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Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / For over a century, Pima Indians living just south of Phoenix, Arizona on the Gila River Indian Reservation have suffered from an epidemic of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Over half of the Pima population living on the reservation is diagnosed with diabetes while the socioeconomic conditions of the tribal community are in an unstable and dilapidated state (Unnatural Causes 2008). Fifty percent of the Pimas living on the Gila River Indian Community live below the poverty level (Unnatural Causes 2008). Displacement from traditional customs and neglect from the U.S. federal government are just some of the detrimental impacts the people have faced over the last century (Unnatural Causes 2008). The discussions within this paper will attempt to address how and why the Pima Indians have experienced such severe changes in lifestyle and economy over the last century and what affect this has had on the physical health of the people in the community. By addressing these overarching issues, one should find that socioeconomics and conditions of physical health are strongly connected. Looking even closer though, specifically at the epidemic of type 2 diabetes and the contributing risk factors that this population suffers from, one will begin to question how within just a matter of 3 decades the number of diagnosed cases of type 2 diabetes doubled among the Pima and how the rates are some of the highest recorded in the entire world. Moreover, the underlying issue is not simply a cause of poor diet, change in activity levels and unfavorable genetics, rather - being robbed of a critical natural resource, forced to adapt to unfavorable economic changes and in the end, the U.S. government failure to intervene – are truly the underlying causes that have impacted the health of the Pima Indians of Southern Arizona. The Pimas are people of their natural environment. Having a long history of living along the Gila River, the Pima were water irrigation engineers (Unnatural Causes 2008). Cultivating local crops, living off the land and providing for themselves using waters of the Gila River in an arid climate is as much a part of their culture as is their ancestral bloodline. The research presented in these discussions will look at the identical ancestry of Pima Indians living in Southwestern Sonora, Mexico in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Maycoba in order to evaluate the Pima tribe’s predisposition to the disease. The significance of looking at these groups is that their genetic history is the same based upon linguistic and genealogy studies (Schulz, Bennett, Ravussin, Kidd, Kidd, Esparza, Valencia, 2006). However, the Pima living in Sonora have not seen the same ever-increasing rates of type 2 diabetes or even obesity, as their northern counterparts have. Notably, the Mexican Pima have not experienced the same environmental changes (i.e. drought) either. Subsequently, the Pima of Sonora have been able to continue their traditional ways of life including subsistence farming and healthy diet and exercise. A historical background of the Arizona Pimas will be provided, from their cultural traditions as irrigation engineers to their participation in federal subsidy programs and their current economic state. In-depth historical accounts will also be made for the history of water law in the Southwestern United States, including what drove white settlers’ demand for water west of the Mississippi over the course of two centuries, to the attempts to mitigate the severity of drought on Native American reservations through multiple legislative acts. Information regarding the Mexican Pima’s current economy, levels of physical activity and typical diet will be presented in comparison to the present health and economic conditions of the Arizona Pima.

