Allan J. McIntyre, a researcher and archaeologist, has written a book that tells the story of the Tohono O'odham, formerly called the Papago, and the Pimeria Alta.

James S. Wood / arizona daily star

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For those who think the Tohono O'odham are all about casinos and fry bread, this book should be a real eye-opener.

Authored by archaeologist Allan J. McIntyre, "The Tohono O'odham and Pimeria Alta" is the first photographic history book written about the people formerly known as the Papago.

Close to 200 photographs, illustrations and maps fill the book. Works include saguaro-harvesting photos taken by Edward Curtis, renowned North American Indian photographer, and several studio shots by Henry Buehman, Tucson pioneer photographer.

Dates range from the mid-1870s to barely 1940. "I tried to stay before 1940," says McIntyre, who plowed through thousands of images, mainly at the Arizona Historical Society. Many have never been published.

Among the more striking images: young men painted for a ceremonial dance in front of Mission San Xavier del Bac, women balancing huge burden baskets at the backs of their heads, and the obvious damage to San Xavier following an 1887 earthquake that shook Tucson and the vast desert lands known as the Pimeria Alta — home to the Tohono O'odham.

Several photos show that vastness in striking landscapes. Others deal with the more prosaic: women grinding corn on a metate, a baby asleep in a flour-sack cradle, men in buckboards ferrying wood to town for sale.

As McIntyre sifted through the images he also found "an awful lot of poverty. I did not want to depict that."

On the other hand, he had no qualms about displaying one or two photos with women hiding their faces from the photographer. "Their faces were concealed," he says.

Nor did he worry about showing certain ceremonies. "There's nothing sacred in this book," he says.

Such assuredness comes from the 17 years he worked as collections and archives manager for the Amerind Foundation Museum in southeastern Arizona, a museum of Indian archaeology, art, history and culture.

It was while at Amerind that McIntyre, 58, began reading about and researching the Tohono O'odham and their links to the Hohokam who lived here before them.

"Many say the Hohokam are extinct. They're not extinct," he says. "They just changed."

In 2001, he and his wife, Anne Woolsey, then director of the Amerind, moved to Tucson for Woolsey's new job as executive director of the Historical Society.

Meanwhile, McIntyre began an art dealership specializing in early Southwestern works on paper prior to 1950.

Last spring he made a proposal for his book to Arcadia Publishing, which publishes local and regional histories.

Next came hours of photographic research, poring over images taken by everyone from nationally known photographers to tourists cranking out Kodak shots.

As for the words that accompany the photos, McIntyre again credits his years with Amerind. "I had a lot of information in my head. I'd see the photo and think, 'Oh, I know the story behind this.'"

He plans no book signings or talks for this just-out book. "I do not want to be a spokesman for the Tohono O'odham," he says.

Instead, he's letting the book do that — a work that will remain "up" much longer than the exhibits he once put on display at the Amerind.

"The book was like putting an exhibit together," he says. "But with the others, I'd have to put it together, take it down. It was frustrating, like taking down a ghost. This won't be."