1 6 DESERT BOTANICAL LABORATORY 



Hodge, the annotator, of the Garces Diary, etc, repudiated the occasional claims 

 that a Spanish settlement was founded there in the sixteenth century. The 

 Indian name was variously rendered, Teuson, Tueson, Tubson, Tuczon, Tulqu- 

 son, Tuson being among the more reasonable variants, while Tucson has pre- 

 vailed since the Gadsden Purchase. The aboriginal Papago name has, how- 

 ever, remained in constant use among the tribesmen, who retain definite tradi- 

 tions of the ancient settlement, which was still occupied by them until within a 

 generation. It is merely a curious coincidence that the origin of the name may 

 be traced to the Pima term styuk-son, meaning 'dark ' or ' brown spring'; for 

 not only has the Papago occupancy and usage been continuous since prehistoric 

 times, but there is no ' spring ' of any color there, still less at the desert settle- 

 ment of Little Tucson. The Papago village on your site was apparently the 

 northeasternmost permanent settlement of the tribe; and in 1775 Padre Garces 

 found it the last Christianized pueblo in this direction, though some leagues 

 down the valley he saw the site of a Papago rancheria depopulated a few years 

 previously by Apache hostilities. 



"It is of interest to note that the prehistoric Papago was a farmer, and derives 

 his designation from this fact. The characteristic crop plant was the native 

 bean, called pah', or, in the plural, papah' ; and the same term was applied to 

 the tribe by neighboring peoples. The Spaniards slightly corrupted the appel- 

 lation, pronouncing it Papah'o (the final vowel feeble and obscure), and spelling 

 it, with some emphasis of the aspirate, Papago ; the Americans retained this or- 

 thography, but pretty effectually concealed the original form of the tribal name 

 by adopting the pronunciation indicated by their own orthoepy. The tribes- 

 men themselves long ago accepted the name by which they were known among 

 other tribes, adding the descriptive term a' a/am — literally, Beansmen,«'. <?., Bean- 

 people. A few of the earliest Spanish visitors ascertained the meaning of the 

 tribal designation, and translated it Frijoleros ; but in general its signification 

 was lost, and the name was erroneously connected with the Spanish ^a/« (pope, 

 hence catholic), the English baptized (referring to the supposedly acquired 

 through really aboriginal custom), etc. I am not aware that the name was 

 interpreted in English before my first visit to the tribe in 1874. About Tucson 

 and on the reservation at San Xavier the Indians follovk^ the American pronun- 

 ciation of their name ; toward the Mexican frontier and in Sonora they retain the 

 Spanish (Mexican) pronunciation or their own closely similar form. 



"You will be interested in noting also that the local tribesmen were among 

 the earliest and most successful agricultural experimentalists of the western 

 hemisphere. They are desert folk par excellence, and entered into the distinc- 

 tive solidarity' of desert life to a unique degree ; they scoured the Sonoran plains 

 for chance water holes as well as more permanent waters, carrying religiously 

 hoarded seeds ; they chased rain storms seen from commanding peaks for scores 

 if not hundreds of miles ; and wherever they found standing or running water, 

 or even damp soil, they planted their seeds, guarded and cultivated the growing 

 plants with infinite patience, and after carefully harvesting the crop, planted some 

 of the finest seeds as oblations, and preserved others against the ensuing season, 

 so that the crop plants were both distributed and improved from year to year. 

 I have already had occasion to point out that agriculture is a necessary product 

 of desert life, since it is only in regions of extreme aridity that plants and animals 

 are forced into a common solidarity at last controlled and guided by the supe- 



