The January 8th Memorial
History
Symbols by artist Rebeca Méndez
The January 8th Memorial uses symbols, inspired by petroglyphs found throughout the southwest, to tell the stories of January 8, 2011, the victims and survivors, and the coming together of the community.
On the path encircling the Memorial are 32 history symbols, whose purpose is to evoke the complex and intertwined stories of the region. These symbols provide a kind of grounding for the events of January 8th within a larger cultural and historical context. The symbols appear atop 32 light fixtures that illuminate the Memorial path.
When the architect/design team first began work on the Memorial in 2015, it created community-based advisory groups for input on approach and design. One of these groups focused on history, in recognition of the fact that the Memorial was to be built in El Presidio Park, a site with a long history which includes an ancestral O’odham village, a cemetery, and the Presidio, itself. The Park is also just north of once densely populated Tucson neighborhoods that were demolished in the 1960s and the people who lived in the barrio moved to make way for urban renewal.
The history symbols represent the people, places and events that have informed the history of Southern Arizona. Like petroglyphs and pictographs, they evoke emotion and memory. Each symbol carries many stories. Collectively, the symbols honor the fierce spirit of our community that was exhibited in the wake of the shootings of January 8th, 2011 and has long been the hallmark of our region.
The symbols are offered without explanation in El Presidio Park to inspire your own stories and reflections.
The symbols below are accompanied by brief descriptions and additional links to deepen your awareness and understanding of our regional history and to better understand the ways in which conflict, culture and the natural environment have shaped who we are.
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- Sentinel Peak – Gabe Zimmerman was always active and liked to hike, run and mountain bike in the local mountains. He contributed to the completion of the Arizona National Scenic Trail. A stretch southeast of Tucson has been named Gabriel Zimmerman Davidson Canyon Trailhead.
Santa Cruz River
Wherever it reached the light of day, oases of human settlement occurred—early agriculturists, Hohokam, O’odham, Spanish, Mexican, Euro-Americans and many others. Man, animal and plant alike depended upon the water of the Santa Cruz to keep the desert at bay. It was and still is a corridor of cultural contact, travel, settlement, and commerce.
Unlike most rivers in North America, this waterway flows from south to north with its headwaters in Arizona’s San Rafael Valley, crosses the border with México twice and wends its way through Canoa Ranch, the Tohono O’odham San Xavier District, past diverse Tucson neighborhoods, and continues its course north to the Gila River. The river is the lifeblood of our region.
Sentinel Peak
Occupied at least 4,000 years ago by ancestors of the Tohono O’odham, the village at the base of Sentinel Peak is considered the “birthplace of Tucson.” It is also Tucson’s namesake. The Tohono O’odham name for Tucson was Cuk Son or Stjukshon, referring to the 17th century O’odham village at the base of “Black Hill or Mountain.” The Spanish name “Tucson” is derived from Cuk Son.
The Black Hill was called Picacho del Centinela by the Spanish and Sentinel Peak by the Anglo, because a sentinel station was erected there to give warning whenever enemies approached, including during the Civil War. It has also been called Picket Post Butte, Picacho de Metates, Warner’s Mountain, Sierra de la Frente Negra and “A” Mountain, thanks to the “A” constructed on the hillside by students of the University of Arizona in 1915 to celebrate a football victory.
Spiral Petroglyph
The petroglyphs at Signal Hill were made by the Hohokam, the ancestors of the O’odham peoples, who lived in southern and south-central Arizona from about 450 to 1450 A.D.
Today, when we examine the images carved on stone we can only speculate what their significance was. Some images were possibly made for religious purposes. Some may tell a story, mark a trail, or commemorate an event…. The Hopi say the spiral indicates the migration of people, but we may never know for sure what the maker intended.
The petroglyphs inspired the use of symbols—to tell the stories of January 8, 2011 and to evoke the complex and intertwining histories of this region.
Tohono O'odham
The Tohono O’odham have lived in this region for thousands of years, and trace their ancestors to the Hohokam and earlier people. Their traditional lands stretched from the Colorado River to the San Pedro River; the Sonora River and Gulf of Mexico north to the Gila River and Superstition Mountains. Tohono O’odham means desert people.
