Tohono O'odham Nation

Background

O'odham bands are now broken up into four federally recognized tribes, the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Gila River Indian Community, the Ak-Chin Indian Community and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, with a fifth, the Hia-C'ed O'odham, not federally recognized. All of the groups still speak O'odham, a Uto-Aztecan language whose dialects vary by group. The land base the O'odham inhabited is the Papagueria, running south into Sonora, north past Phoenix, west to the Gulf of California and east to the San Pedro River. The 1853 Gadsden Purchase divided it almost in half between the United States and Mexico, and about nine O'odham communities in Mexico now lie near the southern edge of the Nation, some separated from it only by the border. The Nation is made up of eleven districts, each with a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary and treasurer, and its districts page gives a population distribution as of fall 2016. Its Venito Garcia O'ohana Ki library is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., issues library cards and gives reference and research help.

Visit and learn

Tohono O'odham Nation's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Saguaro National Park

The Nation traces itself to the Hohokam who settled along the Salt, Gila and Santa Cruz Rivers and dug canal systems to water cotton, tobacco, corn, beans and squash. It says O'odham land once ran from Sonora in the south to just north of Phoenix, a country the Nation calls the Papagueria, and that the 1853 Gadsden Purchase cut that land almost in half. Source

Programs

• Venito Garcia O'ohana Ki

  The Nation's library, open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for reading advisory and reference assistance, which the page says includes homework help and information literacy skills building, alongside children's learning and homework databases, e-books, audiobooks and streaming media. The reference desk takes reservations at (520) 383-5756.

  https://www.tonation-nsn.gov/departments/education/venito-garcia-library/·education

Sources

• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-30/html/2026-01899.htm
• https://www.tonation-nsn.gov/about-tohono-oodham-nation/history-culture/
• https://www.tonation-nsn.gov/about-tohono-oodham-nation/districts/
• https://www.tonation-nsn.gov/departments/education/venito-garcia-library/

Checked September 2026.

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