Virtual Field Trip: Traditional Foods and Medicines, Ethnobotany

For generations, major sustenance for the members of the Tohono O’odham tribe was found in native plants of the southeastern Arizona desert. The Tohono O’odham Nation encompasses four non-contiguous land bases located south of Casa Grande on parts of Pinal, Pima and Maricopa Counties before continuing south into Mexico. A culture with strong ties to the land, the O’odham celebration of growth and harvest cycles is an enduring part of their identity. However, tribal agriculture has been in steep decline throughout the twentieth century. As groups once sustained by agriculture lose their farming traditions, heritage is lost as well. Also at risk is independent access to food and the preservation of the traditional crops and culinary practices. ArizonaExperience.org