The O’odham are a people whose cultural values—himdag— include respect for their land, water, plant life, animal life, respect for their elders, sharing with others, and hard work. They are a people whose origin stories tell them that they were created by Elder Brother and placed here. Through stories and songs, traditions and knowledge are passed on through many generations.
Some villages recorded history using “calendar sticks”, ribs from the saguaro cactus, marked with distinctive figures that helped their keepers to recall important events. In keeping with the importance of water to life in the Sonoran Desert, the O’odham measured each year from one summer rainy period to the next.
Yaqui / Yoeme
The Yaqui people or Hiaki or Yoemem have inhabited the Sonoran Desert region for thousands of years, interconnected by language, culture, social networks that extended from the southernmost edge of the region to its northern boundaries near the Gila River. When the Spanish arrived at the Rio Yaqui in 1533, they encountered a courageous people ready to defend and protect their way of life. Yaqui people adapted and negotiated with the Spanish and Jesuits, maintaining their spiritual beliefs but blending Catholic practice alongside Traditional ways. Early mission records account for Yaqui settlement in the Mission of Tumacacori in the mid-1700’s.
Yaqui presence became more visible in Arizona with the genocide campaign of Mexican Dictator Porfirio Díaz. Families solidified their presence to areas inhabited by their ancestors. Today, there are 5 Yaqui communities in the Tucson area and many more throughout the state. The Pascua Yaqui Tribe received Federal Recognition by the United States Government in 1978 and in 1994 the tribe received Historic Status. Through the words of our elders, we understand who we are. Itepo Hiakim ian weria, ketun te utte’ak.
Apache
The Apache, who are Athabaskan speakers, were wild plant gatherers and hunters, traders and raiders. They migrated south into what is now Arizona centuries ago establishing the region as their sacred homeland. Four sacred mountains enshrine the Western Apache cultural landscape and anchor stories and cultural memory in place. They are “protective places and places of prayer.” The destination of these prayers is to the four directions of the world.
As Apache peoples ventured farther south and west, they encountered other resident native peoples, such as the Sobaipuri in the San Pedro River Valley and the Tohono O’odham in the Santa Cruz Valley to the west. With increased claims to this same territory by Spaniards, Mexicans and later Americans, Apache bands continued to raid settlements and ranches, resisting colonization.
The U.S. Army established forts such as Fort Lowell to protect settlers and sent troops to fight the Apaches, resulting in what has become known as the “Apache Wars.” after more than 30 years of fighting, the final surrender in 1886 by Geronimo, the leader of a Chiricahua Apache band, marked the end of the “Apache Wars.” Geronimo and the entire band of Chiricahua Apaches were sent to prison in Florida. Other Apache groups were removed to reservations in Arizona and New Mexico where they reside today. Geronimo died at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1909.
San Xavier del Bac Mission (1692)
San Xavier del Bac was founded in 1692 as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino, an Italian Jesuit, explorer and cartographer. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797.
Per the Doctrine of Discovery and Papal Bull of 1493, the Catholic Church awarded to the Spanish Crown the lands of “New Spain.” This grant included the directive that the Crown would underwrite efforts to convert inhabitants to Catholicism. The three modes employed by the Spanish to consolidate its colonial presence were: the presidio, the pueblo and the misión.
Today, the San Xavier Mission, a National Historic Landmark, remains a church, a school as well as a museum that serves the needs of the local community, in the village of Wa:k (San Xavier District) on the Tohono O’odham reservation.
El Presidio San Agustín del Tucson (1775)
On August 20, 1775 Lt. Col. Hugo O’Conor, of the Royal Spanish Army, an Irish expatriate, “selected and marked out” the location of the presidio on the east bank of the Santa Cruz River about 10 miles north of mission San Xavier, and across the river from the O’odham village of Stjukshon calling it “El Presidio San Agustín del Tucson.” With the “two majesties” of the Catholic Church and Spanish military in place, the Tucson Presidio would become “the post farthest out” on the frontier of New Spain. In 1797 the first “complete” census of Tucson claimed a population of 395 residents.
The Presidio was built on the site of an ancestral O’odham village. It was intended to close off the northern frontier from Apache attacks and prevent other European powers from claiming the region. It remained a garrison and refuge for Tucson for more than 80 years, from 1775 to 1856, when the last Mexican troops left the Presidio following the Gadsden Purchase. The last standing wall of the Presidio was torn down in 1918.
