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5d ago

Tohono O’odham Youth Lead Annual Saguaro Fruit Harvest

Younger Tohono O’odham are revitalizing ancestral fruit harvesting practices to secure cultural traditions for future generations

Saguaro cactus fruit juice cools after boiling it into a syrup on a harvest day for the Tohono Oʼodham people in Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Ariz., on Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Clayborne Thomas, of the Tohono Oʼodham nation, catches a fruit harvested from a saguaro cactus in Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Maria Francisco, right, and Tanisha Tucker Lohse laugh as they cook and can saguaro cactus fruit on a harvest day for the Tohono Oʼodham people in Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Ariz., on Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
As crushed fruit from the Saguaro cactus harvest dries, The Rev. Aro Varnabas leads the St. John the Baptist's feast day Mass in Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Overview

  • Early July teams are harvesting bahidaj fruit across desert camps using 10-foot saguaro-rib sticks and buckets.
  • Harvesters boil the pink pulp into syrup and ferment a portion into wine for Nawait I’i ceremonies invoking monsoon rains.
  • Traditional stewardship guides the process, with pickers never stripping cacti completely to safeguard saguaro populations.
  • Increased youth participation has become central to teaching O’odham language, rituals and desert land stewardship.
  • Descendants of 1960s advocate Juanita Ahil maintain access to ancestral camps and collaborate with co-op farms to restore heirloom crops.