Jose Garcia Narcho was not located in the 1940 federal census nor, initially, in the 1930 census. In the 1920 census, however, he is listed as Jose Miguel Miguel married to Maria Chelis Miguel. Both are listed as being forty years of age and therefore were born in approximately 1880. The children listed with them are: Juliana, age 11; Frank, age 9; Clemencia, age 7; Anita, age 5; and Angelita, age one year and six months. All are listed as having been born in Arizona. Jose could read while Maria could not. Of the children, only the eldest, Juliana, was attending school. Jose was a farmer who owned his own farm and while he and daughter Juliana could speak English, no one else in the family could. Missing from this family grouping is son Augustine, who would have been about the same age as Frank. The record does not list a specific location but is the same enumeration and supervisorial as the 1940 census record of Augustine Narcho and indicates the Baboquivari district.1
Within one federal census and two Bureau of Indian Affairs records, two possible surnames were listed for Jose Garcia. According to the late Dr. Robert Hackenberg of the University of Arizona, the Tohono O'odham, at least up until the mid-twentieth century, considered names to be impermanent. While nearly all of the Tohono O'odham he studied had Christian given names and Spanish surnames, some went by multiple names while others simply decided to change either their given names or surnames as they saw fit.2 Turning back to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, records for years 1919 through 1926 and 1928 through 1933 were located and sifted through. Immediately, the issue of Jose's surname is explained. In the 1933 record there is a notation where Jose Miguel and his family should be listed that reads, “Miguel, Jose and family moved to N section under name of Nacho”. In addition, it lists their previous census numbers for confirmation.3 A second 1933 record lists Jose Miguel Narcho and family. In the notes, it says, “Formerly shown as Jose Miguel”. This record also includes son Augustine and his new wife, Isabelle, listed separately from his father's family while son Frank is listed with his father, thus verifying that Augustine and Frank are two separate individuals, not one individual going by two names.4 Information on why Jose changed his surname to one that may have been used by his first wife was not forthcoming.
Another change is that, starting in 1929, Jose's wife is listed as Theresa. It appears that between 1926 and 1928, Maria either passed away or the marriage ended and Jose remarried. Divorce was not uncommon among the Tohono O'odham, despite their conversion to Catholicism.5 Traditionally, there was not a marriage ceremony, the families arranged the marriage and the girl moved to her husband's family's house.6 Divorce could be accomplished simply by a woman returning to the home of her birth family.7 Ella Narcho is now listed among the children and appears to be Jose's stepdaughter by his new wife.8 The 1924 record indicates that Jose's daughter, Anita, had died sometime since the last Indian census was taken in 1923.9
With this new information, the 1930 United States Federal census was reexamined. This time Jose Narcho appears listed with wife Theresa and three of the children: Frank, Angelita, and Ella. In 1930, Jose and his family were living in Arivaca, a town on the Tohono O'odham reservation. He owned his own home and was a farmer. His wife Theresa was a basket weaver. The two girls were attending school, but Frank, then 17, is listed as being unable to read or write, along with his parents. According to the census, there were only seven houses in the town of Arivaca and all of the male residents were either farmers or miners.10
After the 1930 census, Jose Garcia Miguel Narcho disappears from widely available records. He does not have a death registered with social security. He is not listed in the 1940 census nor in any records from the Bureau of Indian Affairs after 1933. A check of Arizona death records also turned up nothing. He appears to have been still alive in 1934 when his wife, Theresa, passed away in the town of Fresnal, as she is listed as married, not a widow.11 She is buried in Fresnal Cemetery where her gravestone lists her name as Mollie Teresa Lewis Narcho.12 Also buried nearby is Mollie Clemencia Narcho, one of Jose and Maria's daughters. A check of the death records held by the Arizona department of health revealed that Mollie Clemencia had died in 1940, but for ten years had been suffering from tuberculosis. Her step-mother, Teresa, is listed as her mother and her father is listed as Miguel Narcho, born in Mexico. The informant on the certificate is listed as “Julia Kisto, sister”.13
The 1940 census lists Julia (Narcho) Kisto as the wife of Phillip Kisto. In that year, they were living in the village of Sells with their first child, Geneva, as well as two individuals listed as Julia's brother and sister: Frank Narcho, age 27, and Anora Narcho, age 17.14 Anora's age corresponds to that of Ella Narcho, leading to the possibility this may be the same person given the previously mentioned habit of Tohono O'odham using variable names. That both Frank and Anora were living with their sister's family may indicate their father had passed away by 1940. According to the 1940 census, Phillip Kisto was a truck driver while Frank was a general laborer. Both worked for Indian Services and made $92 a year, or the equivalent of $1525.66 in 2013 after adjusting for inflation.15 Frank's level of education is listed as the second grade, while Julia reached the tenth grade and Anora had finished 12th grade.16 That Anora graduated from high school may be another indication that she is Ella under a different name. Ella lived in San Miguel with a Presbyterian minster's family while receiving an elementary education, a common practice among the Tohono O'odham at the time as local schools were not always located in their communities. She then attended the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix that her nephew Raymond would also someday attend. Upon graduation, she attended a local community college for two years before joining the Army. At that point, she would have been the most educated member of her family.