Mexican Independence from Spain (1821)
In 1821, after 11 years of armed conflict, México achieved independence from Spain, and Tucson passed from Spanish to Mexican rule. The decade long war and its aftermath—the struggles of a new and sovereign Mexican nation with a depleted treasury and the changing political and economic currents in North America—brought turmoil to the frontier.
Tucson, always on the frontier, fell victim to short supplies, disease and an increase in Apache hostilities. The Mexican Republic did not continue the missionary policies of Spain. With Mexico’s independence, the Tucson Presidio became a Mexican Fort, and the San Agustín Mission across the river became known as La Pueblita, still home to O’odham families. Spanish citizens became Mexican citizens, and life went on much as before.
Gadsden Purchase (1853)
On December 30, 1853 the United States purchased from México—Southern Arizona, including Tucson, and the Mesilla Valley in New Mexico—roughly thirty thousand square miles of land for $10 million. Tucson became part of Doña Ana County in the Territory of New Mexico. Southern Arizona fell under U.S. dominance and all Mexican citizens became citizens of the United States.
The Gadsden Purchase was the last substantial territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States and defined the current U.S.—México border. The new border cut through traditional O’odham homelands separating communities and families.
The lands acquired in 1853 were purchased to establish the southern route of the transcontinental railroad completed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the early 1880s.
La Plaza de la Mesilla (1862)
La Plaza de la Mesilla, later called La Placita, was the social hub of Sonoran Tucson. It can first be seen on the Fergusson Tucson map of 1862 as a rectangular open space. It was the terminus of the wagon train route from the territory capital in Mesilla, New Mexico.
In 1868 the San Agustín Church was built on the east side of the Plaza. La Placita became the site of most of Tucson‘s major celebrations, including the yearly San Agustín Festival. In 1897, a new and larger Saint Augustine Cathedral is dedicated on South Stone Avenue.
The stone portal of the old Church/Cathedral was saved and now frames the entrance to the Arizona Historical Society. A plaque commemorating La Plaza de la Mesilla can be found on the grassy traffic median known as Veinte de Agosto Park, where a statue of Pancho Villa, a gift from the Mexican Government, also stands. Pancho Villa was a Mexican revolutionary general initially supported by the U.S. who fought from 1910–1914 against the dictatorship regimes of both Porfirio Díaz and Victoriano Huerta.
Camp Grant Massacre (1871)
On April 30, 1871, a group of Anglos, Mexicans, and Tohono O’odham, led by prominent citizens from Tucson, attacked an Apache encampment near Camp Grant on the San Pedro River in Aravaipa Canyon. The attack took place early in the morning. Most of the Apache men were off hunting. More than a hundred Aravaipa and Pinal Apaches were slain, mostly sleeping women and children, and about 30 children were captured. This is known as the Camp Grant Massacre.
The killings in Aravaipa Canyon received considerable local and national attention. In December of 1871, the federal government indicted one hundred residents of Tucson and San Xavier for murder. The trial was held at the adobe Pima County courthouse where the U.S. District Judge ruled they had acted defensively and found all accused “not guilty.”
Southern Pacific Railroad (1880)
The Southern Pacific Railroad reached Tucson in 1880 along the thirty-second parallel, the southernmost route of the transcontinental railroad. It was built by thousands of Chinese, Mexican and Anglo workers.
The arrival of the Southern Pacific brought about a major reorientation of the Tucson and Arizona economy in the 1880s. Prior to the railroad, Tucson merchants had established local stores and businesses, with wagon freighting companies bringing goods to Tucson, and Tucson goods and products being sent south to Sonora and east to New Mexico. With the coming of the railroad, many local merchants could no longer compete and went out of business, as Tucson became more and more tied to the rest of the United States and less to northern México.
St. Mary's Hospital and Sanatorium (1880)
Tucson’s first hospital, St. Mary’s with 12-beds, opened in 1880, a month after the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad under the care of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. The first 11 patients arrived a week later.
In early-to-mid-19th century, tuberculosis became a leading cause of death in the United States. Tucson, thanks to its fresh dry air and sunlight, good advertising, and train service, became a destination for “health-seekers, lungers, and consumptives.”
