The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in O'odham Country

by Gary Paul Nabhan

Overview

Published more than forty years ago, The Desert Smells Like Rain remains a classic work about nature, how to respect it, and what transplants can learn from the longtime residents of the Sonoran Desert, the Tohono O’odham people.

In this work, Gary Paul Nabhan brings O’odham voices to the page at every turn. He writes elegantly of how they husband scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize edible wild foods. Woven through his account are coyote tales, O’odham children’s impressions of the desert, and observations of the political problems that come with living on both sides of an international border. Nabhan conveys the everyday life and extraordinary perseverance of these desert people.

This edition includes a new preface written by the author, in which he reflects on his gratitude for the O’odham people who shared their knowledge with him. He writes about his own heritage and connections to the desert, climate change, and the border. He shares his awe and gratitude for O’odham writers and storytellers who have been generous enough to share stories with those of us from other cultural traditions so that we may also respect and appreciate the smell of the desert after a rain.

Longtime residents of the Sonoran Desert, the Tohono O'odham people have spent centuries living off the land—a land that most modern citizens of southern Arizona consider totally inhospitable. Ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan has lived with the Tohono O'odham, long known as the Papagos, observing the delicate balance between these people and their environment. Bringing O'odham voices to the page at every turn, he writes elegantly of how they husband scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize wild edible foods. Woven through his account are coyote tales, O'odham children's impressions of the desert, and observations on the political problems that come with living on both sides of an international border. Whether visiting a sacred cave in the Baboquivari Mountains or attending a saguaro wine-drinking ceremony, Nabhan conveys the everyday life and extraordinary perseverance of these desert people in a book that has become a contemporary classic of environmental literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816534999
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	148
Sales rank:	883,278
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Gary Paul Nabhan is an Arab-American  agro-ecologist, ethnobotanis , literary naturalist and Ecumenical Franciscan Brother who lives near the US/Mexican border. His collaborations with O’odham families and pueblos on both sides of the border now span 45 years. He is the recipient of a MacArthur genius award, a Labán Literary fellowship and several other honors for his cross-cultural community-based conservation initiatives to safeguard and restore biocultural diversity, sacred places and food traditions. He holds the W.K Kellogg Chair in Borderlands Foods and Water Security at the University of Arizona Southwest Center.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 40th Anniversary Edition ix

Acknowledgments xvii

O'odham Sounds xix

The Desert Smells like Rain: An Overture 1

1 On the Trail of I'itoi-A Pilgrimage into the Baboquivari Mountains 11

2 Throwing Up the Clouds-Cactus Wine, Vomit, and Rain 23

3 What Do You Do When the Rain is Dying? 39

4 Changos del Desierto-Growing Up on the Reservation 49

5 Raising Hell as Well as Wheat-Papago Indians Burying the Borderline 65

6 Plants Which Coyote Steals, Spoils, and Shits On 75

7 Where the Birds Are Our Friends-The Tale of Two Oases 87

8 Gathering 99

9 Given Over to Santos and Spices-Magdalena's Fiesta 111

10 You Make the Earth Good by Your Work 121

Notes 131

Editorial Reviews

Nabhan’s point is that we transplanted desert dwellers have a great deal to learn from longtime, environmentally conscious inhabitants if we are not to destroy our fragile home. . . . A remarkably humane essay on nature and respect for it.”—Bloomsbury Review

“The Desert Smells Like Rain offers a remarkable insight, sensitive but unsentimental, combining the sound perceptions of a scientist with ecological concerns, matching humor and a sense of human frailty with tentative hope for the future.”—High Country News

“His eyes are those of a scientist, his prose and vision a poet’s: spare, evocative, respectful of both facts and mysteries.”—Orion Nature Quarterly

“People often find science boring and ill written. Not in this book. Here the reader is lured into botany, ethnology, hydrology, and a couple of million acres by vivid writing, good pictures, and a beautifully produced book. . . . Anyone ignorant of the desert should begin their cure here.”—Tucson Citizen

“The humor, spice, charm, insight, and compassion with which Gary Paul Nabhan weaves his tale make for enjoyable reading.”—Rio Grande Sun

From the Publisher