Saturday, December 18, 2004
Rawhide Western Town recently announced that they were pulling up stakes after an aeon as a Scottsdale tourist icon. Creeping urban sprawl has been crowding their current digs, so they're moving to a more open area - the casino/hotel complex on the Gila River Reservation south of Ahwatukee. The casinos - which I have mixed feelings about - have really changed the landscape of metro-tribal relations since the Pima Road standoff in the 80's, which is when I first came to Arizona.
See, before the land was purchased for the Scottsdale section of Loop 101, the Salt River-Pima Reservation used to extend further west than it does now - in fact the entire northbound lane of Pima Road, which was THE north-south commuter route in the east Valley, lay on land that was leased by the City of Scottsdale from the Tribal government. This lease ran out sometime in the early 80's. It had been an extremely long-term lease - something like 50 years - so the Tribe understandably wanted a rent increase on the new lease. Heads were butted, and after a year's negotiations and no new lease, the Tribal Police shut down the northbound lane of Pima Road. The City of Scottsdale immediately sprung into action - by making the remaining one lane of Pima southbound in the morning and northbound in the evening. My memory is hazy on exactly how long this arrangement dragged on before a new lease was finally signed. But with the development going on on the Res these days, it's hard to imagine something this lame happening today.
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Fun Peruvian fact:
We didn't see cats in cities like Cuzco, where packs of dogs roam the streets, but we did encounter them in more rural areas, including the floating reed islands of Lake Titicaca!
2 comments
See, before the land was purchased for the Scottsdale section of Loop 101, the Salt River-Pima Reservation used to extend further west than it does now - in fact the entire northbound lane of Pima Road, which was THE north-south commuter route in the east Valley, lay on land that was leased by the City of Scottsdale from the Tribal government. This lease ran out sometime in the early 80's. It had been an extremely long-term lease - something like 50 years - so the Tribe understandably wanted a rent increase on the new lease. Heads were butted, and after a year's negotiations and no new lease, the Tribal Police shut down the northbound lane of Pima Road. The City of Scottsdale immediately sprung into action - by making the remaining one lane of Pima southbound in the morning and northbound in the evening. My memory is hazy on exactly how long this arrangement dragged on before a new lease was finally signed. But with the development going on on the Res these days, it's hard to imagine something this lame happening today.
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Fun Peruvian fact:
We didn't see cats in cities like Cuzco, where packs of dogs roam the streets, but we did encounter them in more rural areas, including the floating reed islands of Lake Titicaca!
2 comments
2 Comments:
Did you get to pet the cats?
Do you have pictures of them?
By 
, at
11:19 AM
I didn't get any photos - none that survived the disasterous download, anyway - but the cat on the floatin island we visited got up in my lap and purred. It seemed to be quite happy to take advantage of the attention it got from tourists.