At the turn of the 20th century, Tucson had one formal public sanatorium, St. Mary’s Hospital and Sanatorium, and a sprawling squatter’s camp known as Tentville. By 1930, Tucson had over 40 tuberculosis sanatoria in operation.
The University of Arizona (1885)
The University of Arizona was created in 1885 in Tucson by an act of the Territorial Legislature. It was the first university established in Arizona, while the Territorial Legislature granted the Territorial Insane Asylum to Phoenix, and Tempe gained the Territorial Teacher’s College.
On October 1, 1891, the University opened its doors with a student body of thirty-two. Six students were in its first freshman class. Twenty-six students were enrolled in “preparatory courses”, as there was no high school in Tucson. On October 5 the board of regents officially organized the university into a School of Mines, a School of Agriculture and a Preparatory School.
Temple Emanu-El (1910)
The first Jewish congregation in Arizona began to form in 1880 in Tucson. On Erev Rosh Hashanah, 1910, the Temple Emanu-El on Stone Avenue, opened its doors as the first Jewish house of worship in the Arizona Territory. There were at this time only three other synagogues in southwestern U.S.: in El Paso, Albuquerque and San Diego.
Ashkenazi Jews, primarily German immigrants, began arriving in southern Arizona in the mid-1800s. In territorial Tucson, members of newly arrived Jewish families became active in the community—some in politics, serving on the County Board of Supervisors, the School Board, the Territorial Legislature and even briefly as mayor—others in business, opening general stores, the first bank, the first bookstore (as well as the first public library). With the coming of the railroad Tucson’s population was slowly growing and becoming increasingly diverse.
In 1949, Temple Emanu-El moved into its new building on Country Club Road. The original synagogue today is the site of the Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center.
Arizona Statehood (1912)
Arizona became the 48th state of the United States of America on February 14, 1912. Known as the Valentine State, it is the last of the coterminous states to be admitted into the Union and has the greatest percentage of its acreage designated as Indian tribal land in the United States.
The Arizona State Bird is the Cactus Wren and the State Flower is the Saguaro Cactus Blossom. The Arizona State Tree is the Palo Verde, the State Mammal is the Ringtail and the Two-tailed Swallowtail is the state butterfly. The Apache Trout is the Arizona State Fish. The State Gemstone is Turquoise and the State Fossil is Petrified Wood. The Arizona State Reptile is the Arizona Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake and the State Amphibian is the Arizona Tree Frog. And, Arizona actually has an official State Neckwear, which is the Bolo Tie.
Dunbar School (1912)
Before Statehood while Arizona was still a Territory, schools were integrated and not segregated. When Arizona achieves statehood in 1912, two laws addressed the question of segregation. One of these laws prevented “intermarriage between persons of Caucasian blood and their descendants with Negroes.” The other law provided for the establishment of segregated elementary schools.
The Dunbar School, the first and only officially segregated school in Tucson for 30 years, was established in 1912 for the purpose of educating Tucson’s African-American students. The school was completed in January 1918 and named after the African American Poet, Paul Lawrence Dunbar. It soon became an important center for community activities, including visits to the school by major performers, educators, scientists, and artists, all of whom were African American—from Marion Anderson to Ralph Bunche.
In 1951, the Tucson schools voluntarily agreed to dismantle the segregated school system and Dunbar School was integrated and renamed John Spring Junior High School.
La Fiesta de los Vaqueros (1925)
The first Fiesta de los Vaqueros, precursor of Rodeo Days, was held February 21, 1925. The idea: to attract visitors to Tucson in the winter months with a parade and a rodeo.
The 1925 rodeo featured four events—steer wrestling, steer tying, calf roping, and saddle bronc riding. The purse was $6,650. Prizes included a 750-lb. block of ice, 100 lbs. of potatoes and a “Big Cactus” ham.
Since the introduction of cattle, horses, and other livestock to Southern Arizona in the 1690s, with the first Spanish entradas, ranching and farming have continued to be two mainstays of the rural economy for more than 300 years.
Local schools still close on Thursday and Friday of Rodeo Week.
