Tohono O’odham

[ thuh-noh uh-thuhm; English tuh-hah-nuh oh-uh-thuhm ]

noun

1. a member of an Indigenous people closely related to the Pima and now living mainly in southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico.
2. the Uto-Aztecan language of the Tohono O’odham, closely related to Pima.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Tohono O’odham¹

An Americanism dating back to 1985–90; from Pima-Papago tóhonoʔóʔdham “desert people”

Example Sentences

Precincts in Navajo Nation ranged from 60% to 90% support for Biden, the analysis found, and some precincts in Tohono O’odham Nation reached 98%.

From Los Angeles Times

This was Due’s first piccadilly, a delicacy whose origins are debated, but can be traced to either the Navajo, the Tohono O’odham Reservation, or the Hopi village Moenkopi.

From Los Angeles Times

The Tohono O’odham Nation — along with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and Archeology Southwest — sued in January in hopes of stopping the clearing of roads and pads so more work could be done to identify culturally significant sites within a 50-mile stretch of the valley.

From Seattle Times

The Tohono O’odham Nation vowed in April to pursue all legal avenues, and environmentalists said an appeal is likely.

From Seattle Times

Tepary beans, long used by the Indigenous peoples of the Southwest but on the decline after colonization as food systems were eroded, “were among the first foods the Tohono O’odham successfully reintroduced into cultivation 20 years ago in an effort to move away from the obesity- and diabetes-inducing Western diet,” Lord and Shields write, noting that the strategy was conceived both as a public health initiative and a reclamation of identity.

From Salon