*** **[DESCRIPTION]{.underline}**: STUDENTS WILL USE THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF
CULTURAL NEEDS AND CLIMATE RESTRICTIONS TO PLACE A FICTIONAL O**'**ODHAM
VILLAGE ALONG THE PREHISTORIC SANTA CRUZ RIVER. THEY WILL DESCRIBE THE
ADVANTAGES OF THEIR CHOSEN SITE,AND DRAW A SKETCH OF THE VILLAGE.***

*** **[Subjects:]{.underline}***

Geography and Art.

*** **[Materials]{.underline}*:**

Copies of map of the Prehistoric Santa Cruz River (**Master Page **

** I - 22**); Butcher paper and drawing supplies.

*** **[Preparation]{.underline}*[:]{.underline}**

Gather drawing supplies.

*** **[Time]{.underline}*[:]{.underline}**

One session.

***[Vocabulary:]{.underline}***

*ki, ramada*

Red

1\. [Papago and Pima ]{.underline}

[Indians of Arizona]{.underline}

***[CREATE AN O]{.underline}**[']{.underline}**[ODHAM
VILLAGE]{.underline}***

***[BACKGROUND INFORMATION:]{.underline}***

Just as we do today, the O'odham settled where they could "make a
living." For the O'odham, it meant living near sources of water, food,
and the materials and resources they needed in their daily lives.

**[Farming]{.underline}**

The O'odham grew many types of corn, beans, gourds, and squash. They
grew cotton for making clothing. They also grew desert plants in their
gardens, including devil's claw, which was used in making baskets. Even
weeds in gardens were gathered for food, especially their nutritious
leaves and seeds.

Desert farmers planted gardens where they could get water. They planted
in floodplains, channeled storm runoff, terraced hillsides to collect
rainfall and possibly built irrigation canals.

**[Gathering and Hunting]{.underline}**

The O'odham also gathered many wild plant foods. Some, like mesquite
beans, were staples; they were gathered in large quantities and stored
for use throughout the year. Other plants, like careless-weed, were
eaten in large quantities when in season. A few of the wild foods which
were gathered include: mesquite, grass seeds, prickly pear pads, cholla
buds, yucca, agave, careless-weed, purslane, lambs-quarter, cattail, and
the fruits of wolfberry, gray-thorn, desert hackberry, and cacti.

In late spring the desert harvest began with the emergence of leafy
greens, buds and flowers, and succulent stems. But wild foods are most
abundant in the summer when many desert plants fruit and set seed.
Cactus fruit and nutritious seeds from grasses, trees and shrubs can be
collected in large amounts. The O'odham stored much of their food for
use in lean times, like winter. Many foods were dried for storage.
Fruits were often made into jam or syrup.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, there were no domestic animals. Meat
came from hunting indigenous animals such as javelina, mule deer,
jackrabbit and cottontail, and from fishing.**[Other materials. . .
]{.underline}**

There are many other needs that your students may want to consider in
choosing a site for their village. **Baskets** were made using
beargrass, willow, cottonwood, yucca, and agave. Clay was dug from
floodplains to make **pottery**. **Wood** was needed in building ramadas
and "ki" shelters, as well as for fires for cooking and heating.
**Water** was needed for drinking, as well as for farming. 1

***[RESOURCES AND REFERENCES]{.underline}***

[Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert Trail]{.underline}, Desert
Botanical Garden trailguide;. "Shelter in the Pimeria Alta," 1993
Pimeria Alta Historical Society Calendar;" [Sonora]{.underline}, Ignaz
Pfefferkorn (translated by Theodore Treutlein), Univ. Of AZ, 1989.

***[ACTIVITY]{.underline}***

\- Discuss and review with your students what life was like along the
prehistoric Santa Cruz. Why did the O'odham people live where they did?
What problems did they face? Where did they get food and supplies? What
was life like in the villages? What kind of crops did they have? What
kind of crafts did they do? What other activities were essential to
O'odham village life?

\- Utilizing the map of the Prehistoric Santa Cruz (**Master Page I -
22**), have students, in groups, select an appropriate area to found
their own O'odham village. They should answer the following questions:

· Why is this a good site for a village?

· How will the villagers get enough food and water?

· What problems might they have?

\- Ask students to draw either a diagram or a sketch of their village,
including at least three of the following aspects of O'odham village
life: farming, hunting, games, weaving, pottery making, tattooing, food
preparation, housing, and water use.

***Enhancements***

¨ Work with the whole class to create a model of an O'odham village.
This could be life-sized with a "ki" (shelter) and / or a ramada, or to
scale, made out of clay.