Through farming, Ramona Button is carrying on the legacy of her ancestors

Ramona Button recalls the moments when her father foresaw her role in bringing farming back to the Gila River Indian Community, a centuries-old legacy that was all but destroyed when the river was diverted off of their land.

Ramona was urged by her community’s elders to bring back the tepary bean, a nutrition-packed legume that has been cultivated by the Akimel O’odham people for centuries, but it was all but wiped out by the 1970s. Ramona and her family are cultivating tepary beans, heritage wheat and heirloom corn, sharing traditional food ways that feed their community spirit and help to revive the culture, reconnecting people to their culinary history and heritage.

Before the Gila River was diverted from Akimel O’odham land, their ancestors farmed extensively and created a system of irrigation ditches or canals, diverting water from the river to cultivate diverse crops. Some of those canals still exist today and serve as the basis for much of the irrigation on the Button family’s extensive farm. Learn more about the Gila River’s history here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_River