Music & Art (1920s)
The 1920s saw the arrival of many new arts and cultural institutions in downtown Tucson including: the Hotel Congress (1919), the Rialto (1920), the Temple of Music and Art (1927), the Fox Theatre (1930), and the Plaza Theatre (1930), the Spanish-language theater.
All are still thriving today with the exception of the Plaza, which was torn down as part of urban renewal in the 1960s and 70s. The elegant Spanish-language Teatro Carmen saw its heyday in the years 1915–1922. It closed in 1926, although a ghost of itself is still standing on Meyer Avenue today.
Davis Monthan Field (1927)
Davis Monthan Field was dedicated in September 23, 1927 by Charles Lindbergh. Standard Airlines (today American Airlines) began regularly scheduled flights through Tucson the following year. Davis-Monthan Field became the largest municipal-owned airport in the nation.
Military presence at DM began at the same time, slowly at first, but with expanding conflicts in Europe, DM in 1941 transitioned to full military operations as an Army Air Base.
In 1948, the Tucson Airport Authority was established with responsibility for a new civilian airport located at its current site on South Tucson Boulevard. And, DM officially became Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Pima County Courthouse (1929)
Pima County’s third Courthouse was built in 1929, designed by local Tucson architect, Roy Place, who also designed the Pioneer Hotel, the Benedictine Sanctuary and 25 buildings for the University of Arizona.
During construction, portions of the Presidio wall were unearthed. Bricks from the Presidio are still displayed today on the alignment of the east wall of the Presidio in the Southern Arizona Heritage & Visitor Center.
In 1929, the Courthouse housed the County officials, the sheriff, his deputies’ dormitory, the jail and a library for storing records. From 1930–1977 it housed the Pima County Superior Court and from 1977–2015 the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court.
Tucson Mountain Park (1929)
Tucson Mountain Park was established April 1929 by the County Board of Supervisors – to protect the Tucson Mountains from encroachment by homesteads and to have it set aside as a park and game refuge. The Pima County Parks Commission was established to oversee the park.
The northern half of the original park became Saguaro National Park West. Today, at approximately 20,000 acres, Tucson Mountain Park is one of the largest natural resource areas owned and managed by a local government in the United States.
Chinese Markets (1940s)
By the 1940s, approximately 100 Chinese grocery stores could be found on the streets of downtown Tucson. Chinese men began arriving in the Arizona Territory by the 1860s to work as placer miners and were critical in laying down track for the SPRR. With the completion of the railroad in 1880, many workers stayed on to farm the floodplain of the Santa Cruz River, selling produce from wagons and later in grocery stores.
Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) a Chinese community gradually formed in Tucson based largely in nuclear family life. This encouraged the development of grocery store businesses, which rely almost entirely on family labor. The grocery stores became a backbone of development for the Chinese community in Tucson.
This symbol is the character pronounced “hua” (in contemporary Mandarin), a shorthand for all descendants of the legendary Yellow Emperor. Chinese people call themselves hua ren. Ren means person or people. The Chinese name of the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center includes the term. The Center was built with the assets and labor of the Chinese grocery community.
USS Arizona Sinks (1941)
On December 7th, 1941, the battleship USS Arizona sank during the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Oahu island, Hawaii. More than 1,170 crewmen were killed. Although the Arizona is deleted from the navy’s register in late 1942, the ship was symbolically re-commissioned in 1950.
The USS Arizona was commissioned on October 17, 1916 and at that time was the largest ship in the navy’s fleet, with a length of 608 feet and a displacement of 31,400 tons.
A Memorial to the Arizona at Pearl Harbor was dedicated in 1962. One of the ship’s bells hangs in the Student Union Building at the University of Arizona across from The USS Arizona Mall Memorial.
Old Tucson Studios (1950s)
Old Tucson Studios was originally built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures on a Pima County-owned site as a replica of 1860s’ era Tucson for the movie Arizona (1940), starring William Holden and Jean Arthur. Workers built more than 50 buildings in 40 days. Many of those structures are still standing.
The classic film, The Bells of St. Mary’s starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman was filmed at the Old Tucson Studios in 1945, followed by numerous Westerns including The Last Round-Up (1947) with Gene Autry, Winchester ‘73 (1950) with James Stewart and The Last Outpost (1951) with Ronald Reagan. The 1950s also saw the filming of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958), and Rio Bravo (1959) among many others. In 1968 Andy Warhol directed Lonesome Cowboys starring Viva.
