As cultural teacher Jivik Siiki puts it, the Akimel O’odham and Tohono O’odham tribes are cousins. One located in the Phoenix area, the other closer to Tucson, the two groups have shared cultural practices, language, ceremonies and much more over the millennia.
But because of the differences in the lands they lived in, there are distinctions too. The Akimel O’odham, or “river people,” had easier access to water for irrigation and could grow crops that needed more water…