A sequence of Older Precambrian volcanic and sedimentary rocks more than 15,000 feet thick occurs in the Blackjack Mountains and White Ledges, 20 miles north of Globe, Arizona. This sequence consists of (from older to younger) the Redmond formation (acidic volcanic rocks) and the Hess Canyon group (clastic sedimentary rocks). The Hess Canyon group is subdivided into: the White Ledges formation (interbedded quartzites and argillaceous rocks); the Yankee Joe formation (argillaceous strata with interbedded graywackes and arkoses); and the Blackjack formation (argillaceous quartzites). These rocks have been intruded by the Ruin Granite (a porphyritic quartz monzonite) and subsequently eroded to approximately the present level of exposure prior to the deposition of the Younger Precambrian Apache Group. The unconformity between the Older and Younger Precambrian strata is well exposed at Butte Creek north of Haystack Butte. Diabase has intruded the Blackjack formation, the Ruin Granite and the Apache Group. No Paleozoic or Mesozoic rocks are known to occur within the surveyed area. Sediments and volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Tertiary and Quaternary age partly conceal the older rocks. The Hess Canyon group can be correlated with the Deadman Quartzite, Maverick Shale, and Mazatzal Quartzite of the Mazatzal Mountains (Wilson 1939a) and also the Houden Formation of the Diamond Butte Quadrangle (Gastil 1958). Whole rock Rb-Sr dating indicates an age of 1,510 ± m.y. for the Redmond formation. Isotopic dating of the Ruin Granite near the Blackjack Mountains and of the granitic rocks intruded the Mazatzal Quartzite of Four Peaks in the southern Mazatzal Mountains indicates that the Mazatzal Orogeny (the Mazatzal Revolution of Wilson, 1939a) occurred 1,425 to 1,380 m.y. ago in central Arizona. This orogeny followed the deposition of the Mazatzal Quartzite and the Hess Canyon group, terminating older Precambrian time in Arizona and was followed by the deposition of the Younger Precambrian Apache Group. Isotopic dating of volcanic metamorphic and plutonic rocks in the Pinal and Tortilla Mountains and near Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River indicate that portions of the Pinal Schist in the type locality are greater than 1,730 m.y. old and that these rocks have experienced a complex series of events in Older Precambrian times. The Madera Diorite of Ransome (1903) consists of rocks 1,730 ± 30 m.y. old as well as rocks about 1,500 m.y. old. The Older Precambrian igneous rocks in this part of Arizona appear to have developed from material similar in Rb to Sr ratio to average shallow continental crust. These rocks formed during the interval 1,730 to 1,370 m.y. ago. The continental crust in this region probably originated no earlier than about 1,800 m.y. ago. Igneous rocks younger than 1,370 m.y. have not been derived soley from average shallow crustal material.

An unstable slope in an open-pit copper mine in Arizona was analyzed after a 250,000-ton slope failure had occurred. Data on all available time-dependent hydrogeologic factors were analyzed utilizing multiple regression techniques in order to build a mathematical model of the slide displacement. This allowed determination of those factors which were most influential in promoting instability. It was determined that a ground-water rise of approximately one foot, and rainfall in the week prior to the failure, were the most important factors contributing to this particular slide. This is believed to be due primarily to an increase in cleft-water, or hydrostatic, pressure, with seepage forces contributing a significant but relatively constant shear component. Because instability was observed to extend beyond the original slope failure, a dewatering analysis was undertaken. A steady-state finite element flow system model series was developed by progressively incorporating subsurface information, as well as water table location. The ground-water flow system within the granitic host rock was then simulated as a continuum, and a flow net derived. Analysis of this flow net, combined with known ground-water discharge into the open pit, comprised the basis to estimate the coefficient of permeability to be approximately 4 gallons/day/foot². This value was then utilized in a preliminary dewatering analysis incorporating standard aquifer equations to predict possible drawdowns. The computed drawdowns suggest that pumping rates on the order of 10 gallons/minute/well from a line of 12 wells spaced 50 feet apart would produce approximately 100 feet of drawdown after 1 year of pumping. Results of stability analyses for various ground-water levels indicated that when the water table is lowered by dewatering, a steeper slope could be maintained in the open pit. Such steepening could be as much as 1° when the water table is lowered one-half to one-quarter the height of the slope (135 feet), and approximately 4½° when the slope area is completely drained.

At one time before European contact Indigenous groups flourished on the American continent and maintained their ideas of conveying knowledge, history, and beliefs through the oral tradition. It is widely concluded that hundreds of Native languages were spoken to convey the aspects related above, which were unique and specific to each individual tribe. With the colonization of the American continent by European peoples, came the beginning of the end of the Indian way of life. Because of this reality and circumstances that were yet to be endured by Indigenous groups, the destruction of many Native languages also occurred over time. Presently, only a few hundred Indigenous languages have survived. In the effort at preserving some of the remaining Indigenous languages, writing systems which often have a foundation in non-Native higher academia have been developed for some; O'odham being one. This paper examines developing a more grassroots O'odham writing system.

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Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology and Water Resources)--University of Arizona, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-99).