ABSTRACT
Pascua Pueblo (New Pascua) is southwest of Tucson in the Arizona desert, not far from the airport. Soon after turning south off Valencia Road on to Camino del Oeste, one enters the Yaqui reservation of 998 acres. The reservation was only 220 acres in 1978 when Public Law 95-375 granted “the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona the same status as all other federally recognized Indian tribes in the US” (Pascua Tribal Council 1985a). The adjoining Tohono O’odham (Papago) San Xavier reservation is 71,095 acres, the larger Sells Tohono O’odham reservation is 2,774,536 acres, while Navaho reservation is 10,847,291 acres. Organized around a central plaza defined by the eastward-facing, wide-doored, low church (plate 4.1) and the southward-facing fiesta ramada, New Pascua consists of single story free-standing homes of concrete, brick, cinder block, and/or adobe plus administrative buildings, firehouse, school, a senior citizens’ center, and playground. Facing Camino del Oeste, away from the plaza, is a large bingo hall where the Yaquis, free from state laws regulating gambling, offer big jackpots in an effort to earn the dollars of gringo gamblers.
