Here's a great video about traditional O'odham agricultural techniques being used in AZ today. I got this from Southwestern Archaeology Today.
A few comments:
1) The intro to the video is very interesting - full of the ecologically noble savage stereotype, but since this appears to be a project created by Native Americans, should the stereotype be considered degrading or empowering? Can a stereotype ever be empowering?
2) Unless I'm mis-hearing or misunderstanding the narrator, he calls the farmers in this video Navajos.
3) The reporter on the scene talks about this type of agriculture as working with nature. It is, of course, but it's also creating nature. The potential to transform the landscape with these types of agricultural features is astounding. Imagine what the Salt River basin must have looked like at the height of the Hohokam Classic period, with the floodplain irrigated and the hills on all sides full of terracing and rock-pile fields. "Natural"? Well, no, but a highly efficient and sustainable adaptation to the environment.
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