Tumacácori National Historical Park 

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Activity

booklet
Hello! “Explore, Learn, Protect” is the Junior Ranger motto. 

Here are some ideas on how to follow the motto:

Explore!

Visit other parks and museums across the country and around the world! 

Head to nearby Tubac Presidio State Historic Park and beautiful Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is as old as Tumacácori and located just 

south of Tucson. If you travel westward, visit the Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum, located south of Sells, Arizona, in the 

O’odham community of Topawa.

Learn!

Start a journal, sketchbook, or scrapbook for your adventures.

Complete Junior Ranger activities at more parks.

Protect!

Leave what you find for others to enjoy. Use trash cans and recycle bins.

Watch animals, but do not disturb them. Stay on trails; don’t take shortcuts. 

Explore, Learn, Protect!

River of 

Life

Tumacácori is in the Santa Cruz 

River Valley. One mile of the river 

flows through the park. Water 

is very important for life. Many 

types of animals live in habitats 

along the river. 

Color the animals hidden 

in the picture.

Here are some clues:

• Black-bellied whistling ducks nest in trees.

• Coatimundis look like long raccoons.

• Bobcats have short tails.

• Javelinas look almost like pigs, 

 but they are not related.

• Packrats are collectors.

• Gopher snakes look similar to rattlesnakes, 

 but they are not poisonous.

• Gray hawks perch high in trees.

• Pipevine swallowtails love to sip nectar 

 from tubular flowers.

• Sonoran toads’ skin is poisonous to dogs.

• Gila topminnow is an endangered fish species.

• People have lived by the river for years.

Authors:

Tumacácori NHP

Rangers and Volunteers

Illustrator:

Edna San Miguel

Graphic Designer:

Caryn Metcalf

Editors:

Dan Stebbins, Laurie Miller

Contributors:

Bernard Siqueiros,

Curator of Education

Tohono O’odham

Cultural Center & Museum

Joseph T. Joaquin,

Cultural Resources Specialist

Tohono O’odham Nation

Publisher:

Western National Parks

Association, a Tucson-based

nonprofit, supporting

education, interpretation,

and research in the

national parks
For countless generations, baskets have been an important tool for the O’odham 

(pronounced AW-aw-tum). Baskets have been used to carry water and firewood, 

prepare food, and store items. Traditional ceremonies, dances, and stories reflect 

the sacred world and use special baskets. Baskets are 

more than beautiful, strong, and useful; they are 

amazing!

Start the maze where basket weavers begin making 

baskets – in the center.

Draw a design on your basket.

A-maze-ing Baskets

Early Catholic priests in northwestern New Spain (today’s southern Arizona and 

northern Mexico) were well educated. Many were teachers, historians, and 

scientists. Besides starting more than 20 missions, Father Kino went to college for 

13 years and was an expert map maker and astronomer. 

Mission priests kept journals and wrote letters. Thanks to them, we know about 

many events, including births, deaths, marriages, epidemics, and conflicts.

When educated Spaniards, such as priests, signed a document, many made a fancy 

design called a rubric as part of their signature. People who could not read would 

see the rubric and know who made it.

The Spanish 

Rubric

To see more rubrics and actual mission records, visit 

www.nps.gov/tuma. 

Click on Mission 2000 and explore the website.

Joseph Agustín de Campos Joseph de Torres Perea Carlos de Roxas

Create your signature with a rubric here.

Juan de San Martín
In January 1691, Father Kino was the leader of the first Europeans to visit 

the O’odham village where he started Tumacácori Mission. A mission was a 

community for teaching native people the Spanish way of life. People in the 

missions learned new ways to farm, a different religion, and to speak Spanish. 

They started building houses and churches using mud bricks called adobe. 

Beginning in 1800, it took Tumacácori’s community almost 25 years to build the 

church that you see today. It will take you much less time to connect the dots!

While you connect the dots, pretend you are in this scene from 200 years ago.

Imagine standing in front of the mission’s church. Feel the heat from the sun on 

your back.

Look at all the people around the church. List the different things they are 

doing.

Time Traveler

What animals do you see?

What do you hear and smell? List as many sounds and smells as you can imagine 

from the scene.