No other records were located that indicate Jose Narcho's date of death, nor were any found that conclusively proved the names of his parents.
1 Year: 1920; Census Place: Papago, Pima, Arizona; Roll: T625_51; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 107; Image: 151.
2 Robert Hackenberg, Papago Population Study Research Methods and Preliminary Results (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona, 1961), 19.
3 Year: 1933; Roll: M595_485; Page: 302; Line: 12; Agency: Sells Agency.
4 Year: 1933; Roll: M595_485; Page: 329; Line: 5; Agency: Sells Agency.
5 Robert Hackenberg, Papago Population Study Research Methods and Preliminary Results (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona, 1961), 23.
6 Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman, (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979), 62-63.
7 Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman, (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979), 76-77.
8 Year: 1929; Roll: M595_483; Page: 15; Line: 11; Agency: Sells Agency.
9 Year: 1924; Roll: M595_481; Line: 14; Agency: Topowa Village.
10 Year: 1930; Census Place: Arivaca, Pima, Arizona; Roll: 61; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 5; Image: 129.0; FHL microfilm: 2339796.
11 Death Certificate for Teresa Narcho, 14 September 1934, File No. 371d, Arizona State Board of Health.
12 Gravemarker for Mollie Teresa Lewis Narcho, “Find A Grave”, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=103487088
13 Death Certificate for Mollie Clemencia Narcho, 29 January 1940, File No. 458, Arizona State Board of Health.
14 Year: 1940; Census Place: Papago Indian Reservation, Pima, Arizona; Roll: T627_112; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 10-85C.
15 Year: 1940; Census Place: Papago Indian Reservation, Pima, Arizona; Roll: T627_112; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 10-85C.
16 Year: 1940; Census Place: Papago Indian Reservation, Pima,Arizona; Roll: T627_112; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 10-85C.
Within one federal census and two Bureau of Indian Affairs records, two possible surnames were listed for Jose Garcia. According to the late Dr. Robert Hackenberg of the University of Arizona, the Tohono O'odham, at least up until the mid-twentieth century, considered names to be impermanent. While nearly all of the Tohono O'odham he studied had Christian given names and Spanish surnames, some went by multiple names while others simply decided to change either their given names or surnames as they saw fit.2 Turning back to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, records for years 1919 through 1926 and 1928 through 1933 were located and sifted through. Immediately, the issue of Jose's surname is explained. In the 1933 record there is a notation where Jose Miguel and his family should be listed that reads, “Miguel, Jose and family moved to N section under name of Nacho”. In addition, it lists their previous census numbers for confirmation.3 A second 1933 record lists Jose Miguel Narcho and family. In the notes, it says, “Formerly shown as Jose Miguel”. This record also includes son Augustine and his new wife, Isabelle, listed separately from his father's family while son Frank is listed with his father, thus verifying that Augustine and Frank are two separate individuals, not one individual going by two names.4 Information on why Jose changed his surname to one that may have been used by his first wife was not forthcoming.
