Fifty miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, Baboquivari Peak is arguably the most sacred place to the Tohono O’odham people. Today, it is on the Baboquivari Peak wilderness, a 2,065-acre area overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. The peak itself is 7,730 feet high and is a popular site for many climbers and tourists.1Vertx, “Baboquivari Peak,” summitpost.org, (blog), 2020, https://www.summitpost.org/baboquivari-peak/150187. It is also the very center of the Tohono O’odham cosmology and the home of the creator, Man in the Maze or Elder Brother.2“Tohono O’odham (Native Americans of the Southwest),” what-when-how: In Depth Tutorials and Information, The-Crankshaft Publishing, accessed July 21, 2020, http://what-when-how.com/native-americans/tohono-oodham-native-americans-of-the-southwest/.
The Man in the Maze is one of the three original beings in the Tohono O’odham cosmology and the creator of humans. During their creation, the Man in the Maze instructed the Tohono O’odham to remain in the desert and always live there. He now continues to watch over the Tohono O’odham from the center of the Tohono O’odham world.3“Tohono O’odham Religious Area Restoration Act,” H.R.4119, 105th Cong. (October 6, 1998), https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/4119/text. Finding number four of the 1998 Tohono O’odham Religious Area Restoration Act states:
the immemorial tradition and belief of the Tohono O’odham people establishes the Baboquivari Peak and Mountain of southwestern Arizona as the center of Mother Earth and the dwelling place of I’itoi, the Creator, and holds that desecration of the mountain will lead to the destruction and end of the universe and the O’odham people.
Text of Tohono O’odham Religious Area Restoration Act Bill (H.R.4119)4“Tohono O’odham Religious Area Restoration Act,” H.R.4119, 105th Cong. (October 6, 1998), https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/4119/text.
The Tohono O’odham want to claim Baboquivari Peak in order to care for the land and to be able to conduct religious activity as they wish.
