May 2008



“Queen of the Night” artist: Annie Antone, Tohono O’odham
Gift of Peggy and Michael Hazard
Dimensions: Diam: 3 ½”
2007.6.1

For most of the year, the night blooming cereus looks like several twigs sticking out of the ground. A member of the cactus family, this plant is native to the deserts of Arizona and can be seen as far as west Texas and northern Mexico. The peniocereus greggii is also known informally as “queen of the night” and blooms only one night a year during the midsummer season with palm-sized white blossoms displaying a wonderful fragrance and stunning beauty.  

For generations the Tohono O’odham people, formerly the Papago, have told the story of Old Mother White Top to explain the plant’s yearly night blooms. Author Harold Bell Wright gained their permission to publish this and other legends in his book titled Long Ago Told: Legends of the Papago Indians, released in 1929. An established author who penned several bestselling books, Wright even achieved the distinction of becoming the first American fiction writer to sell one million copies of his work. He learned of the Tohono O’odham legend from Dr. William (Will) Kitt, for whom Kitt Peak is named, and his wife. With Mrs. Kitt’s help Wright compiled the legend from many Tohono O’odham storytellers. Wright described the stories he heard by stating, “They were to me so striking in beauty of their conception and so significant in their relation to the character of these desert Indians that I was deeply impressed.”

Wright’s story begins with a young Tohono O’odham woman leaving her home to marry a man from a different village. The girl’s mother, named Old Mother White Top for her white hair,  missed her so much, that she went out at sunset everyday to call forth her spirit to talk with her. One day her daughter’s spirit told her something was wrong, so the next morning Old Mother White Top began a journey to find her.

Mother White Top journeyed to her daughter’s village with the help of jackrabbits, blackbirds, coyotes and all the desert animals. When she reached the village she discovered that her daughter was sick and the girl asked her mother to take her newborn son back to the Tohono O’odham village because her husband’s people wanted the boy to become a warrior and she wanted him to be peaceful. Old Mother White Top asked the animals for help and set off with the child, trekking through the foothills and mountains to the flat lands and hiding from the men who wanted to take the baby back. She called to the Great Spirit, I’itoi, for help. Old Mother White Top told I’itoi how important it was for her to get the child safely back to her village, even though she was so weary.

With the hunting party was still looking for her, she knew she was in trouble. She called the black birds to help and they flew around the men like a large black cloud, and then  I’itoi took the child and delivered him safely home. When the birds finally flew away, the men could only see two withered brown sticks and a few strands of white hair; Old Mother White Top was nowhere to be found. Confused, the men returned to their village while Old Mother White Top remained in the earth with I’itoi’s promise that after a year’s rest she would be the most beautiful thing in the desert, with flowers blooming where her hair once was. And so every summer for one night the night blooming cereus blooms with the beauty and sweetness of Old Mother White Top.

Tohono O’odham artist Annie Antone comes from a family highly-regarded for their basketry work. She was the first basket maker to sign her work, weaving a tiny "AA" into the base of her baskets. Her work is widely recognized for its high quality workmanship and original designs. She, like many other basket makers, uses primarily yucca, beargrass and devil’s claw in her work.  Though the fibers may be bleached by the sun they are not dyed to enhance their color. In this piece she used green and white yucca as well as light and dark devil’s claw to create the design of a night blooming cereus in bloom. This miniature basket features finely split sewing splints which incorporate not only in the traditional style which she learned at age 19, and has created several baskets using the Norwegian knitting patterns which she adapted to her innovative pieces.

Annie Antone created this piece especially for the Tohono Chul Park exhibit “Queen of the Night: Night Blooming Cereus” in the summer of 2007. The show featured artistic views of the peniocereus greggii, a plant abundant in the Park. After the show closed, Tohono Chul Park’s Assistant Curator Peggy Hazard and her husband bought the piece from the artist and donated it to the Park's Permanent Collection. TCP has the world’s largest public collection of peniocereus greggii in the world, and hosts a yearly free Bloom Night when visitors are invited to see the Park’s nearly 340 specimens’ remarkable transformation from ugly duckling to Queen of the Night! If you want to be informed of Bloom Night, usually occurring in late June or early July, you can call the Park at 742-6455, visit the Parks website at www.tohonochulpark.org or email us at membership@tohonochulpark.org.  

 

Bibliography:

http://longagotold.blogspot.com

Tohono O’odham Community Action: www.tocaonline.org

McGreevy, Susan Brown. Indian Basketry Artists of the Southwest. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2001.