The Kitt Peak National Observatory is on Tohono O’odham Nation atop a mountain sacred to the O’odham people named I’oligam Du’ag, or Manzanita Bush Mountain.
It’s a sunny and gusty day in October celebrating 60 years of giving public tours at the Southern Arizona observatory. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan is talking about the site’s history with attendees and staff.
“I want people to come here knowing that they are on the O’odham Nation. They’re on our ancestral land. They’re on a sacred mountain,” said Ramon-Sauberan, who has a doctorate in American Indian Studies and is the observatory’s Tohono O’odham Nation education development liaison.
She is building connections between the facility, public and her O’odham community, who have long called the land home.
At almost 7,000 feet above sea level, the complex of white-domed enclosures contains more than 20 telescopes used by scientists to observe a litany of astronomical phenomena, like wobbling stars and dark matter.
But Indigenous people lived on the land for millennia before the research facility’s founding in 1958.
“We were, as O’odham, as Indigenous people, the first astronomers but that’s not what we called ourselves,” she said. “We were looking at the night sky, we were reading the constellations. My great-grandfather did that as a farmer.”
Ramon-Sauberan helped craft her current position and said it arose, partially, from observatory staff wanting to better understand and interact with the local government.
“I started to really be part of the team, but I was still part time and helping out where I could and lending a voice when it was needed — when it was related to anything tribal,” she said. Another big part was helping people understand how the Tohono O’odham Nation government is structured and operates, she added.
“I think that was really helpful for a lot of people because they’re like, ‘we don’t even know, if we wanted to talk to someone from the Nation, what’s appropriate?’”
Since 2020, her role has expanded. She has a hand in developing the NOIRLab Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach, an educational center at one of the decommissioned solar telescopes.
“I come in and offer the Himdag side,” she said. The Himdag incorporates “the culture, way of life, and values that are uniquely held and displayed by the Tohono O’odham,” according to the Tohonoho O’odham Community College website.
Ramon-Sauberan has also long been aware of the low O’odham visitorship despite the observatory’s location. One of her primary concerns was whether there was enough outreach and effort to connect with her community.
That’s not to say observatory officials haven’t worked hard to maintain a positive relationship with O’odham Nation, she said.
From the beginning, when astronomers first considered the mountain top for a site, they involved translators during negotiations, making sure to answer any questions, and have continued to keep an open line of communication with members of the tribe. A stark contrast to years of exclusionary practices by U.S. government agencies.
“Even looking back in American Indian history we as Native/Indigenous people aren’t always invited to the table or even were part of those beginning conversations,” she said. “A lot of times we’re an afterthought, or we weren’t even thought of at all.”
Her liaison work at the observatory is one way of ensuring Indigenous people feel respected and welcome.
Now, she’s developing programs to encourage more O’odham visitors and integrate the facility into local curriculums. They’ve incorporated O’odham astronomy words, like Maṣad meaning “moon,” into the activities they do with students.
She’s also started a newsletter specifically for Tohono O’odham members.
Her outreach efforts are showing results. O’odham people have long been employed at the observatory in other capacities but she said she has noticed an increase in engagement and positive feedback from the community from having O’odham representation in a collaborative role.
“Now they’re like wow, we have somebody, like a personal contact, and we can really reach out and be like, hey can you come to our summer program and lead a workshop session?” she said.
She sees people visit who have lived on tribal lands their whole lives but are first-time visitors or are visiting for the first time in decades. She also sees her colleagues eager to learn about her culture and relate it to the observatory’s purpose.
Ramon-Sauberan’s connection to the mountain runs deep. Her parents married there and her relatives are even pictured on the original lease signing in 1950.
Ramon-Sauberan said work like this is part of her Himdag.
“Even though I don’t have an astronomy or science background, thinking about my Himdag and how I grew up when it came to what’s instilled in me as an O’odham woman and knowing that we were created from the ground, the dirt, and having that direct connection to the land, to the plants, to the animals, to the night sky,” she said. “Really tying to our traditional ecological knowledge is something that is really near and dear to my heart.”
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