Tohono O’odham Nation Elects New Tribal Leadership

The Tohono O’odham Nation had their tribal elections on May 25 to elect new leadership for Nation. Ned Norris, Jr. and Wavalene Saunders are the newly elected Chair and Vice Chair for the Nation. Both were sworn into office on June 14. Chairman Norris received an honorary doctorate from the University of Arizona in May 2009.  Several tribal council elections also took place throughout the Tohono O’odham Nation to elect leadership for the 11 districts. The Tohono O’odham Nation is the second largest tribe by population and geographically in Arizona with over 34,000 members and with a land base of 2.8 million acres, approximately the size of Connecticut.  President Robbins visited with the Tohono O’odham Nation leadership in fall 2018.  His visit to the Tohono O’odham Nation gave him an opportunity to learn more about the Nation’s needs and priorities, particularly in health care and education.

The University of Arizona has several successful partnerships with the Tohono O’odham Nation. Dr. Alison Meadows, Associate Research Scientist with the Institute of the Environment (IE), just completed a four-year collaboration with Dr. Selso Villegas, Director of Water Resources for Tohono O’odham Nation, to develop a climate change adaptation plan for the Nation. Drs. Villegas and Meadows, along with researchers from the IE and several graduate students, crafted a plan to address how climate change is likely to affect the Nation and which strategies could be used most effectively to reduce the negative impacts. The plan was approved by the Tohono O’odham Legislative Council in 2018, allowing for implementation by departments and agencies.  Another important collaboration focuses on cancer education.  The Native American Cancer Partnership (NACP), affiliated with the Arizona Cancer Center and Northern Arizona University, helped to create cancer education videos for patients and caregivers in the Tohono O’odham language. Thirty-two videos that cover sixteen types of cancer were made. Tohono O’odham Community Health Representatives (CHRs) and patient navigators now use the videos for community outreach events. As part of this collaboration, the Outreach Core trained eleven CHRs through 2-hour, weekly sessions over the course of eleven weeks. This has institutionalized cancer education through the Tohono O’odham Division of Health.