Marie Pancho

Marie was a Papago (Tohono Oʼodham) woman

Tohono Oʼodham Nation

The Papago are known as the "Desert People." They live primarily on the Tohono O’odham Reservation, the San Xavier Reservation, and the Gila Bend Reservation.

The region of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, occupied by the Papago Indians, was called Papagueria by the Spaniards. The name is again coming into use as the area is made to stand out in sharper contrast with the lines of settlement and civilization drawing more closely about it. Broadly considered, it is the area south of the Southern Pacific Railway west of the Santa Cruz River, and north of the Altar Valley, Sonora. Disregarding several considerable outlying villages or groups such as those at San Xavier and in Tucson, the Papago villages are confined to that part of the area which is bounded on the east by the Baboquivari Mountain range and related low mountain groups extending northward. These also roughly bound the Papago Indian Reservation. On the north, white settlement is approaching the reservation boundary line. The western boundary is less definite, as in this direction the desert becomes increasingly inhospitable, merging into great precarious empty waste spaces, too barren to support even Papago...

...Both mountains and plains, or so-called valleys, have north-northwest by south-southeast axes, and the Papagueria lies open both to the north and to the south. So, northward the Papago villages blend into the Pima villages of the Gila River, interrupted by the wedge of white settlement extending from Florence on the Gila River westward through Casa Grande. And southward, they blend into the river villages of the Altar Valley, Sonora, now mostly Mexican.
Source: Hoover, J. W. “Generic Descent of the Papago Villages.” American Anthropologist, vol. 37, no. 2, 1935, pp. 257–64. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/662261. Accessed 25 Mar. 2024.

Sells is the capital of the Tohono O'odham Nation, originally named Indian Oasis in 1912 by cattle-ranchers/businessmen brothers, Joseph and Louis Ménager, then inhabited by Papago Indians. In 1918 it was renamed to honor Indian Commissioner Cato Sells. The Village of Indian Oasis still occurs in the 1920 Sells Agency census

Originally Indian Oasis Village, now Sells, AZ

Papago Woman Holding Child: Arizona, 1902 by Underwood Archives

Biography:
Born between 1878 and October 1881 to unknown parents, Marie married Santiago Pancho and with him had one daughter named Lena born in 1896.

According to Carla Joinson in her book Vanished in Hiawatha, Marie was committed to the Canton Asylum from the Sells Indian School and admitted on December 11, 1920. No diagnosis is given. (Curator Note: I've reviewed all Indian census reports 1919-1924 and cannot confirm this statement.)


Bureau of Indian Affairs School at Sells, Arizona, [2000-175-152_scan001-adj.jpg]. Arizona Memory Project, accessed 24/03/2024, https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/nodes/view/88308''; Date Original photo was 1943-04-16 by Rosamond Spicer (Curator Note: this may not be the same school that existed in the early 1900s)

According to the letter dated February 17, 1934, from Dr. L.L. Culp to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Marie died at the Canton Asylum on October 14, 1923, and was buried in the Canton Hiawatha Cemetery, tier 6 plot 46.

Her profile is part of the The Canton Asylum One Place Study.

Research Notes:
-1920 - “Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll480unit/page/n457/mode/.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 458/996, list of Papago villages: Neither Marie nor Santiago appear in the 1920 Papago census

-There is a Marie Pancho b. 1878 m. to Jose Marie Pancho b. 1877 in Tucson Village, Sells Agency but the census is Jun 30, 1926, after her death
-Off-Reservation Occupational Areas Adjacent to Papago and Pima Reservations in Southern Arizona, 1959

It is unsure where Maria came from, was born, maiden name, or lived, as she does not appear in Indian Census reports for the known Papago villages. A note in Carla Joinson's book Vanished in Hiawatha reads (committed from Sells Indian School), but it also has a date of admission as December 11, 1920. If Maria was b. 1878, then she would have been 42 in 1920, too old to be a student. On the other hand, in the early 1900s, Indian boarding schools occasionally performed some of the functions of the local agency, which could explain this, since the Sells District was quite widely scattered and sparsely inhabited. The Sells Indian School and the Sells Agency were both located in the village of Sells at that time.
-The Papago census from the Sells Agency for 1919 was from the Sells Indian School
-I reviewed the Indian census reports for the Sells Agency, 1918, 1919 (year before admission),1920 (year of admission), and 1921 (year after admission), and 1924 (the year after death) Villages, and Reservations including San Xavier Village and Reservation, census reports, looking for the name Pancho, a death date after June 30 of the previous year, or a note referring to Canton S.D. (as other reports have shown), no entries for Marie Pancho. I then checked the Gila River Reservation, ...

Recommended Reading:
1. Waddell, Jack O. “University of Arizona Press.” University of Arizona Press, 1969, open.uapress.arizona.edu/read/papago-indians-at-work/section/eb656db9-8888-4131-8d93-76cd6e2ec3e0. Accessed 25 Mar. 2024.

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Sources:

1900 Jun 20-21 - "United States Census, 1900", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSRD-9YM : Tue Mar 05 21:50:27 UTC 2024), Entry for Santiago Pancho and Marie Pancho, 1900, pg. 91/897, line 49 (b. 10/1881), Papago Indian Population (cont.), San Xavier Election Precinct #1

1921 Jul 2 - Hummer, MD, H. R. “Family Tree - Geni.” Www.geni.com, 2 July 1921, www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000204433919889. Accessed 24 Mar. 2024,

1922 Jun 30 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=1042, line 28, Canton female census

1923 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=32, line 31, Canton female census

1923 Oct 14 - "South Dakota, Grave Registration Records, 1940-1941", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CYZP-7JPZ : Fri Mar 08 15:25:15 UTC 2024), Entry for Marie Pancho
Name Marie Pancho
Sex Female
Age 43 years
Birth Year (Estimated) 1880
Death Date 14 October 1923
Event Type Burial
Event Place Presho, Lyman, South Dakota, United States
Cemetery Indian Asylum

1923 Oct 17 - Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14493740/marie-pancho: accessed March 24, 2024), memorial page for Marie Pancho (unknown–17 Oct 1923), Find a Grave Memorial ID 14493740, citing Hiawatha Asylum Cemetery, Canton, Lincoln County, South Dakota, USA; Maintained by Graveaddiction (contributor 46528400). (Curator Note: Date of Death by Joinson in 10/14, this is the date of burial)

1923 Oct 17 - Hilton, M. (Ed.). (2023, July 10). Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians Historical Marker. Historical Marker. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=183486 Photo by Ruth VanSteenwyk, July 10, 2023, courtesy of HMdb.org

Jessie Hallock 6-12-23 · Marie Pancho 10-17-23 · Ebe Sirowboy 8-11-28
(Curator Note: Date of Death by Joinson in 10/14, this is the date of burial)