The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is giving its more than 11,000 members at least seven new name options to choose from. Depending on their input, they could shorten or lengthen its already long moniker.
The Valley-based tribe has posted audio recordings with explanations — both for and against — each proposed option on a new website. But no action is supposed to be taken by the council until next year. The new names under consideration are meant to help preserve O’odham and Piipaash languages.
One option is to leave the name as is.
Other alternatives seek to replace the phrase “community” with “nation” to reflect the tribe’s sovereignty. While another variation — “Onk Akimel O’odham c Xalychidom Piipaash Jeveḍ” — adds the O’odham word for land: jeved.
One of its sister Four Southern Tribes, the Tohono O’odham Nation, was once called the Papagos, a derogatory Spanish word linked to tepary beans.
The tribe officially changed its name in 1986.
More recently, lawmakers in Window Rock mulled over letting Navajo voters possibly replace the tribe’s name as part of a November referendum. But that bill failed.
-
For 16 years, visitors could sleep in a suite inside a giant cave near the Grand Canyon. Now, it's being dismantled. -
It’s been nearly three years since Arizona’s state government was rocked by a massive Medicaid fraud scandal that cost an unprecedented $2.5 billion — and left countless Indigenous people without the help they need. -
This time around, the festival is tied to funding from a Smithsonian initiative where each state is responsible for hosting a single folklife event this year, in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. -
The Bureau of Land Management oversees more than 12 million acres within Arizona alone. And much like the rest of the West, it’s filled with public lands making up federally protected national monuments that hold unique value for tribes. -
A judge signed a court order Friday allowing the Coolidge High School boys basketball team to participate in post-season play. Poor behavior at a recent playoff game previously resulted in the entire athletic department being put on year-long probation.