Use your imagination to write a journal entry that tells what happened at the 

mission 200 years ago. Sign the entry using your signature with a rubric.

Would you rather visit the mission this year or 200 years ago? Why?
O’odham families have told their children stories since long 

before stories were written. Stories can be for fun. Stories can 

teach lessons. Stories can live forever if they are passed on 

to others. An O’odham elder told us this story so that we can 

share it with you. Read it out loud with your family. 

One day the Quails decided to play a trick on Coyote. When they found Coyote, 

he was sleeping. They quietly snuck up on him. Then they carefully cut some fat 

from his tail and sewed rocks into his tail where the fat had been. When everything was done, they quietly went away.

When Coyote woke up from his long, deep sleep, he was very, very hungry. With 

his big, long nose, he could smell something cooking. As he followed the smell 

with his nose, he kept turning around because he heard something coming up 

behind him. He would walk a little, then turn around to look, then walk some 

more. He did not figure out that it was the sound of his rock-filled tail bumping 

into bushes.

Finally, Coyote found where the smell was coming from. The Quails were cooking 

fat on a stick over a fire. Coyote was so hungry that he was very, very nice to the 

Quails. He asked them if he could have some fat. It tasted so good that he ate all 

of it, then he asked where he could get some more.

The Quails told him that they had traded some baskets for it over beyond the 

mountain. Coyote started the long walk to get some more fat. When Coyote 

left, the Quails started talking and laughing about how they tricked Coyote into 

eating his own fat. They were laughing so hard that their round little bodies were 

rolling all over the ground. Coyote heard them talking about something with his 

big ears. He turned around and called out to them to ask what they were saying. 

They only repeated that he had to go beyond the mountain 

to get some more fat.

Soon Coyote came upon Rabbit. Rabbit wanted to get in 

good with Coyote, so Rabbit told Coyote what the Quails 

were really saying. When Coyote heard that he had eaten 

his own fat, he turned around and ran toward the Quails. 

The Quails saw Coyote coming, stopped laughing, and ran as fast as 

they could toward a hole in the ground. Before diving into the hole, 

each one plucked a tail feather and stuck it into the same piece of 

cholla cactus, and then they took it into the hole with them.

Coyote could smell the Quails with his big, long nose so Coyote knew 

they were down the hole. Coyote dug so fast for the Quails that the 

dirt was flying. When Coyote grabbed the first Quail, Coyote asked if 

that Quail had played the trick. The Quail said no, it was someone else. 

Coyote dug deeper and grabbed the next Quail. That Quail said it was 

someone else, too. Finally, after catching and releasing more Quails 

and digging much deeper, Coyote caught another Quail. When questioned about the 

trick, the Quail did not say that someone else did it. So, Coyote knew he had caught the 

trickster and threw the Quail in his mouth to eat it. But that Quail was no Quail at all, it 

was the piece of cholla covered with feathers!

Draw your favorite scene from the story. 

How Quails 

tricked coyote
The O’odham have lived in this area since before Europeans came to North America. 

For centuries, the O’odham have known which wild plants and animals to eat. Water 

from the Santa Cruz River has been used for their crops. The Spanish and other 

Europeans brought different foods with them when they arrived. 

Put an “X” next to the foods that you have eaten. Then, hunt through the puzzle for 

the food printed in bold type. Words will be read up, down, forward, backward, and 

even diagonally. 

What’s For Dinner?

K Y S G C N O L I V E S G  X F S

O H Z E S O E A R A B B I T B N

R S C C H N W K A L L O H C Y R

A A A O D C A I C Y R A P E T O

N U C R A X A E T I U Q S E M C

G Q T N G T M E B L H M Y A Q A

E S U C S G I F P R P C U L F N

S B S A G U A R O T A E H W W V

What Do 

Rangers Do?

Rangers do many different types of work. All rangers help take care of parks so that 

people, now and in the future, can enjoy them. 

Read each job description below, then draw a line to connect it with the ranger 

being described. Draw a star by the job that is most interesting to you. 

Archeologist

Use clues to solve mysteries about 

the past. Discover very old objects 

(artifacts). Protect artifacts for 

future study & enjoyment.

Maintenance Ranger

Build things from designs.

Repair, paint, use tools.