Kitt Peak National Observatory (1960)
In the 1950s, numerous astronomers petitioned the federal government for funds to build a research center available to the entire astronomy community. Kitt Peak, 55 miles WSW of Tucson, was selected as the site for a national observatory under contract with the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 1960 the Kitt Peak National Observatory was dedicated.
Today, the observatory is administered by the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. With over twenty optical and two radio telescopes, it is one of the largest gatherings of astronomical instruments in the northern hemisphere.
The land is leased from the Tohono O’odham Nation. Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), and the Baboquivari Range, are a special place for the O’odham people. It is the home of I’itoi, their Creator, Elder Brother. Permission was given by the Tribal Council to build the Observatory as long as the mountain is respected and “as long as only astronomy research was conducted.”
Barrio Destruction (1966)
The most densely populated 80 acres in Arizona was targeted for urban renewal as part of the Pueblo Center Redevelopment Project in the mid 1960s. Although the renewal area south of downtown Tucson was dominated demographically by Mexican Americans, most of the city’s Asian and African Americans also lived there. To make way for new government buildings, performance venues and a community-conference facility, the people who lived in the barrio were moved and their neighborhoods demolished.
The opening of the Tucson Community Center symbolized progress for many throughout the city. For many others it symbolized the loss of their community and the destruction of entire blocks of adobe Sonoran style row houses, many dating back to the 19th century.
“Blowing snow mingled with blowing paper and rose and fell and then eddied into a blizzard of memories. And then the memories and the spirit of Doña Luz fluttered out the open door in a thousand swirling fragments in the direction of the south wind somewhere west of Atzlán.” From “The Ruins” by Patricia Preciado Martin.
Mining (1969)
With nine mines in production in 1969, Pima County was a major copper producing area of the nation and one of the most important in the world.
From the Hohokam excavating for turquoise or hematite to the Spanish, who were the first to extensively penetrate the earth in their search for gold and silver, to autonomous 400-ton trucks doing the heavy lifting in copper mines—mining has been going on in the area that became Arizona for centuries.
The impact of mining and the extraction economy on Arizona has been significant—creating jobs and wealth, but at what cost to its environment and its people?
CAP Canal (1990)
Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal water reached Tucson in 1990. CAP, a 336-mile system that brings Colorado River water to central and southern Arizona, delivers the state’s single largest renewable water supply and serves 80% of the state’s population.
Seven states share the Colorado River Basin. They negotiated water shares. Discussions continue. Indian Water Rights Settlements for the 22 federally recognized tribes in Arizona range from fully resolved to unresolved.
“For all Arizonans, Indian and non-Indian alike, the future remains clouded by water; how to get it back and what to do with it when it comes.”
All Soul's Procession (1990)
All Soul’s Procession is “part outdoor sanctuary, part healing remembrance for those honoring and grieving loved ones and part gallery studded with elaborate floats, performance artists, and fantastic costumes.” 6 It’s an annual event that derives from the traditional Mexican celebration “Dia de Los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) that honors deceased loved ones and family members.
Tucson’s All Soul’s Procession began in 1990 and has grown to a two-mile procession of 150,000 walkers—and watchers—down the streets of Tucson. The procession is about honoring and celebrating the dead in whatever ways feel authentic to all participants, no matter what cultures, countries, or traditions they embrace.
The Tucson community loves its city-wide celebrations: from Tucson Meet Yourself, Cyclovia Tucson, Rodeo Days, All Soul’s Procession, to name only a few.
Prehistoric Human Footprints (2015)
In December 2015 a backhoe operator working as part of a team testing for archaeological deposits on a Tucson area road construction site, uncovered what appeared to be a human footprint preserved in the baked mud of an ancient agricultural field. Ultimately, footprints of 7–9 adults including a child and a dog were uncovered.
The discovery of these footprints, believed to date back more than 2,500 years, represents a first for archaeology in the region. And it confirmed to the Tohono O’odham their deep ancestral and agricultural roots in this region.
Before the footprints were covered over with sand and road construction began again—and after extensive documentation —more than 4000 people visited the site. The Vice Chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation conducted a blessing ceremony at sunset.
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