♪ Happen all my life
♪ It's time to let them show
♪ And all the things I wanted
♪ And all the dreams I hoped for ♪
♪ Ooh
- [Tanisha] This is paradise.
This is a beautiful place
and with the high temperatures you know,
people get real frustrated with that
but embrace the heat
because the Saguaro doesn't prosper without the high heat.
The Saguaro shows us about our own resilience.
It shows us how we can survive.
Okay.
(indistinct conversations)
- The bahidaj needs very hot sun
So if the weather is not that hot
that doesn't help with the process of riping.
(melancholy music)
- It's a new year, new beginning for our tribe.
- This starts the harvesting calendar for us.
You give a blessing to start your harvest.
You're thankful, you appreciate creator.
We're always taught you open the fruit,
you put it on your heart,
you put it on your head
and you just say thank you for the fruit,
for this harvest,
you're starting off with that harvest that way.
(melancholy music)
I've been coming out here
since I was about seven years old
and I came out for the first time with my mom,
she brought me out.
She was coming out to help pick and of course
I was too young at that time
so she left me here with my grandma Juana.
I didn't wanna stay,
I wanted to go with her so I kind of cried
and then she went off picking
and I helped my grandma Juana around here
and she was processing,
she was doing some baskets at the time.
My mom showed up later and I calmed down
and that was the beginning of me
learning a lot about the harvest.
- You can see from far away sometimes,
once your eyes are real accustomed
to knowing how the crown looks
you can tell which ones are open
you can tell which ones are not open yet.
- Wow, that one has a lot
(scraping)
It's not about taking a lot
or trying to pick every Saguaro
There's some Saguaros we never get to pick
and that's totally fine.
We just take as much as needed
and try to give back as much as we can to them.
(scraping)
- [Maria] Every osha is like family you know,
some are partnered for life
and some have many families.
You'll see a young one right next to one
that's going, you know, going down
and becoming one with the earth again.
- [Tanisha] As O'odham people,
we've always looked at the Saguaros as people,
they're humans.
so they represent families and our family.
I remember when I was younger,
I had a friend and she used
to tell her secrets to the osha.
just to have something to confide in,
she would go to the osha and she would talk to it
and tell her, her secrets.
It's very sacred to us.
We have great respect for them.
- [Maria] When you're the bucket holder,
yeah, you get hit in the head
you get hit in the face,
you know, you're walking around with seeds
in your face and yes.
- [Tanisha] I was told my grandma Juana was able to catch
with one hand and pick with the other.
Oh, sorry, Maria.
- [Maria] Okay
- [Tanisha] What we use is the clipper.
It's usually put together by wire
and that's done before the harvest starts.
- Oh, that one (laughing)
- [Tanisha] If it's red and it's closed,
we'll take that knife and we'll open it.
(Violin Music)
We leave the pods face up,
so they're asking Creator to bring rain.
And you leave those pods next to the saguaro.
That's to say thank you,
thank you for the fruit.
- Even when I'm picking, thank you.
I say thank you for giving to my family,
thank you for being here.
That's what I'm taught,
that's what my family has taught me.
Is to honor the osha like that.
(pod cracking)
- Last year was the first year
I was out here without my mom.
I was a little scared, a little nervous
but once I got here I realized
no, we've been doing this for so long.
The family was here,
I just had a lot of support,
a lot of help and I felt very sturdy,
I felt very strong and grounded.
- This saguaro is (indistinct)
Almost half a bucket!
- [Tanisha] She loved being out here.
People looked up to her
and they sought after her knowledge.
So, just being her daughter I appreciated that.
- They probably wonder why is mom doing this you know,
out there in the heat all the time for three weeks.
(chuckles)
But it plays a big role in our lives,
because this is our home.
We were raised here.
- I called her 'mom'
in O'odham it's je'e.
And when she was really being fussy
I call her Stella.
(laughs)
She didn't like that though.
We have a gentleman who rode by on a motorcycle
and you'd here him say "Stella!" he drove by.
(laughs)
And his name was Bobby Jack,
she'd go "Bobby Jack!"
and then he's driving by.
(laughs)
So yes, everybody said that name.
(soft music)
- My aunt Stella and I were out
and I just remember her and I
were harvesting this osha
and then we there all of a sudden she says
"Run!" And I say "What?"
she said "The bees!"
and all these bees came out of this tree
and we were running and running
and we ran as far as we could.
But you know, it was scary at the time
but it was funny afterwards.
They didn't chase us but yeah.
I feel her all the time
and I know she's around
and I know she's watching us.
You know she told us,
" I want you and Tanisha to continue to do this."
As she got older and she wasn't well she said it more
and I was telling Tanisha
if we're not out here I'm scared
because she'd probably come and hunt us down,
you know, remember when I told you you need to be out there.
Having the first fruit when you're out there
you know it's seasonal.
You don't get that through out the year
and just to open up first fruit and taste.
It it still tastes the same,
all the juice you know the seeds.
Yeah, so I think that's my favorite part.
(water pouring)
We make syrup and jam for our families.
- That should be enough water.
- Yeah this should be good.
- I love the color, the bahidaj has such a beautiful color.
When it's cooking, I love the smell.
Sometimes when you look at it you can see that purplish
and then some times you see that dark real red.
It's very beautiful.
You can put it on pancake, ice cream,
I've seen it on goat cheese,
it's got a very smokey flavor to it
and that's from the that we cook it over.
This is something that we've been doing
hundreds and hundreds of years
and just like a language it dies when you don't speak it.
This is the same thing, this is our tradition
and if it is not being taught
or it's not being done,
it also can die.
Just as my mom taught us
because she was gonna get old one day
and she wasn't gonna be able to harvest,
she wanted to us to know so that we could continue
and also pick for her and continue to cook the syrup.
You know, one day we'll be elders
and we won't be able to pick
and there will be young ones here to pick for us.