by Tumacácori National Historical Park
In Celebration of Arizona’s Centennial

In October 1736, Yaqui Indian prospector Antonio Siraumea stumbled upon large pieces of silver in the hills forty miles southwest of the Tumacácori Mission.  News of the discovery spread quickly. Prospectors rushed to the canyon from all over Sonora to dig for the “balls and plates” of almost pure silver.  One prospector, José Fermín de Almazán, found a single slab that weighed over one hundred arrobas, roughly 1 ¼ tons.

By mid-November, Juan Bautista de Anza (senior), Captain of the Fronteras Presidio and Chief Justice of Sonora, learned of the discovery.  He travelled to the site to halt the illegal, unregistered collecting, and to determine whether the find was a buried treasure, a clandestine smelting operation, or a natural vein.   If the silver was a natural deposit, the prospectors would owe Spain’s King Philip one-fifth of their find.  If it was a treasure, ALL of the silver would belong to the King.

By the time Anza arrived, there were 400 people digging for the precious metal. Anza stationed soldiers on-site to prevent further mining. He set up his headquarters twelve miles away, at the home of Deputy Justice Bernardo de Urrea. Urrea’s ranch was called “Arizona,” meaning “the good oak tree” in Basque, his native language.

From Arizona, Captain Anza impounded silver, recorded statements, and conducted the investigation. Discussion then moved to Mexico City. Finally, in August, Anza and five of Sonora’s leading miners returned to examine the canyon.  The “experts” unanimously agreed that the silver was from natural veins. The silver – minus the King’s fifth – was returned to the miners.

Controversy over the decision raged for more than a decade. The name “Arizona,” the site from which so many documents had been issued, became synonymous with the amazing silver discovery.

A Rich Territory

One hundred twenty years later, the story of the “silver of Arizona” was well known to promoters of a new U.S. Territory proposed to be split off from the New Mexico Territory.  The promoters needed a name that embodied the idea of great mineral wealth.  It was the memory of “the silver of Arizona” that led them to choose a Basque name meaning “the good oak tree.”

Congress established the Arizona Territory in December 1858. On February 14, 1912, Arizona became the 48th state in the United States of America.

Some Background on Arizona as a Basque word

Basque is a unique language, unlike any other known to linguists.  The word arizona breaks down into components that require four words in English:

   ariz  –  oak tree

on  –  good

a  –  the

To make it plural, you would add a “c,” making it “Arizonac.”

Juan Bautista de Anza (senior), of the famous planchas de plata, was first generation Basque, having come over from the “old world” to New Spain at age 19.  Bernardo de Urrea, owner of the Arizona ranch, along with a majority of the first explorers, settlers and miners in the area of Sonora known at that time as Arizona, was Basque.
Oak trees grow everywhere at the ranch and throughout the entire area between present-day Nogales, Arizona and Saric, Sonora.
“The good oak tree” is spelled “aritzona” in modern Basque.  As with English, spelling has become standardized since the 1700s.  At the time, Arizona might also have been spelled arisona or arissona, as Anza was also spelled Ansa and Anssa by various members of the family.  No one gave spelling tests in the 1700s!
The meaning of Arizona taught in our fourth grade classes is based on a series of fallacies.  Because Basque was not a written language at the time, and the Basque country was part of Spain, the importance of the Basque presence in New Spain is not commonly understood.  Because few people speak the language, over time the original meaning was lost.

In modern times, people struggled to figure out what the “original” name might have been.  Clearly, it is not Spanish – while it is tempting to turn it into “arid zone,” of course it would then be “zona arida,” not “arida zona!”  So, they thought, it must have been an Indian name, an O’odham word.

Based on old maps that label the area of Urrea’s Arizona ranch incorrectly as “Arizonac,” modern people  – thinking that this must have been the original form of the name – worked backward to guess what the Pima (the Spanish name for the O’odham) name might originally have been.  However, while arizonac is a perfectly good word in Basque – it is the plural of arizona, the good oaks – it was never actually the name by which the site was known.  All efforts to translate “arizonac” as the place name originate from a notation written in the margin of a single, much copied, map, probably dating to the 1730s, when the plural form of arizona was well known.  Although the site is correctly labeled on the map itself, subsequent copies often took their spelling from the margin notation.  Based on this incorrect name, modern people sought an O’odham meaning for Arizonac, settling on “ali shonak, place of little springs.”

Don Garate, the historian who brought the true story to light, grew up speaking Basque with his grandmother, and has many cousins still in the “old country.” He was also fluent in Spanish, and conducted his research from the original, handwritten Spanish documents.

By Rep. Ted Vogt
Republican, Dist. 30

Arizona suffers from a critical shortage of physicians which is compounded by the downturn in the national and state economies and the subsequent loss of many jobs. Five years ago, the legislature took steps to address these issues by supporting the expansion of the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in downtown Phoenix.

Despite our successes, the project stands at a crossroad. Having produced its first graduating class, the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine – Phoenix is poised to make an important developmental leap with the completion of the Health Sciences Education Building.

My colleagues in the state legislature endorsed the budget to construct the building in downtown Phoenix. This allows the university to expand its class sizes and bring other health science education programs to the campus. In addition to the College of Medicine expansion, plans have been made to add programs to the colleges of Pharmacy and Public Health. Northern Arizona University is also set to start a physician’s assistant program and will expand the physical therapy program at their campus.

The state must complete its commitment to training more health professionals to care for our citizens by funding the planned expansion as requested by the university. This $15 million request will pay innumerable dividends now and for years to come. It will do so not just by increasing the amount of health-care workers but also by increasing the amount of faculty, staff and research-based private spinoffs. According to a 2005 study by Tripp Umbach, those firms create a dramatic economic impact estimated to be at least $2.5 billion each year.

This appropriation will help the Phoenix campus realize part of its potential as the only medical school in the state’s largest city. Its effects will, however, be felt in every region of the state. To that point, many of the students enrolled are from rural Arizona and of those, many plan to return to establish practices in their hometowns.

The first 24 students of the program graduated in May. Sixteen chose to stay in Arizona and of those sixteen, all are pursuing careers as primary care physicians. There are currently 190 students studying medicine on the campus. The school is poised to increase that class size with the additional space of the new education building set for completion this summer.

These students are training with national leaders in academic medicine. They have already made their mark by excelling on national exams and providing free health services to the local community and beyond.

Their classes are instructed by professors and researchers from the college focusing on advancements in medical research on devastating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and more. Through their collaborative efforts, they are tackling the challenging healthcare issues that face Arizona.

This appropriation will not only benefit the university system and the University of Arizona in particular, but all the citizens of Arizona. I recently introduced HB 2551, which the House Higher Education Committee heard and favorably passed. The legislation will restore funding for the expansion of health science education in downtown Phoenix. We want this funding included in the budget because it is vital to the future of healthcare services in our state.

This week, the Legislature took the first steps in the budget process. As a lawmaker, I know we have difficult fiscal decisions to make again this year. I, personally, want to make sure those decisions are made based on the long-term fiscal health of our state.

Arizona suffers from a significant lack of practicing physicians. At the same time, our economy and collective quality of life depends heavily on the research conducted in the Arizona’s medical facilities. This allocation signals the beginning of an age of improved healthcare for all Arizonans through stronger partnerships with hospitals, research centers and health organizations across the state.