Another change is that, starting in 1929, Jose's wife is listed as Theresa. It appears that between 1926 and 1928, Maria either passed away or the marriage ended and Jose remarried. Divorce was not uncommon among the Tohono O'odham, despite their conversion to Catholicism.5 Traditionally, there was not a marriage ceremony, the families arranged the marriage and the girl moved to her husband's family's house.6 Divorce could be accomplished simply by a woman returning to the home of her birth family.7 Ella Narcho is now listed among the children and appears to be Jose's stepdaughter by his new wife.8 The 1924 record indicates that Jose's daughter, Anita, had died sometime since the last Indian census was taken in 1923.9
With this new information, the 1930 United States Federal census was reexamined. This time Jose Narcho appears listed with wife Theresa and three of the children: Frank, Angelita, and Ella. In 1930, Jose and his family were living in Arivaca, a town on the Tohono O'odham reservation. He owned his own home and was a farmer. His wife Theresa was a basket weaver. The two girls were attending school, but Frank, then 17, is listed as being unable to read or write, along with his parents. According to the census, there were only seven houses in the town of Arivaca and all of the male residents were either farmers or miners.10
After the 1930 census, Jose Garcia Miguel Narcho disappears from widely available records. He does not have a death registered with social security. He is not listed in the 1940 census nor in any records from the Bureau of Indian Affairs after 1933. A check of Arizona death records also turned up nothing. He appears to have been still alive in 1934 when his wife, Theresa, passed away in the town of Fresnal, as she is listed as married, not a widow.11 She is buried in Fresnal Cemetery where her gravestone lists her name as Mollie Teresa Lewis Narcho.12 Also buried nearby is Mollie Clemencia Narcho, one of Jose and Maria's daughters. A check of the death records held by the Arizona department of health revealed that Mollie Clemencia had died in 1940, but for ten years had been suffering from tuberculosis. Her step-mother, Teresa, is listed as her mother and her father is listed as Miguel Narcho, born in Mexico. The informant on the certificate is listed as “Julia Kisto, sister”.13
The 1940 census lists Julia (Narcho) Kisto as the wife of Phillip Kisto. In that year, they were living in the village of Sells with their first child, Geneva, as well as two individuals listed as Julia's brother and sister: Frank Narcho, age 27, and Anora Narcho, age 17.14 Anora's age corresponds to that of Ella Narcho, leading to the possibility this may be the same person given the previously mentioned habit of Tohono O'odham using variable names. That both Frank and Anora were living with their sister's family may indicate their father had passed away by 1940. According to the 1940 census, Phillip Kisto was a truck driver while Frank was a general laborer. Both worked for Indian Services and made $92 a year, or the equivalent of $1525.66 in 2013 after adjusting for inflation.15 Frank's level of education is listed as the second grade, while Julia reached the tenth grade and Anora had finished 12th grade.16 That Anora graduated from high school may be another indication that she is Ella under a different name. Ella lived in San Miguel with a Presbyterian minster's family while receiving an elementary education, a common practice among the Tohono O'odham at the time as local schools were not always located in their communities. She then attended the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix that her nephew Raymond would also someday attend. Upon graduation, she attended a local community college for two years before joining the Army. At that point, she would have been the most educated member of her family.
No other records were located that indicate Jose Narcho's date of death, nor were any found that conclusively proved the names of his parents.
1 Year: 1920; Census Place: Papago, Pima, Arizona; Roll: T625_51; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 107; Image: 151.
2 Robert Hackenberg, Papago Population Study Research Methods and Preliminary Results (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona, 1961), 19.
3 Year: 1933; Roll: M595_485; Page: 302; Line: 12; Agency: Sells Agency.
4 Year: 1933; Roll: M595_485; Page: 329; Line: 5; Agency: Sells Agency.
5 Robert Hackenberg, Papago Population Study Research Methods and Preliminary Results (Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona, 1961), 23.
6 Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman, (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979), 62-63.
7 Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman, (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979), 76-77.
8 Year: 1929; Roll: M595_483; Page: 15; Line: 11; Agency: Sells Agency.
9 Year: 1924; Roll: M595_481; Line: 14; Agency: Topowa Village.
10 Year: 1930; Census Place: Arivaca, Pima, Arizona; Roll: 61; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 5; Image: 129.0; FHL microfilm: 2339796.
11 Death Certificate for Teresa Narcho, 14 September 1934, File No. 371d, Arizona State Board of Health.
12 Gravemarker for Mollie Teresa Lewis Narcho, “Find A Grave”, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=103487088
13 Death Certificate for Mollie Clemencia Narcho, 29 January 1940, File No. 458, Arizona State Board of Health.
14 Year: 1940; Census Place: Papago Indian Reservation, Pima, Arizona; Roll: T627_112; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 10-85C.
15 Year: 1940; Census Place: Papago Indian Reservation, Pima, Arizona; Roll: T627_112; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 10-85C.
16 Year: 1940; Census Place: Papago Indian Reservation, Pima,Arizona; Roll: T627_112; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 10-85C.