05/28/2026
INDIGENOUS FOOD CONTRIBUTIONS - Different Approaches to Food between the Akimel O'odham, Tohono OĘĽodham and Western Apache - The National Park Service has gathered descriptions of the early food growing and gathering methods of all three groups, showing how food in the same general location can be approached very differently between cultures.
“Even the Akimel O'odham, most highly developed agriculturists of the three tribes considered, depended more on wild products than on their agricultural staples. Most important in the food supply was the bean of the mesquite. In times of crop failure, it became their principal reliance.
Other mainstays of Akimel O'odham diet were screwbeans, the fruits of various opuntias, cactus, yuccas, chenopodiums, salvias, ironwood nuts, and various species of atriplex (salt brushes), which was boiled with other foods because of the salty flavor.
Saguaro fruit was highly prized, particularly for making an intoxicating beverage. Its harvest was so important that the Akimel O'odham started their new year with it.
The Tohono OĘĽodham used similar foods but in different proportions. They also utilized much more mescal and saguaro than the Akimel O'odham. The saguaro is gathered by both peoples by a pole with a hook at the end.
The Apache traditionally cooked the hearts or roots of mezcal in a pit oven. The White River and San Carlos Apache also made tulupi, an intoxicating drink made from sprouted corn.This appears to have been learned from the Chiricahua, who are said to have learned from the Tarahumare, where it appears to be traditional. Hrdlicka (1904, 190-191).
Other wild foods gathered by the Apache included the pods and bean of a locust. These are gathered and dried when not quite mature, later being ground on the metate and mixed with water. Pinon nuts and acorns were also gathered extensively.
And all of this just one small snapshot of Southwest Indigenous food innovation over the centuries.
For more info about Indigenous CONTRIBUTIONS - the special exhibit at the Museum of Indigenous People (February 13th to July 31st, 2026), go to: https://www.museumofindigenouspeople.org/contributions
'Contributions' features technology, ideals, philosophy and other things many different Indigenous communities shared with others, which are still being used today!
(Pictured: A Tohono OĘĽodham woman harvesting cholla cactus buds.)
