A Green Band in a Parched and Burning Land compiles years of Deni Seymour’s research regarding the Sobaipuri O’odham of southern Arizona. Seymour asserts that the Sobaipuri were more long lived, widespread, and complex than documentary records indicate. The book’s conclusions are largely based on the author’s numerous previous publications, and she refines her earlier interpretations of the archaeological record for the Sobaipuri.
The first chapter introduces the Sobaipuri as the River O’odham, touching only briefly on their relationship with other O’odham groups. However, “Sobaipuri” is not a word in the O’odham language, and this group no longer exists, as such, as a distinct community. There are a number of different O’odham groups living today, but their relationship with previous populations remains poorly understood. Each O’odham community inhabited different environments and had varying cultural traditions and lifeways. Some—such as the Akimel O’odham, or River People, along the Gila River—were dependent on irrigation agriculture and were fully sedentary. Others, including the Tohono O’odham, were less dependent on cultivated crops, and they lived in different villages seasonally. In contrast, the Hia-Ced O’odham—or Sand People—were nomadic people who did not practice agriculture and were instead reliant on gathered and hunted foods.
The Sobaipuri O’odham made their living through irrigation along Sonoita Creek and the Santa Cruz, San Pedro, and Babocomari Rivers of southern Arizona. Seymour proposes that the diversity in ways of life among different Sobaipuri bands poses challenges for researchers using only documentary sources. She explains that archaeological data are scant, which has indirectly resulted in misunderstandings of the historical record and an overreliance on ethnographic studies. According to Seymour, ethnographic work regarding O’odham subgroups, who have different dialects and experiences, has led to inconsistent accounts of the past. She proposes settlement pattern and artifact trait expectations based on her previous archaeological work, which has assisted with ground truthing accurate locations for previously mislocated sites and identifying previously unknown sites. Moreover, Seymour now has more accurate chronology data for this culture.
Chapter 2 begins with consideration of the Sobaipuri landscape, emphasizing the environmental factors that led them to settle in specific areas and the different settlement types present in this region. Rivers and creeks delivered water to some areas, and constrictions in these waterways brought water to the surface in places where the Sobaipuri then settled, diverting water to their fields. Seymour discusses meanings behind Sobaipuri place-names, and she shows how they tend to describe observable environmental conditions. Furthermore, Sobaipuri village locations changed through time, sometimes resulting from conflicts or interactions with other groups, and in other instances, environmental changes.
In chapter 3, Seymour reviews historical documents such as maps and notes from Father Eusebio Kino, and she suggests there were short-lived Sobaipuri villages along the Gila River, at least during the seventeenth century AD. Seymour contends that the difficulty in distinguishing among O’odham groups has muddied the record of Sobaipuri presence in the Phoenix Basin.
Chapter 4 focuses on the site of San Xavier del Bac along the Santa Cruz, and it claims that Herbert E. Bolton (Rim of Christendom: A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino, Pacific Coast Pioneer, 1960 [1936]) misunderstood evidence when dividing upper Santa Cruz Sobaipuri from lower Santa Cruz O’odham. Seymour’s main argument here is that a geographic break separated Sobaipuri settlement clusters, and instead of a reflection of different cultural traditions present along the Santa Cruz River, this discontinuity of settlements was related to river characteristics, intercultural contact, and temporal factors.
Chapter 5 focuses on the upper San Pedro and the Babocomari Rivers, the least understood region, where Father Kino noted Indigenous settlements that may have been Opata (from the south) or Sobaipuri. Based on geography and characteristics of sites and material culture, Seymour argues that the corresponding sites in these areas are associated with the Sobaipuri. Chapter 6 discusses archaeological sites along Sonoita Creek, where she suggests there is a less pronounced Sobaipuri presence.
Chapters 7 and 8 discuss the settlement of San Pablo de Quiburi and explain that there were many settlements with the “Quiburi” name; they were occupied, abandoned, and relocated with slight changes to the name (reflecting environment or geography) but retained Quiburi in some form. Seymour argues that previous assumptions that these sites were primarily surficial are incorrect. She explains that recently recorded archaeological data, reexamination of historical and archaeological records, and new chronometric dates have led her to believe that insufficient or inadequate excavation and environmental processes have obscured surface evidence, which has resulted in erroneous dating and population estimates.
Seymour also discusses refinements to her regional settlement chronology made by using luminescence dating rather than radiocarbon dates to identify date ranges for sites. Based on these data, she concludes that the persistence of different iterations of Quiburi on the landscape reflects Sobaipuri adaptations to changing environmental and social conditions.
Chapter 9 challenges Charles C. Di Peso’s argument (The Sobaipuri Indians of the Upper San Pedro River Valley, Southeastern Arizona, 1953) that a Jesuit mission was established on the San Pedro River at the presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate circa 1757. Conflicting interpretations and a lack of empirical evidence leads Seymour to conclude that there never was a Jesuit mission at this site. Seymour argues that Di Peso did not excavate down to structure floors, which Seymour has since reexamined. She agrees that they are Sobaipuri but not dating to the period of Quiburi.
The lower San Pedro, the focus of chapter 10, is where Seymour identifies the locations of some Sobaipuri sites and eliminates others, which in historical narratives had previously been mistakenly. As she discusses in chapter 9, measuring distances from historical records has its challenges (e.g., do these distances represent a straight line or sinuous or circuitous travel routes along the river?). She emphasizes the need for more excavation and funding for analyses of curated archaeological samples.
Finally, chapter 11 posits that Sobaipuri occupation was longer and more complex than previously known, with abandonment and relocation of settlements related to both environmental and social conditions. Seymour argues that the Sobaipuri did not abandon the San Pedro River or surrounding areas in the eighteenth century, and future archaeological work is needed to better understand this history.
Seymour’s book is an important resource for those studying the culture of the Sobaipuri and other O’odham subgroups. It provides an in-depth history of the critical relationship between these people and their surrounding natural and cultural environments. Further, it will stimulate scholarly interest and ideas for future research. For others, it is an interesting probe into the archaeology of southeastern Arizona.
