the Eastern time zone, the Detroit airport reminds anyone who will listen. You are a scholar of place and maybe that place is the West, but it has to be Michigan, too. You live there. Before Stoke’s Castle, before Topaz, you meet up with a cousin in St. Louis, a recent and temporary transplant (law school). She gives you a big STL welcome—barbecue and a tour of her neighborhood and its weirdly affordable mansions, though her apartment isn’t one of them. Still, you can buy a lot with a little in Missouri. In your cousin’s eyes, everything in the Midwest is quaint, maybe even backwater. She can’t quite believe she lives there, and so doesn’t quite live there. Not yet. Nevertheless, she’s unafraid to speak on behalf of the region, with the confidence of an explorer telling the Californians back home what’s what: One hundred and fifty years ago, all those settlers were right to keep going. And for Asians like us, it was smart to stop at the coast. To venture no further. (Before the year is over, she will say she can imagine staying. She has community here. She has found—) You, though. You’ll go to bat for the Midwest. Your work is on the walls of the Detroit Historical Museum right now, and it’s not about the West, because it’s not your dissertation. Instead, it is the work of living here in Michigan—a kind of inheritance when you choose to step into a place, a newcomer. Your part of the story takes the shape of foamcore and Photoshop, all edges and pixels and museum space. Exiled...

Cenozoic drainage reversal on the southern margin of the Colorado Plateau, east-central Arizona, USA

Laramide northeast-flowing streams from the ancestral Mogollon highland beveled gently northeast-dipping Late Proterozoic to Cretaceous strata across the southern Colorado Plateau Transition Zone. Late Eocene renewed uplift rejuvenated northeast-flowing streams incising paleocanyons. Apache paleocanyon was incised into the Mogollon highland, including the north-trending Laramide Apache uplift bounded by major reverse faults/monoclines. The Mogollon Rim sequence aggraded in Apache paleocanyon and on a broad alluvial plain to the east. Middle Cenozoic tectonic subsidence of the Transition Zone, aridification, and volcanism combined to aggrade Apache paleocanyon with sedimentary and volcanic rocks from 37.6 to 18.63 Ma. Emplacement of the Mogollon-Datil caldera complex and Chuska erg on the southeastern Colorado Plateau forced streamflow to northwest-dispersal of fluvio-eolian sediment from 34 to 26 Ma. Following erosion by northwest-flowing streams on the southern Colorado Plateau from ~26 to 16 Ma, lake sediments of the lower Bidahochi Fm were deposited. Southwestward reactivation of Laramide faults was underway by ~25 Ma coeval with extensive 25 to 20 Ma Natanes Plateau basalt flows and extreme crustal thinning southwest of the Transition Zone. As northeastward streamflow gradually diminished, a Superstition field ash flow tuff ended northeastward flow at 18.63 Ma and was followed by a period of sluggish southwest stream flow and ponding until after ~14.84 Ma. Southwestward structural subsidence and possible spillover from ancestral Lake Hopi on the Colorado Plateau southern margin caused incision of the southwest-directed Dagger Canyon paleovalley after 14.84, which followed the path of the earlier Apache paleocanyon and possibly to the Sespe delta on the California coast before opening of Gulf of California. Structural collapse of the Tonto Basin to the west induced deposition of the Dagger Canyon Conglomerate in the Dagger Canyon paleovalley before the modern Salt River incised all previous deposits and became integrated with the Gila River during the Plio-Pleistocene.

Assessing Conservation Potential of Streams for Spikedace and Loach Minnow Using Species Distribution Modeling

Abstract Identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing freshwater systems for conservation is a persistent challenge for managers tasked with conservation and recovery of native fishes. We used historical records from the Gila River basin, the national hydrography data set, and Random Forest modeling to predict probability of Spikedace Meda fulgida and Loach Minnow Rhinichthys cobitis occurrence throughout their range in the Gila River basin. Models for both species performed moderately well, with relatively high predicted probability of occurrence at streams with historical records. Predicted probability of occurrence was also relatively high in several streams without historical records of focal species, suggesting that there are unoccupied reaches throughout the Gila River basin with similar environmental conditions to historically occupied reaches for both species. Unoccupied reaches with the highest predicted probability of occurrence may have a greater chance of supporting translocated populations of focal species. Our results can be used as a first step for locating reaches most likely to support translocated populations of Spikedace and Loach Minnow within their respective historical ranges. Our approach may be applicable to other species of conservation concern with available historic records in need of population restoration.

