At Tuesday’s event to mark the passage of the Arizona Water Settlements Act, Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr. distributed gifts to Sen. Jon Kyl and other key players in the landmark water-rights agreement. 

Norris distributed woven baskets that featured turtle designs. Turtles, he explained, are symbols of strength for tribal members. Turtles were appropriate for the occasion because they reflected the strength of those involved in reaching the agreement to endure 30-plus years of discussion to arrive at the settlement. 

“The Tohono O’odham people are a giving people and we like to acknowledge accomplishments by giving gifts. We don’t look at it as bribery, so please don’t look at it like that,” Norris quipped during the event at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa on the Gila River Indian Community reservation. 

There was a fair amount of gift-giving all around.

Gila River Gov. William Rhodes distributed framed student-drawn pictures of pottery on behalf of his tribe. U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Carl Artman gave framed copies of documents that enacted the agreement displayed side-by-side with congratulatory letters signed by U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. 

For more on the event, check out my story in Wednesday’s Tribune.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Hard to classify, Jon Kyl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.