Education Ranger

Explain park’s attractions, tell stories.

Design handouts, exhibits, websites.

Patrol Ranger

Search for and rescue people, use first aid. 

Hike, camp, drive 4x4 trucks.

Biologist

Make scientific discoveries. Learn about 

& look at animals and plants. Use microNative Wild scopes, binoculars, chemistry.

Foods

 Chiles

Rabbit

Acorns

Deer

Cholla cactus buds

Mesquite beans

Saguaro cactus fruit

Prickly pear cactus pads

O’odham Crops

 Corn

Tepary beans

Squash

Beans

Foods Brought by 

Europeans

 Wheat

Chicken

Peaches

Pork

Olives

Oranges

Figs

Beef
In June 1776, a group of over 300 people, 700 horses and mules, and 300 cows

arrived in Alta California. It was the first big group from New Spain to settle the 

area that became San Francisco. Some had started the difficult 1,800-mile trip 

from Culiacán in the spring of 1775. They had already traveled 600 miles north 

when they passed through Tumacácori and Tubac in October.

Every morning their leader, Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, called out in Spanish, 

¡Vayan subiendo! (Everyone mount up!) Men, women, children, and soldiers 

would start walking or start riding mules or horses. They had no wagons, just 

mules, to carry their loads, so they had to choose supplies carefully. They had to 

bring everything they needed for the long trip. When they arrived in California 

they would need tools to build houses.

Pretend that you are 

one of the settlers. Mark 

what you and your 

family should take with 

you. 

San Francisco

Presidio of Monterey

Mission San Antonio

Mission San Luis Obispo

Mission 

San Gabriel

Colorado Crossing

San Xavier 

del Bac

Tumacácori 

Horcasitas

Sinaloa

Culiacán

Colorado

Baja California

Alta California

Salt

Gila River

Santa Cruz

River

Agua

Fria

River

NEW SP AIN 

Pack, Trek, Build!

You can travel on the 

Juan Bautista de Anza 

National Historic Trail. 

For more information, 

visit www.nps.gov/juba
Some people think that no one could survive in the Sonoran Desert, but the O’odham 

understand this environment. Their way of life is deeply connected to their desert home. 

Survival depends upon knowing what will happen next in nature’s annual cycle. The 

O’odham name each moon cycle during the year for a change in nature. They celebrate 

sacred ceremonies related to these changes with speeches, songs, and dances.

Read the descriptions for the months in the O’odham annual cycle on the next page. 

Think about the changes during the year in the environment around your home. Write 

about or draw pictures for each month of your backyard annual cycle in the diagram at 

the top of this page. Mark when the annual cycle would begin for you.

The O’odham’s annual cycle begins at the end of June when they pick saguaro cactus 

fruit. Its juice is used in a ceremony to bring monsoon rain. Rain replenishes plants, 

animals, and people that survived early summer’s scorching heat. More moons follow. 

The O’odham plant, then harvest, crops. The land becomes dry, then cold. Next, 

green plants and yellow flowers of spring give way to summer’s heat. 

Then the cycle begins again.

Backyard Annual Cycle

Month

Yellow 

Masad

Uam

Ce:dag

Masad

Month

Green 

U:walig

Masad

Mating 

Deer 

Month

Gakimdag

Masad

Animals 

Lose Their 

Fat 

Month

Ge’e 

S-he:pijig

Masad

Big Cold 

S-ke:g 

Month

S-he:pijig

Masad

Pleasant 

Cold 

Month

‘Al Ju:pig

Masad

Small Rains 

Month

Wasai 

Gakidag

Masad

Dry 

Grass 

Month

Sopol 

‘Esabig 

Masad

Short

 Planting 

Season 

Month

Jukiabig 

Masad

Big Rains 

Month

Ha:sañ Ba:k

Masad

Saguaro 

Cactus Fruit 

Ripening 

Month

U’us 

Masad

Wihogdag

Bean

Mesquite 

Month

 Gathering 
Junior Ranger Award

Presented by

Junior Ranger Date

Park Official Date

Tumac

ácori National 

Historical Park

For completing the Junior Ranger Program 

and commitment to the Junior Ranger Motto:

“Explore, Learn, Protect”