Ah, the desert: 110º heat, no natural shade or water, cacti of all shapes and sizes poised to sink their spines into intruders, snakes, ants, and whatever lived down in those enormous holes...home sweet home! Like most people who did not grow up in the desert, I thought it to be a very hostile and unwelcoming; but that’s where I was wrong. After spending an evening harvesting saguaro fruit with members of the Tohono O’odham tribe, I’ve come to see the desert in a whole new light.

The desert is kind of like a gigantic dog: it may look cruel and terrifying but if you don’t threaten it and you know just where to scratch, it will love and protect you. The Tohono O’odham has spent generations learning the secrets of taming the desert. Even from a brief experience gathering fruit with the tribe, one could sense the relationship of love and respect between these people and their native desert home.

Apart from an encounter with a vicious little cholla, I was in awe of how suddenly hospitable the Tohono O’odham made the desert seem. The most fascinating thing was that the desert provided the perfect tools for surviving there; you just had to know where to look. For example, the wooden skeleton of a dead saguaro could be used not only to build shelter from the desert sun, but also as poles to knock fruit off of living saguaros. Also the hardened saguaro flower of a mature fruit had a sharp edge that worked perfectly to slice open the fruit’s casing.

This fieldtrip was an intriguing and eye opening experience. The Tohono O’odham are a fascinating culture and the desert was a gracious host, which even provided us with a tasty dinner (cholla buds, beans, tortillas and saguaro fruit syrup). It was amazing to see how humans and nature can co-exist without the influence of technology, even in such a harsh climate. I find it refreshing to know that there are still places in the world where it is possible to survive without machines.

Stephanie Hartz, UBRPer in Dr. Josephine Lai’s lab, Pharmacology