Desert farming

Desert farming generally relies on irrigation, as it is the easiest way to make a desertbloom. In
California, the Imperial Valley is a good example of what can be done. Australia and the Horn of
Africa are also places with interesting desert agriculture.

The Native Americans practicing this agriculture included the ancient and no longer
present Anasazi, the long-present Hopi, the Tewa, Zuni, and many other regional tribes,
including the relatively recently arriving (about 1000 to 1400 CE) Navajo. These various tribes
were characterized generally by the Spanish occupiers of the region
as SinaguaIndians, sinagua meaning "without water", although this term is not applied to the
modern Native Americans of the region.
Owing to the great dependence upon weather, an element considered to be beyond human
control, substantial religious beliefs, rites, and prayer evolved around the growing of crops, and in
particular the growing of the four principal corn types of the region, characterized by their colors:
red, yellow, blue, and white. The presence of corn as a spiritual symbol can often be seen in the
hands of the "Yeh" spirit figures represented in Navajo rugs, in the rituals associated with the
"Corn Maiden" and other kachinasof the Hopi, and in various fetish objects of tribes of the region.
American Indians in the Sonoran Desert and elsewhere relied both on irrigation and "Ak-Chin"
farminga type of farming that depended on "washes" (the seasonal flood plains by winter
snows and summer rains). The Ak-Chin people employed this natural form of irrigation by
planting downslope from a wash, allowing floodwaters to slide over their crops.
In the Salt River Valley, now characterized by Maricopa County, Arizona, a vast canal system
was created and maintined from about 600 AD to 1450 AD. Several hundred miles of canals fed
crops of the area surrounding Phoenix, Tempe, Chandler and Mesa, Arizona. Unfortunately, the
intense irrigation increased the salinity of the topsoil, making it not longer fit for the growing of
crops. This seems to have contributed to the abandonment of the canals and the adoption of Ak-
Chin farming.[1]
The ancient canals served as a model for modern irrigation engineers, with the earliest "modern"
historic canals being formed largely by cleaning out the Hohokam canals or being laid out over
the top of ancient canals. The ancient ruins and canals of the Hohokam Indians were a source of
pride to the early settlers who envisioned their new agricultural society rising as the
mythical phoenix bird from the ashes of Hohokam society, hence the name Phoenix, Arizona.
The canal system is especially impressive because it was built without the use of metal
implements or the wheel. It took remarkable knowledge of geography and hydrology for ancient
engineers to lay out the canals, but it also took remarkable socio-political organization to plan
workforce deployment, including meeting the physical needs of laborers and their families as well
as maintaining and administering the water resources.