Regarding the April 30th article “Tohono O’dam receives ancestral land”.

First of all, I would like to clarify that the “movement to return ancestral lands” to the Tohono O’Dum Nation is not a new concept. A few years before his death in March 2020, I recall a conversation with Pima County Superintendent Richard Elias regarding the reversion of Sentinel Peak and Tumamok.

These conversations with Director Elias served as the origin for the presentation in Rio Nuevo at the January 2018 Call to Audience, where Josefina Cardenas, former president of the Barrio Kruger Lane Municipality, and I of Tucson Claimed the return of the 28 acres that make up the land. Birthplace at the foot of ‘A’ Mountain (aka ‘A’ Mountain Landfill) in the San Xavier area of ​​the Tohono O’Dum Nation. A meeting was held between Rio Nuevo Chairman Fletcher McLaster and Chairman Austin Nunez, after which Mr. McLaster made a presentation to the district council. At the end of the presentation, the council voted to receive the land after the landfill was rehabilitated.

In 2013, a lawsuit with Rio Nuevo was settled, and the city of Tucson assumed ownership of the site known as Tucson Origins Heritage Park, which is now in the process of being transferred to the state. Initially, the city planned to protect this land from development by passing City Resolution 22573 in May 2016. The resolution specified that the site would be inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places and that key stakeholders would be designated, including Menlo Park, Barrio Sin Nombre and Kroger Lane. , and a Tucson family friend will engage in predevelopment or development planning. The language on community involvement predates the language contained in the 2013 Settlement Agreement. However, until January 2021, the status quo was maintained.

On this occasion, he represented the Board of Trustees of the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association, the Barrio Sin Nombre, the Tucson Originating Friends Commission (Mission Garden), the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission, the Rio Nuevo Commission, and the University of Arizona President’s Office. A key stakeholder has become aware that COT is planning a return. 10.5 acres known as TOHP to the Nation. At the time, UA faculty members in the Architect and Landscape Department were in the process of applying for a grant to the Mellon Foundation for a field project. The grant’s lead faculty member was informed that the city would not approve the grant proposal because discussions had already begun to return his ancestral land, the Nation.

As for the Menlo Park Neighborhood Plan, COVID-19 has delayed this process. However, although the subject of land transfer to the state was presented by this writer, the residents’ association has not taken a formal position.