The Desert and the Papago: The Give and Take of Rain

In Gary Paul Nabhan’s book The Desert Smells Like Rain, he shares his experiences and observations as an ethnobiologist and ecologist during his years working with and studying the Papago Indians of Arizona and Mexico. A focused memoir in the early chapters, Nabhan relates information about the people and their practices in relation to the desert in the latter of the book.

Although Nabhan demonstrates personal knowledge and relationships with the people, he does not use specific Papago as the main characters. The main character remains the desert and how it has shaped and reshaped a people who have lived in harmony with the desert for over four centuries. Throughout the book, in addition to the importance of water, Nabhan writes about both European history and mythical history of the Papago. Thus, in an effort to familiarize the reader with the Papago language, before he begins the first chapter, Nabhan prints a Papago Sound chart, which provides meanings and pronunciation to symbols of Papago words and phrases used throughout the book. Very detailed and specific, this chart is helpful, if the reader wants to take the time to refer back to the chart. This might have been more helpful to just use footnotes to define the words. However, at least the chart is clear and concise. Nabhan also includes a map of the Papago lands and he has labeled the amount of rainfall each area receives during a typical year. This was very helpful since the focus of the book was, in addition to the Papago survival, the preservation and utilization of water for crops and subsistent living in the desert.

At the beginning of the book, Nabhan describes the rain’s affect on the desert and its wildlife; now, Nabhan asserts, the Papago can begin the planting season: “The pond is nearly filled up to the brim. Runoff has fed into it through four small washes. Sheetfloods have swept across the field surface” (5). Thus begins our journey with the Papago and their relationship with the desert. Nabhan introduces the reader to the Papago rituals for ensuring rain and the way in which the rain shapes their lives: “The Papago have become so finely tuned to this unpredictability that it shapes the way they speak of rain” (6). The Papago’s refinement of agricultural methods, according to Nabhan, is more successful than that of scientists and others who have tried to recreate the rains for planting (7). The value of Papago skills he explains thusly: “Their sense of how the desert works comes from decades of day-to-day observations. These perceptions have been filtered through a cultural tradition that has been refined, honed, and handed down over centuries of living in arid places” (8). This is what deems the Papago and the desert worthy of study, in Nabhan’s view.

As Nabhan describes his first encounter with the religious life of the Papago, he introduces the reader to the Baboquivari Mountains and the wildlife that dwells thereon. Here, as in other places, the text becomes littered with desert-dwelling plants: “mesquite, catclaw, and hackberries, […] kidneywood, Arizona sapote, white flowered plumbago, bloodleaf amaranth, and wild chile bushes […] desert dogbane and an elephant tree” are just a few of the various vegetation Nabhan encounters (15). He describes the canyon and cave and personifies the animals in the desert around him. He does use the Papago names to describe the locations and in describing the Baboquivari, provides a brief history of the area and name according to the Papago legends. “There is always something hidden in this world, that you can’t just realize from the outside. You need to make contact with it now and then, to nod your head in knowing, to received its blessing” Nabhan states as the coolness of the night enfolds him (21). This quotation exemplifies the Papago philosophy that Nabhan weaves throughout the text.

In the second chapter, Nabhan describes the cactus ritual of the Papago that they believe brings rain to the desert. Although primitive according to today’s standards, the winemaking process reinforces the Papago community and the commitment to traditional practices. This chapter specifically focuses on the ingestion of the wine and the regurgitation of the juice. Following a traditional ceremony, the Papago ingest the wine, not to get drunk, but to honor and sing to I’itoi, the rain god (32). Nabhan traces the path of the wine-- from the hand-harvesting of the saguaros fruit to the mixing and fermenting of the syrup. Nabhan emphasizes the purification of the vomiting and quotes Ruth Underhill, a Papago: “The regular procedure during the twenty-four hours of feast is to drink, vomit, sleep, and drink again, until the result is a thorough purging” (36). This purging Nabhan likens to the rains of the desert and he once again, emphasizes the “raw intimacy the Papago maintain with the desert” (26).

Two chapters are written about the adaptation to life on the reservation and the coyote myths that Papago continue to share. For Nabhan, Coyote has wreaked havoc in his life as well and he relates convincing escapades involving Coyote’s trickster-y. Nabhan, like the Papago, finds a ‘moral’ to the stories and influence of coyote on plants. According to Nabhan, the plants with ‘Coyote-qualities’ are hybrid with other varieties of beans, so that the new strain will resist disease and still have a pleasant, edible taste and texture (85). However, Nabhan still emphasizes the Papago agri-smarts: “The Papago have evolved field management skills that have allowed them to sustain food production for centuries without destroying the desert soils” and even in the face of Coyote, the Papago have succeeded (47).

The development of new plants has encouraged the Papago to continue their farming, however, according to Nabhan, the disease and increase of diabetes among the Papago is related to the crops they grow (102). In addition to the ‘traditional’ crops like squash and beans, the Papago receive flour, sugar, coffee and salt-- ‘staples’ given to the reservations by the government (108). These commodities are not different from the foods the Papago hunt and gather. However, Nabhan insists: “the change in kinds of food was not all; equally important was the change from a seasonally responsive diet to one of year-round uniformity” (108). He continues to explain the change in diet reflects the change in relationship the Papago hold with the desert. Almost pleading for the return of Papago lands, he insists that a “resurgence of part-time native food collecting” would benefit the tribe’s health and continue its traditions (110). This plight for return of lands is no different from the other requests for land made by other tribes. Nabhan does provide a convincing argument that stresses the ties between the Papago and the desert that feeds them.

In the final chapter, Nabhan reinforces the Papago’s concern and connection to the desert by quoting H.V.Clotts, a European Papago historian: “We cannot go into their country with the idea of teaching them framing or irrigation under condition as we find them in other parts of the country. The most we should do for these people is first to protect them in the possession of the land” (128). Nabhan explains current (or at least at the time of the writing) policy changes that could affect the Papago land and cultivation methods. However, according to his Papago friend, “It looks like maybe it’s going to rain today, if we are lucky” and this is all that matters to these ancient farmers: the rain (130).

Although nearly twenty pages of notes follow the text, none are footnoted; only page numbers help delineate the information. This was rather confusing because the notes could not be read in conjunction with a particular statement unless the notes for the page had been scanned prior to its reading or were read upon the completion of a chapter. The notes do provide further reading material, more historical background, and notated source material. Nabhan does not directly quote his sources in the text, but does provide complete information in the notes.

Thus, despite the awkward notes and frequent Papago history and myth, Nabhan does demonstrate that even though the desert is a harsh and unpredictable climate, the Papago do continue to thrive. The desert lands do not fight against the Papago, but both live together in harmony: “There are certain things you must learn on your own. The desert is unpredictable, enigmatic. One minute you will be smelling dust. The next, the desert can smell just like rain” (9).

Works Cited

Nabhan, Gary Paul. The Desert Smells Like Rain. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1982.