VIII. PIMAN INDIANS OF THE SONORAN DESERT
501
list of these plants, many of them important food sources for Homo
sapiens, is given by Shreve (Shreve and Wiggins, 1964, pp. 136-42). Lists
of the remainder of the plants, including data on their distributions, can
be found in Shreve and Wiggins (1964), Benson (1950), Benson and Darrow (1944), Kearney and Peebles (1960), and Simmons (1966).
d. Water. More or less permanent sources of water in western Pimeria
Alta are few and far between. The only "permanently flowing" stream in
the entire region, excluding the boundary-defining Lower Gila and Colorado rivers, is the Sonoyta River in northwestern Sonora. To be more precise, the Colorado River is the sole permanent stream; both the Lower
Gila and Sonoyta rivers are intermittent, flowing after rains, and interrupted, flowing over short lengths of their courses all year long.
The Sonoyta's water is provided by drainage from the Baboquivari and
Quijotoa valleys coming across the Great Plain in ephemeral streams to
join with similar ephemeral streams in Sonora, all emptying into the
Sonoyta bed. Earlier in this century, the channel was dry except after
floods and in the immediate neighborhood of Sonoita, Sonora, where a
clear stream | meter deep and 4 meters wide managed to flow (Bryan,
1925, pp. 119-120). Downstream from Sonoita, at Agua Salada, Agua
Dulce, and El Carrizal, water could easily be found by digging in the channel. El Carrizal, in fact, had surface water in the early 18th century (Ives,
1964a, pp. 60-62). Even today much of the Sonoyta River Valley is a
green, irrigated belt across an otherwise brown and forbidding-looking
desert floor.
Besides ephemeral streams, the most important of which are San Cristobal Wash and Growler Wash, surface water in western Pimeria Alta,
discounting modern wells and represos made possible by industrial technology, is found in the form of springs, lakes and ponds, charcos, and
rock tanks. There is a pond about 150 meters in diameter at Susuta,
Sonora, 3 km south of the international boundary and at the eastern edge
of western Pimeria. There is another at Laguna Prieta in the Gran
Desierto. A pond occasionally forms at Las Playas, a normally dry lake bed
in the southern portion of the Cabeza Prieta Game Range. All these water
sources depend on immediate rainfall (Bryan, 1925, pp. 121 and 335;
Lumholtz, 1912, p. 246; Powell, 1966, pp. 67-69).
Charcos, which are defined here as natural water holes in adobe (clay)
flats and washes, also depend on rainfall and ephemeral streamflow for
their water. They occur sporadically in this dry western region.
Both fracture and fault springs give rise to the most reliable, year round
water sources in Pimeria. In the west, these include Agua Dulce Spring,
a fracture spring on the southern slope of the Agua Dulce Mountains in
Arizona; Quitobaquito, a fault spring in Organ Pipe National Monument
501
list of these plants, many of them important food sources for Homo
sapiens, is given by Shreve (Shreve and Wiggins, 1964, pp. 136-42). Lists
of the remainder of the plants, including data on their distributions, can
be found in Shreve and Wiggins (1964), Benson (1950), Benson and Darrow (1944), Kearney and Peebles (1960), and Simmons (1966).
d. Water. More or less permanent sources of water in western Pimeria
Alta are few and far between. The only "permanently flowing" stream in
the entire region, excluding the boundary-defining Lower Gila and Colorado rivers, is the Sonoyta River in northwestern Sonora. To be more precise, the Colorado River is the sole permanent stream; both the Lower
Gila and Sonoyta rivers are intermittent, flowing after rains, and interrupted, flowing over short lengths of their courses all year long.
The Sonoyta's water is provided by drainage from the Baboquivari and
Quijotoa valleys coming across the Great Plain in ephemeral streams to
join with similar ephemeral streams in Sonora, all emptying into the
Sonoyta bed. Earlier in this century, the channel was dry except after
floods and in the immediate neighborhood of Sonoita, Sonora, where a
clear stream | meter deep and 4 meters wide managed to flow (Bryan,
1925, pp. 119-120). Downstream from Sonoita, at Agua Salada, Agua
Dulce, and El Carrizal, water could easily be found by digging in the channel. El Carrizal, in fact, had surface water in the early 18th century (Ives,
1964a, pp. 60-62). Even today much of the Sonoyta River Valley is a
green, irrigated belt across an otherwise brown and forbidding-looking
desert floor.
Besides ephemeral streams, the most important of which are San Cristobal Wash and Growler Wash, surface water in western Pimeria Alta,
discounting modern wells and represos made possible by industrial technology, is found in the form of springs, lakes and ponds, charcos, and
rock tanks. There is a pond about 150 meters in diameter at Susuta,
Sonora, 3 km south of the international boundary and at the eastern edge
of western Pimeria. There is another at Laguna Prieta in the Gran
Desierto. A pond occasionally forms at Las Playas, a normally dry lake bed
in the southern portion of the Cabeza Prieta Game Range. All these water
sources depend on immediate rainfall (Bryan, 1925, pp. 121 and 335;
Lumholtz, 1912, p. 246; Powell, 1966, pp. 67-69).
Charcos, which are defined here as natural water holes in adobe (clay)
flats and washes, also depend on rainfall and ephemeral streamflow for
their water. They occur sporadically in this dry western region.
Both fracture and fault springs give rise to the most reliable, year round
water sources in Pimeria. In the west, these include Agua Dulce Spring,
a fracture spring on the southern slope of the Agua Dulce Mountains in
Arizona; Quitobaquito, a fault spring in Organ Pipe National Monument