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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Like most people, before I lived here I figured Arizona was one big desert 
with a big ditch at the upper-left corner. Truth be told, the Hohokam and 
other tribes farmed successfully long before white man showed up and 
elbowed them aside. Chris and I recently visited Casa Grande, the remains 
of a once-thriving civilization south of Phoenix.

 http://www.nps.gov/cagr/

A clever system of dams, canals and levees allowed what we might call 
community homesteading. Phoenix was founded by settlers who found and 
rebuilt some the of original canals. Now, in an historic water rights 
settlement, Arizona's Native Americans can replant the desert.

Contrary to the cliche expressed in this article, white man did not 
dispossess Native Americans here. They had largely left--at least the large 
populations had disappeared--before Europeans arrived. The Anasazi of Mesa 
Verde and the Hohokam of Casa Grande left, I speculate, because continued 
irrigation raises the level of certain minerals in the soil, resulting in 
gradually diminishing returns. I know Missouri homesteaders who have the 
same challenge. Using well water over decades has been like over-liming the 
soil.


Water deal allows Gila tribe to renew tradition of farming

Judy Nichols
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 19, 2005 12:00 AM

Thousands of years ago, Native Americans were growing corn, beans and 
squash along the banks of the Gila and Salt rivers, thick with cottonwoods 
and creosote, bears and beavers.

Then White settlers came and took the water, building dams upstream, 
leaving sandy, dry expanses in place of the rivers.

This year, with approval of the Arizona Water Settlement Act, the most 
far-reaching Indian water settlement in U.S. history, the 20,000-member 
Gila River Indian Community will have enough water to make its riverbanks 
lush again with crops.

It will mean more tribal members once again carving a livelihood from the 
land.

"It's not full circle," said Enrique Salmon, a Tarahumara Indian who is a 
national expert on biodiversity with the Christensen Fund in California. 
"There's no way to go back to what was going on before. But it's 
three-quarter circle.

"At least there's farming going on. They are connecting to the landscape in 
a way they haven't in 100 years."

Gila River Farms, the community's agricultural entity, plans to nearly 
double the 16,000 acres it tills, putting as many acres into production 
each year as it can. The tribes of Arizona, including the Pima and Maricopa 
on the Gila River Reservation, are unusual in the United States, 
controlling large reservations with tillable land. Gila River has more than 
372,000 acres about 30 miles south of Phoenix.

"There's 146,000 acres of agricultural land out here that could be put to 
use," said Robert Stone, the farm's general manager.

The rest of the story is at:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0119gilafarm19.html