Daniel Lopez serves as Community Food System Coordinator for Tohono O'odham Community Action (TOCA). He was born and still lives in Ge Oidag (Big Fields), one of the most traditional villages on the Tohono O'odham Nation. For more than 20 years, he has dedicated himself to preserving and rejuvenating the O'odham Himdag - Desert People's Way. A certified primary school teacher, Mr. Lopez has taught O'odham language and culture to hundreds of children at Topawa Middle School and Indian Oasis Primary School. He is one of the community's most gifted and respected storytellers and singers. He has been a contributed to several books on Tohono O'odham culture, including Of Earth and Little Rain, South Corner of Time, and Sing Down the Rain. He also hosts the "Desert Voices" bilingual radio program on KUAT radio in Tucson. Mr. Lopez has earned a Masters Degree in Language Preservation.

Mr. Lopez coordinates TOCA's efforts to redevelop the traditional Tohono O'odham food system, thereby 1) combating extremely high rates of adult-onset diabetes among the O'odham, 2) rejuvenating elements of traditional Tohono O'odham culture based in the food system, and 3) helping increase self-sufficiency within one of the poorest communities in the United States.

6.6.01 Gary Popplewell asked:
Have you developed a cookbook of traditional tribal desert foods? If so, how can I secure a copy?

Sincerely, Gary Popplewell

Lopez's response:
Tohono O'odham Community Action (TOCA) will be developing a printed and video guide to traditional O'odham foods over the next year. Until then, there are a few cookbooks about traditional foods. They include:

"American Indian Food and Lore," by Carolyn Niethammer
"Fruits of the Desert," by Sandra English
"Gathering the Desert," by Gary Paul Nabhan

6.6.01 Catherine Gilman asked:
Hi, Mr. Lopez,
Many thanks for all you do here in Tucson. I live in Picture Rocks surrounded by 4 acres of harvestable desert food! But are there local stores where I could buy the foods shown in the TV show tonight? It's not just that my cholla buds are not in season year round - let's face it - I need help from experts. Are there books you would recommend for preparing the dishes shown?

Lopez's response:
The desert foods that were shown on "Scientific American Frontiers" were just from the Tohono O'odham desert. TOCA and other programs gather cholla buds during April for their own use. TOCA will use their cholla buds for program events.

There are no stores in Tucson that sell the desert foods. Individuals also sell cholla buds here in Sells, but that only happens in April. More organizations and families have to go out and gather the cholla next April. Like gathering other desert foods, it is time consuming, but well worth the effort.

Contact Glen McCreedy at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum for information the Saguro fruit harvest dates on June 16, 21 and 23, 2001, as well as other events.

6.6.01 Jose L. Gonzales asked:
Is it possible to visit you and your people to learn first hand on how to find, prepare and preserve the native dessert foods? And are these foods found through out the southwest? Is your native diet mostly vegetarian?

Lopez's response:
It is possible to visit the people to learn about the desert foods when they are in season. I think some of the plants are found in other deserts but they may be of a different variety. The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson does public programs for cholla bud harvesting in April and Saguaro fruit harvesting in June. The dates for the saguaro fruit harvest are June 16, 21, 23, 2001.

The Tohono O'odham diet has never been a vegetarian diet. The people hunted the deer, mountain sheep, javelina, rabbits and pack rats.

6.6.01 Wendy asked:
The foods featured on your program looked delicious. Sir, I commend you on preserving your heritage. I lost my family recipes with my grandmother's passing many years ago. Are there any farms that export these desert foods? Some of us can't get to the desert. Or, is there way to grow those plants in hot and muggy Atlanta Georgia ?

Lopez's response:
There are no farms that grow the desert foods that were shown on television. Many just grow wild in the desert. Others were traditionally grown in the fields. TOCA is planning to start a farm to grow traditional foods for use in the Tohono O'odham community. I do not think it would be possible to grow the desert plants in the Georgia climate. They need a hot, dry climate.

6.6.01 Richard Holdeman:
I live in extreme SW Utah in a development named Kayenta, a desert community integrated into the land rather than perched on it. As we have almost all the desert plants you have there, we are very interested in whether you might have documented information available on which plants to gather, when, and how to prepare and use them. Thank you for serving native people so well in such an important area.

Lopez's response:
We are just now trying to document these desert foods. Our program in very small (seven staff members) so we just do what we can here and there with the many things we have to work on.

6.6.01 Judy Cardenas:
The desert foods sound wonderful, but I don't live there. Where can I get these foods?

Lopez's response:
Right now, it is very hard to get the desert foods on the market because it is time consuming and not enough people do the harvesting. The foods that are collected and grown are used by the local people to combat diabetes.