Benjamin Davis

Benjamin Davis describes his relationship with O’odham traditional foods as one that is still growing.

Much of what he has learned about harvesting and desert foods did not necessarily begin at home. Instead, that knowledge came through the community, from people who invited him onto the land, showed him how to harvest and shared teachings passed down to them.

“My own story with traditional foods and O’odham foods is still being written,” Benjamin said.

Born and raised in Tucson, Benjamin is from the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Food was an important part of his upbringing, though he makes a distinction between the foods he grew up eating and traditional foods harvested from the desert.

Squash, beans and red chile were staples in his household. When he thinks of a meal that reminds him of home, he thinks of a feast plate: red chile, squash and cheese, beef, beans, cemait and yeast bread.

“Anything you get at a feast house is what I would consider closest to home,” he said.

Foods like bahidaj and cholla buds entered Benjamin’s life differently. While his family maintained connections to O’odham language and feast traditions, many of his experiences harvesting desert foods came through community events.

“I feel like my experience with traditional foods like bahidaj and cholla buds has always been in a greater community,” Benjamin said. “It’s been more rooted in the community.”

“It’s not necessarily something I would have gotten from my family,” he continued, “but I got it from people in my community that I could turn to.”

Some of those lessons came while harvesting bahidaj.

Benjamin learned that gathering the fruit involves more than picking what is ready. Teachings are carried throughout the harvest, including the relationship between bahidaj and rain.

One teaching that stayed with him was that the rain loves the color red. After the pulp is removed, the opened skin of the bahidaj is left facing toward the sky, exposing its red interior.

“Everything we do associated with the bahidaj is to attract rain,” Benjamin said.

With a background in environmental studies, Benjamin is familiar with conversations surrounding drought and environmental change in southern Arizona. These teachings have given him another way to understand the desert and his responsibility to it.

That responsibility also shows up in how food is gathered.

When harvesting, Benjamin said, people learn not to take everything. They learn what should be left for animals, what should remain on the land and how to avoid overharvesting.

“There’s a balance to everything that we do,” he said.

That balance extends to the knowledge surrounding harvesting. Good gathering places, Benjamin explained, are often kept within families and communities who know and care for those areas.

For him, caring for that knowledge also means caring for the places where these foods continue to grow.

Looking ahead, Benjamin sees a growing interest among younger O’odham people in learning language, culture and traditions. He hopes traditional foods can be part of that continued learning.

“My grandma did this, her mom did this, her grandma did this,” Benjamin said. “It’s really just like we’re walking in their footsteps.”

It is a connection Benjamin wants to strengthen in his own life, too. He hopes to spend more time harvesting, learn more about cultivating desert foods and bring more of those foods onto his own plate.

The people who have taken him harvesting and shared their knowledge with him remain an important part of that journey. For Benjamin, food carries memories of the people who taught him, the people he shares it with and the land it comes from.

“This desert has always sustained us and our people,” Benjamin said.

His relationship with O’odham foods is still being written. But with each opportunity to harvest, learn and share, Benjamin is finding where he fits within that story.