Category: Video

Video: William L. Bird on Saguaro Imagery

Posted on by maryreynolds

June 30, 2025

William L. Bird Jr., author of In the Arms of Saguaros, spoke with Bruce Dinges, former editor of the Journal of Arizona History last fall as part of the Tumamoc Author Series. In this Southwest Center video of the event, see historic photos and learn how in the late 1800s, the saguaro became a symbol of the west. The railroad first used saguaros to market new destinations in the American West, then all kinds of tourist destinations used saguaro iconography to attract customers to everything from health resorts to dude ranches to shopping centers. Today, the saguaro touches us as a global icon in art, fashion, and entertainment.

Watch the video here.

The event was presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center.

William L. Bird Jr. is a curator emeritus of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. His interests lie at the intersection of politics, popular culture, and the history of visual display. Through text and lavish images, In the Arms of Saguaros explores the saguaro’s growth into a western icon from the early days of the American railroad to the years bracketing World War II, when Sun Belt boosterism hit its zenith and proponents of tourism succeed in moving the saguaro to the center of the promotional frame.

Video: David DeJong on Gila River Water Rights

Posted on by maryreynolds

June 10, 2025

David H. DeJong, author of Damming the Gila: The Gila River Indian Community and the San Carlos Irrigation Project, 1900-1942, spoke about his book as part of the Tumamoc Author Series last fall. In this Southwest Center video of the event, DeJong starts by telling how he came to write his books: “The story that’s told here about the San Carlos irrigation project is a story that I live every day. How do I live it? The system that was built in the 1920s is the system we are modernizing today. So it was a very natural step for me, and I had always been interested in going all the way back to when I was sixteen years old and wanting to know what happened [to water in the Gila River]. So this is my forty-first year of researching and writing on the history of the community.”

Watch the video here.

The event was presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center.

DeJong is director of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project, a construction project funded by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and designed to deliver water—from the Central Arizona Project, the Gila River, and other sources—to the Gila River Indian Reservation. Damming the Gila chronicles the history of water rights and activities on the Gila River Indian Reservation. Centered on the San Carlos Irrigation Project and Coolidge Dam, it details the history and development of the project, including the Gila Decree and the Winters Doctrine. Embedded in the narrative is the underlying tension between tribal growers on the Gila River Indian Reservation and upstream users.

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