354 PAPAGUERIA 



verse are the physical conditions of life that the struggle for 

 existence among plants and animals is modified, all striving 

 against inorganic nature rather than against each other ; and 

 this peculiar strife has led to a cooperation among unrelated or- 

 ganisms so complete that the district is segregated into a series 

 of colonies in which grasses, trees, cacti, insects, reptiles, birds, 

 and mammals dwell together in harmony and mutual helpful- 

 ness. It is in part through this system of cooperation or com- 

 munality that life is enabled to exist throughout the region. 

 Now just as the lower organisms have become fitted to an ad- 

 verse physical environment and adjusted to each other, so the 

 Papago Indian has, through the generations, developed fitness 

 to his desert habitat — he has joined the general system of com- 

 munality, and lives in harmony with the desert flora and the 

 desert fauna in a land so bitterly inhospitable that marauding 

 Apache, pastoral Mexican, and gold-seeking American commonly 

 pause on its borders. The Papago prefers to live where other 

 peoples famish ; he is able to do so by reason of the remarkable 

 adjustment of his habits, his food and raiment, his industries, 

 his social organization, to a peculiar assemblage of conditions ; 

 and thereby the tribe acquires a peculiar interest. 



Three and a half centuries ago Spanish explorers came in 

 contact with the Papago Indians, and over two centuries ago 

 established missions among them, especially in the eastern and 

 better-watered portion of their territory. With hardly an ex- 

 ception, the invaders found the tribesmen fearless and dignified, 

 yet kindly and hospitable ; and this character has been main- 

 tained until the present time. The Papago chiefs met the Span- 

 iards as peers, and interchanged courtesies and commodities, yet 

 the exchange went on with a certain reserve. Through the ex- 

 change, the Papago acquired burros and horses, goats and kine, 

 sheep and dogs, as well as a number of garden and field plants 

 and a variety of agricultural arts. They also adopted gradually 

 the costume of civilization, and apparently by reason of certain 

 similarities (perhaps superficial) in the ceremonials, they viewed 

 favorably and in some measure adopted the imported doctrines. 

 They also adopted, albeit slowly and cautiously, the adobe ar- 

 chitecture, with the architectural type previously borrowed by 

 Spain from the desert borderland south of the Mediterranean. 

 In return, they gave the Spaniards temporary sustenance, and 

 were among those who enriched the civilized world by the gift 

 of corn and other indigenous plants, including the legume which 