ORIGINS AND DIVERSITY OF PERIPHERAL POPULATIONS OF RIO GRANDE SUCKER (PANTOSTEUS PLEBEIUS) IN THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Rio Grande sucker (Pantosteus plebeius) is continuously distributed in parts of its range, but occurs in geographically isolated populations at the periphery. We used 10 microsatellites and DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene to characterize genetic diversity and reconstruct evolutionary relationships of five peripheral populations in the southwestern United States. An isolated population in Rio Bonito (Pecos River drainage) is most closely related to a central Rio Grande population in Alamosa Creek, and part of the monophyletic Rio Grande lineage. Another disjunct population, Bluewater Creek in the western Rio Grande drainage, has a Mimbres lineage mtDNA haplotype that likely originated via interbasin transfer. Both peripheral populations are important for conservation of the species as a whole. Three other isolated populations are closely related to mainstem “core” populations in the Mimbres and Gila rivers that colonized these intermittently connected tributaries. One peripheral population in Allie Canyon, Mimbres River, has persisted longer in isolation than Rocky Canyon or Trout Creek in the Gila system. In general, a process of range expansion during relatively cool and wet periods, followed by retreat to wetted refugia during warm and dry periods, leads to genetic differentiation of peripheral populations of Rio Grande sucker at local and across-basin scales.

Diverting the Gila: The Pima Indians and the Florence Casa Grande Project, 1916–1928 by David H. DeJong

Reviewed by: Diverting the Gila: The Pima Indians and the Florence Casa Grande Project, 1916–1928 by David H. DeJong Charles Porter Diverting the Gila: The Pima Indians and the Florence Casa Grande Project, 1916–1928. By David H. DeJong. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2021. Pp. 336. Illustrations, appendix, notes, bibliography, index.) For generations, before White settlers arrived along the Gila River, Pima Indian growers successfully used the water to create a thriving and sustainable agricultural community. David H. DeJong's Diverting the Gila: The Pima Indians and the Florence Casa Grande Project, 1916–1928, tells the sad story of the Pimas' struggle to keep their irrigation community alive after the arrival of new White American settlers. Upstream diversions by immigrants to the Gila River valleys from the Civil War to 1890 depleted the river's flow to downstream Pima fields resulting in the collapse of the tribal community. The Pimas were experts in sustainably using the limited water resources of the Gila River to allow life to flourish in arid southern Arizona. Not only did the Pimas create the physical infrastructure to divert and use the water for irrigation, but they also created a system allowing fair, transparent, and equitable sharing of water, the essence of the life of their entire community. Across North America, settlers from the United States used complex government processes to cheat Native peoples out of their traditional lands, including their rights to use water. The simple way to control any society is to take away their water. The general surface water policy west of the Mississippi River under the American form of government holds that first in time equals first in right: whoever can prove the earliest use of surface water beneficially becomes first in line to use that water. There is no dispute that Pima communities were first to put the water of the Gila to beneficial use. Yet, as usual, the Americans found ways to exercise their [End Page 510] legal and political expertise to justify the diminution of the prior water rights of the Pimas. Just as other Native peoples experienced across the West, the Pimas had little chance to prevail in a legal system that they did not understand or in many cases had no desire to understand. When it comes to land and water acquisition by Anglo Americans, it seems that unethical behavior is exercised as a matter of course and sanctioned by legal action. Due to political maneuvering in the most despicable manner by Anglo Americans, the Pimas' water allocations were reduced by two-thirds, eliminating 60 percent of the growing capacity of their fields. Yet the Pima courageously adapted their growing practices by eliminating their least productive lands, planting less water-intensive crops, and stubbornly remaining committed to farming even though their economy was devastated in favor of upper Gila Valley White growers. The intense drought being experienced in the West today is putting existing water policies under extreme duress. Diverting the Gila should be read by any water policymaker seeking fairness in water rights for all people or trying to find a way through the current water crisis while treating everyone fairly. The book explains the consequences of water policies manipulated to favor the powerful. Further, DeJong uses his excellent academic training, tempered with real-world irrigation system experience, to provide readers with the historical facts of the consequences of unfair water policies. The Pimas were first in time to use the water. The Pimas put the Gila River water to beneficial use. Why then did they have to endure the devastation of their agricultural economy by newcomers? DeJong illuminates their struggle, a struggle that is as much about respect for dignity as it is about irrigation systems. Charles Porter St. Edwards University Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association

Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing: The Akimel O'odham and Cycles of Agricultural Transformation in the Phoenix Basin by Jennifer Bess

Reviewed by: Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing: The Akimel O'odham and Cycles of Agricultural Transformation in the Phoenix Basin by Jennifer Bess Tom Sheridan Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing: The Akimel O'odham and Cycles of Agricultural Transformation in the Phoenix Basin. By Jennifer Bess. (Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2021. Pp. 464. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) Detailed and meticulously documented, Jennifer Bess's Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing tells the story of one of the most remarkable sagas in the history of Native North America. The Akimel O'odham have farmed the floodplains of the Salt River and Gila River in central Arizona for [End Page 508] thousands of years. Their ancestors, the Huhugam, constructed the largest irrigation system in pre-Columbian North America, cultivating about 100,000 acres along hundreds of miles of earthen canals. When Spaniards first encountered them in the late 1600s, the Huhugam had dispersed, leaving their platform-mound communities in response to flooding, internal strife, and perhaps even Old World epidemic diseases. But their descendants continued to raise corn, beans, squash, and cotton along the rivers. With their surpluses, the Akimel O'odham (River People) fed the Tohono O'odham, or Desert People, who came to trade and labor in their fields. And when other Piman-speaking peoples to the south were missionized and conquered by the Spaniards, they remained independent, adopting what they wanted from the Europeans, like winter wheat, but keeping them at bay. When U.S. troops and thousands of gold-seekers on the way to California passed through their territory beginning in the 1840s, the Akimel O'odham became the first agricultural entrepreneurs in Arizona history, expanding production to barter and sell to the newcomers. They considered themselves allies of the Anglo Americans, even forming volunteer militia to fight Apaches and Yavapais after federal troops withdrew during the Civil War. Expecting reciprocity, the O'odham saw non-Native settlers divert their irrigation water instead. The Forty Years of Famine from 1871 to 1910) turned the once-verdant Gila into "dry, parched earth" (102). The great strength of Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing is its emphasis on Akimel O'odham resistance and resilience in the face of these ongoing betrayals. Bess employs O'odham creation stories to argue that the O'odham recognized and accepted cycles of expansion and contraction, developing an ideology that embraced change. The O'odham himdag (way of life) emphasized doing, world building, especially the cultivation of the land. During their darkest hours, the O'odham kept pressuring United States authorities to restore their land and water so they could sustain themselves as they had done since time immemorial. In contrast to their non-Native allies, who portrayed them as victims, the O'odham presented themselves as partners and allies who only wanted to sustain themselves as they had in the past. They did not resist agricultural modernization. On the contrary, they contested their marginalization while non-Indigenous farmers modernized around them. The paradox between the progressive ideology of the O'odham and their economic marginalization continued as the hot, dry climate of Arizona attracted government plant breeders experimenting with varieties of Egyptian long-staple cotton. Even though an experimental station was established at Sacaton on the Gila River reservation, inequities in water distribution and technical assistance exacerbated rather than alleviated O'odham poverty. Like the Green Revolution two generations later, advantages [End Page 509] accrued to those with the resources to maximize production. As one Indian agent lamented, "I found nearly all are willing to raise cotton if the water matter could be adjusted" (138). For much of the twentieth century, however, the "water matter" was never resolved. Between 1910 and 1920, the average size of non-Native farms quadrupled from 135 to 581 acres because of the long-staple cotton boom during World War I, while O'odham farms barely climbed from 7 to 12.3 acres. Dawes Act allotments and the lack of water prevented the O'odham from capitalizing on the transformation of Arizona agriculture. Bess recounts their ongoing dispossession, but she also examines their tenacity to recover their land and water and their right to make decisions...