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 Daniel Lopez waits under a
ramada at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum as another group of 12 people
approach his table to look over his Tohono O'odham objects and pictures.
Three boys between the
ages of 9 and 12 walk to Lopez's display and begin playing with the
objects that the Tohono O'odham tribe used for games or fighting with
their enemies.
"I say this would take me
out," the youngest boy says while holding a 10-inch piece of carved
ironwood to his head.
The 2-pound ironwood
stick, Lopez later explains, was used to fight Apache Indians during
their raids in the 1800s.
From the table, Lopez
picks up two balls made of mesquite and explains to his audience the
hockey-type game that was played by girls in his tribe. The game, Lopez
says, helped build their strength and speed as they hit the ball with
their mesquite sticks.
Lopez, who speaks both
Tohono O'odham and English, lives in a village called Big Fields, about
60 miles west of Tucson. He said about 200 people live in the village.
He came to the museum's
event held Friday to share his tribe's music and talk about his tribe
that's spread out on different reservations in Arizona.
Members from other Native
American tribes, along with the museum's staff, participated as part of
the seventh annual convention for the Society of Environment Journalists
held Oct. 2 to 5 at the University of Arizona.
At the group's request,
Lopez sings a song in Tohono O'odham called "white birds" that come
together in the sky and travel like clouds. He says the song is thought
of as "territorial" as it belongs to the Tohono O'odham people.
Farther down the path
from Lopez's ramada, a Seri couple begins to sing and dance for a group
of about 50 people.
In a blue, floor-length
skirt and white ruffled type shirt, Amalia Astorga kicks back her feet
and moves toward Adolfo Burgos while he sings a Seri song. She keeps her
eyes downcast and her body upright as she dances to the rattling sound of
Burgos' wood and tin can instruments.
"This is a right brain
experience," said SEJ's Executive Director Elizabeth "Beth" Parke. "It's
a moment to be in a place of wonder."
After a few more moments
into the performance, Astorga dances toward the audience and pulls
Christopher Basaldu, 25, in to join her. Basaldu holds Astorga's hand as
they dance in stomp-like fashion to Burgos's music.
"I wasn't expecting it,
but it was fun," said Basaldu, a University of Arizona graduate student
in the American Indian masters degree program.
Becky Moser, a missionary
linguist who has lived among the Seri tribe in El Desemboque and Punta
Chueca, Mexico, translated the couple's songs to the audience.
Besides the Native
American presentations, the museum's park and its art gallery were open
to SEJ members and other visitors.
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