Learning the Landscape

Learning the Landscape:The O’odham Acclimation of Father Agustín de Campos Dale S. Brenneman (bio) In late April 1736, Father Joseph Agustín de Campos was escorted out of the pueblo of Ímuris, a visita of his mission at San Ignacio de Cabórica, where he had served among the O’odham of the Pimería Alta for 42 years. He was leaving what he had come to regard as home, for in his long isolation from fellow missionaries and other Spaniards he had developed a strong connection with the O’odham and learned to speak their language fluently. He had also grown to be a staunch defender of his “Pima children” against mounting colonial pressures, periodically placing himself at odds with Spanish authorities or his Jesuit superiors, all of whom felt the sting of his sarcasm at one time or another. Most recently, Campos had become embroiled in a dispute between the Jesuits and Governor Manuel Bernal de Huidobro over proposed reforms to Jesuit mission operations. He refused to sign a letter circulated by the Jesuits condemning the governor’s perceived attack on their authority, siding instead with the governor (Dunne 1991; Garate 2003:136–151). Appalled by his obstinacy, disobedience, and insulting behavior, his Jesuit superiors questioned his sanity and made the decision to remove him from San Ignacio. This action proved more difficult than anticipated and almost sparked an O’odham uprising in his defense, but in the end Campos agreed to leave peacefully, defeated and heartbroken, never to see his mission again.1 Whether the old missionary’s “individualistic temperament” had indeed developed into mental disturbance, as believed by the Jesuits and submitted by historian Peter Dunne (1991:481), is debatable. Garate (2003:273–274 n.144) has convincingly argued that personality conflicts at play as well as several other issues—including morality, integrity, [End Page 269] corruption, and power—influenced Campos’s actions and Jesuit reactions. Missing from the discussion, however, is the remarkable transformation in his attitude toward the O’odham, for his relationship with them had not always been so amiable nor that with his fellow missionaries so contentious. By all indications Campos began his career with a characteristic Jesuit worldview that fervently rejected many O’odham lifeways as primitive and dangerous, yet over time he grew more forbearing of those associated with subsistence. It was a significant shift in perspective that notably improved relations between the missionary and his converts, but contributed to setting the priest apart from his brethren. The following pages explore this change in perspective through the framework of a landscape learning process (Rockman 2003). Information drawn from the documentary and paleoclimatic records indicates that Campos became well acquainted with both the physical and cultural environments of the Pimería Alta during his long tenure there. This knowledge gained appears to have modified his understanding of the relationship between the O’odham and their physical world, disposing him toward greater tolerance of traditional subsistence patterns and greater respect for the people who practiced them. The Jesuit Worldview, O’odham Subsistence, and the Landscape Learning Process Jesuit missiologist Eduardo Fernández (2010:27) has suggested that earlier efforts in China, India, Japan, and more southerly parts of Mexico had taught the Jesuits the practical value of learning the inner logic and worldview of the peoples they sought to evangelize, and that missionaries coming to the Pimería Alta presumably would have been schooled in this way of thinking and acting. Already expected to learn and use the Pima language for instructing their O’odham converts, they also would have been encouraged to identify ethical and religious similarities between the O’odham world they encountered and Christianity, and to conserve and integrate whatever lifeways, ceremonies, and traditions they deemed conducive to achieving their evangelistic goal. This ideal was not fully instilled in all who came, however, nor did the field missionary tend to perceive that many O’odham lifeways, ceremonies, and traditions were intricately bound up with their natural environment and reflected a deeply rooted knowledge of life in the Sonoran Desert. For the O’odham, life in the desert meant mobility

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