Ramona Farms joins Arizona Farming & Ranching Hall of Fame
March 17, 2017
Mikhail Sundust
Gila River Indian News
Ramona and Terry Button, owners of Ramona Farms, were named to the Arizona Farming & Ranching Hall of Fame Saturday, March 4. While the O’otham and their Huhugam ancestors are the original farmers of the Gila Valley, the Buttons said this is the first time an O’otham farmer has been recognized with this honor.
The Buttons have been farming in the Gila River Indian Community for over 40 years and now operate on more than 4,000 acres in the Community. During that time the Buttons have achieved some renown for their efforts to cultivate and sell traditional O’otham crops such as tepary beans, traditional strains of corn, gourds, garbanzo beans, and Pima club wheat.
Dozens of friends and family members attended the Hall of Fame dinner to support the Buttons, including former governors Thomas White and Richard Narcia.
The banquet was held at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, west of Phoenix. The couple was nominated for induction into the Arizona Farming & Ranching Hall of Fame by Craig Ocock of Empire Machinery in Buckeye, Ariz. Tim Robinson introduced them to the audience.
“Ramona and Terry, with their family, ... define hard-earned success,” he said. Robinson and the Buttons share a friendship and working relationship that began in the 1970s when they farmed together in Stanfield, Ariz.
He described Ramona as “the most tolerant, accepting, forgiving, and patient individual I have ever met,” and a “stern but forgiving mother, the family matriarch, [and an] astute business woman.” He said, “I personally witnessed this lady walk up and down cotton rows starting at sun up, day after day, after day for her family.”
Robinson said, “Terry spent his lifetime teaching others the definition of hard work. … Terry and Ramona have demonstrated to anyone connected to them that Ramona and Terry Button, owners of Ramona Farms, were named to the Arizona Farming & Ranching Hall of Fame Saturday, March 4.
While the O’otham and their Huhugam ancestors are the original farmers of the Gila Valley, the Buttons said this is the first time an O’otham farmer has been recognized with this honor.
The Buttons have been farming in the Gila River Indian Community for over 40 years and now operate on more than 4,000 acres in the Community. During that time the Buttons have achieved some renown for their efforts to cultivate and sell traditional O’otham crops such as tepary beans, traditional strains of corn, gourds, garbanzo beans, and Pima club wheat.
Dozens of friends and family members attended the Hall of Fame dinner to support the Buttons, including former governors Thomas White and Richard Narcia. The banquet was held at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, west of Phoenix.
The couple was nominated for induction into the Arizona Farming & Ranching Hall of Fame by Craig Ocock of Empire Machinery in Buckeye, Ariz. Tim Robinson introduced them to the audience.
“Ramona and Terry, with their family, ... define hard-earned success,” he said. Robinson and the Buttons share a friendship and working relationship that began in the 1970s when they farmed together in Stanfield, Ariz.
He described Ramona as “the most tolerant, accepting, forgiving, and patient individual I have ever met,” and a “stern but forgiving mother, the family matriarch, [and an] astute business woman.” He said, “I personally witnessed this lady walk up and down cotton rows starting at sun up, day after day, after day for her family.”
Robinson said, “Terry spent his lifetime teaching others the definition of hard work. … Terry and Ramona have demonstrated to anyone connected to them that failure is not falling down, instead failure is not getting back up.”
Not only that, he said, but “they have always considered their impact, both good and bad, on their community. They have strived to give back to the people, and to give to the land. They have strived to preserve history in their culture, and they try very hard to share their returns, and in the end I know they plan to leave things better than when they began.”
Terry and Ramona accepted a Hall of Fame plaque on stage, saying they are proud to do the work they do, not seeking awards, but only wanting to contribute to the improved health and wellbeing of the people of the Gila River Indian Community.
“My gratitude is endless for the people that have worked with us and for the appreciation that you all have shown,” said Terry, who launched into a brief history lesson on the desert’s original farmers.
“It needs to be recognized,” he said, “that the farming traditions of the Akimel O’otham…must be acknowledged for their importance to the development of this great country we live in. This has been left out of the history books. The dawning of Arizona’s agricultural economy was along the Gila and Salt Rivers. The Pimas were the first irrigators of the desert Southwest and have farmed here for many centuries.
“The Akimel O’otham raised corn, tepary beans, Pima limas, squash, gourds, cotton, and tobacco. They harvested the desert in season for berries, mesquite beans, cactus fruit, buds and flowers, chia seeds, wild chiles, agave, and native greens. Desert plants were their medicine. And when the Gila ran through the Pima lands, fish was a staple food.
“When first contacted by the Europeans in 1685, the Akimel O’otham obtained white Sonora wheat from the Mediterranean, black eyed peas from northern Africa, chickpeas and melons from Persia. These crops were quickly adapted into their irrigated farm rotations, filling a niche between corn and beans’ growing seasons.
“The Pima fed pioneers, settlers, and travelers, as well as the U.S. Cavalry and Civil War troops with millions of pounds of wheat shipped as far north as Kansas. Today, we are proud to help preserve these traditions by growing, preparing, and marketing these crops so that they may survive and provide wholesome nutrition to future generations.”
The Button farm is named after Ramona, but it is very much a family affair.
“My father is Tohono O’odham and my mother is Akimel O’otham, and together they did a great job in teaching me the art of farming,” Ramona told the audience. Even as a little girl, she went out on the field with her father, who worked from sun up to sun down. “[He] was like, ‘If you want to see me, you have to work with me.’”
She learned to farm in tractors and on horseback, but in the home she learned to manipulate her family’s crops and the desert plants.
“My mother was instrumental in teaching me the art of cooking with traditional foods, because we grew everything that we ate, and put away everything, and prepared it. And also taught me about the desert herbs and how to heal yourself.”
Ramona and Terry have carried on that tradition, teaching their children to work the land and plants of the Sonoran desert. Today their daughter Brandy, a chef, promotes their food and uses it in catering events around the state. Their other daughter Velvet develops health conscious recipes using Ramona Farms foods and teaches them to families and school children in the Gila River Indian Community.
Terry said, “it wouldn’t have been possible for us to do what we’ve been recognized for without the support of our family, without Ramona, my brother Dale, Carl, my sister Karen, our daughters Brandy and Velvet and our son Edward, Maria, and our granddaughters...and all of the members of our community.”
Ramona said, “I think the story to this is, when we join together, you work as one and become one. Thank you.”
Learn more about Ramona Farms, and find recipes, at www.ramonafarms.com.
