EL BUDA

O’odham Name: I’itoi Mo’o and Oks Daha

Meaning: Elder brother head and Place where an old woman is sitting

I’itoi Mo’o or Oks Daha is referred to as el “El Buda” (“The Budha”). It is found on occupied Tohono O’odham and Hia-Ced O'odham land, on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument which was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937. The mountain ridge where I’itoi Mo’o/ Oks Daha is located was established as the Eastern border between Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the Tohono O’odham Nation. The establishment of National Monuments and Parks positions the U.S. government as the “expert” conservationist of land they deemed pristine. This act further perpetuates the theft of Indigenous land and erase the long ancestral relationship between the land and the traditional caregivers of the land.  

The colonial name given to I’itoi Mo’o/ Oks Daha is Montezuma’s Head.

PORTRAIT PROCESS VIDEO

Some of the items I worked with to create the portraits include: the end of a broken shaving razor, an empty tuna packet, a piece of ripped camouflage cloth, rusty cans, a black water gallon, broken glass, and a mop slipper. I also worked with unrooted plants and land relatives such as: dried saguaro cactus ribs, ocotillo limbs, palo verde branches, rocks, and tierra. I used these elements to paint the portraits because –like the mountains– they are members of this ecosystem and carry a certain energy important to the portrayal of this shared space.