Sing Down the Rain

Article by Sandra Cosentino inspired by book:  Sing Down the Rain

Judi Moreillon captures the synergy of the ancient Tohono O'odham people of the southern Arizona desert people with their arid landscape in this lovely poem lushly illustrated by tribal member Michael Chiago.
Saguaro cactus, the magnificent sentinel of the Sonoran Desert, are considered people in cosmology of these desert dwellers with roots in this land going back thousands of years.  Each summer when the fruits come ripe, the saguaro fruit wine making ceremony occurs.  This is a community celebration of life and of rain.

Judi says, "Before 1970 the Tohono O'odham did not have a written language.  Their cultural and spiritual beliefs and history were preserved and passed down through stories, songs and orations.  In the spirit of this rich tradition, Sing Down the Rain was written to be performed orally, with different voices taking the parts of the poem."

"For us, the Desert People, the most important ceremonies are those that bring rain.  Late June, when the summer rains are due, marks the beginning of our year.  A essential part of the rain-making ceremony is the making and drinking of saguaro fruit wine.  Many Desert People live and work in Tucson and on the nearby Tohono O'odham reservations.  Each August, a few villages still practice this special ceremony."

"It was I’itoi, Creator of the Tohono O’odham, tradition says, who taught the Desert People their sacred wine ceremony so they could summon the rain (ju:k ̆i) they needed to survive. He taught them to make saguaro wine (nawait),to gather together to drink the wine and sing important songs, to “sing down the rain".

Chiago rain ceremony painting on display at Arizona Museum

The saguaro grows very slowly, taking more than 150 years to reach its full height and size, which can exceed forty feet. At age 100, the cactus may begin to grow its characteristic arms. During the summer and winter rainy seasons, the accordion-like structure of the cactus allows it to expand and retain water that can be later used during the dry months.
The cactus blooms late in the spring and is pollinated by bats.

For generations, the Tohono O’odham people have harvested saguaro fruits with long poles made of saguaro ribs. They eat the juicy fruit raw or cook it down into sweet, nutritious syrup. The dried seeds, rich in proteins and fats, can be ground into flour. The saguaro provides an abundant and important source of nutrients at a time otherwise scarce in desert food resources.

The vibrant images of the desert and of the simpler ancestor times portrayed by Mr. Chiago, evoke the spirit of place for me.  As a child of the Sonoran desert I took for granted the sun blasted light, felt the saguaros as living friends but no one told me the older stories of place.  The heritage that is inherent in the land and voiced by those with long lineage in a place, I now treasure.  In this way we today become part of the on-going weaving of the life of a Place.  Judi Moreillon feels this story in her bones and, together with Michael Chiago, take us into the Spirit of the Sonoran Desert.

Please see one of the illustrated pages here on Tohono Chul Park website.

More info:
The main reservation's land area is 11,534.012 square kilometres (4,453.307 sq mi), the third-largest Indian reservation area in the United States (after the Navajo and the Uintah and Ouray).   Sells, AZ is the headquarters. Divided into 11 districts within southern Arizona, all of the reservation is not continguous.

The Tohono O'odham enrollment office tallies a population of 25,000, with 20,000 living on its Arizona reservation lands as of year 2,000. The Tohono O'odham share linguistic and cultural roots with the closely-related Akimel O'odham (People of the River), whose lands lie just south of Phoenix, along the lower Gila River.

Most of the 25,000 Tohono O'odham today live in southern Arizona, but there is also a population of several thousand in northern Sonora, Mexico. Unlike aboriginal groups along the U.S.-Canada border, the Tohono O'odham were not given dual citizenship when a border was drawn across their lands in 1853 by the Gadsden Purchase. Even so, members of the nation moved freely across the current international boundary for decades – with the blessing of the U.S. government – to work, participate in religious ceremonies, keep medical appointments in Sells, and visit relatives.

The Tohono O'odham Nation is also the location of the Quinlan/Baboquivari Mountains, which include Kitt Peak and the Kitt Peak National Observatory, and Telescopes and Baboquivari Peak. The observatory sites are under lease from the Tohono O'odham Nation at the amount of a quarter dollar per acre yearly, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Council in the 1950s. In 2005, the Tohono O'odham Nation brought suit against the National Science Foundation to stop further construction of gamma ray detectors in the Gardens of the Sacred Tohono O'odham Spirit I'itoi, which are just below the summit.