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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) 鈥� Cousins Tanisha Tucker Lohse and Maria Francisco set off from their desert camp around dawn on most early summer days, in search of ripe fruit from the towering saguaro cactus, an icon of the Southwest that is crucial to the Tohono O鈥檕dham Nation鈥檚 spirituality.

One plucks the small, thorn-covered fruits called 鈥渂ahidaj鈥� with a 10-foot-long (3-meter-long) stick made with a saguaro rib as the other catches them in a bucket. The harvest ritual is sacred to the O鈥檕dham, who have lived for thousands of years in what are now U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and it’s enjoying a renaissance as many seek to protect their traditional way of life.

The fruit collected in late June is central to annual summer rain ceremonies, which mark the New Year. The laborious, weekslong harvest process also reinforces crucial connections to the Creator, the natural environment and fellow O鈥檕dham across generations.

鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 surrounded by all the people that were here before us, all the ancestors,鈥� Francisco said in a desert wash lined with saguaros, flowering creosote bushes and spiny cholla cacti. 鈥淲e talk about them constantly when we鈥檙e out here.鈥�

Foremost for the cousins’ extended family is 鈥淕randma Juana.鈥� In the 1960s, elder Juanita Ahil campaigned to preserve their access to the harvesting camp in the foothills west of Tucson after the land became part of Saguaro National Park. Tucker Lohse鈥檚 late mother, Stella Tucker, carried on the harvesting tradition that鈥檚 now organized by the two cousins.

鈥淚鈥檓 taking on a big responsibility, a big legacy,鈥� said Tucker Lohse, who brought her 4-year-old daughter along this year. 鈥淢y mom knows we鈥檙e still here.鈥�

The saguaro and its spiritual story

Saguaros are the iconic plant of the Sonoran Desert, a land straddling the border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, that鈥檚 surprisingly lush even though it receives less than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain yearly and summer temperatures routinely soar above 100 (38 degrees Celsius).

The treelike cacti start to produce fruit at 30 years old, then sprout their trademark arms around 75 and live up to 200 years. Most of the fruit is near the top, which can be more than four times the average person鈥檚 height, so the fruit of the tallest can be beyond their reach.

They鈥檙e an essential shelter and food source for desert creatures from mice to wrens, which is why harvesters 鈥� traces of whose camps date back to the 1500s 鈥� never pick them clean, Tucker Lohse said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 look at land and animals as a resource 鈥� we create a relationship,鈥� she said, echoing perspectives shared by Indigenous people across North and South America.

For the O鈥檕dham, the saguaros, or 鈥渉a:sa帽鈥� in their language, provide far more than food, tools and shelter material 鈥� they鈥檙e family.

鈥淗a:sa帽 to us are like people, and we respect them that way,鈥� said Silas Garcia, Francisco’s partner. He started harvesting as a child with his aunt on the O鈥檕dham reservation, which is one of the largest in the United States.

Garcia said there is a specific creation story about the saguaros 鈥� though like many stories sacred to Native Americans, it cannot be told in summer 鈥� and their spiritual presence makes the harvest central to the O鈥檕dham.

鈥淚t鈥檚 being reconnected to the desert, to who I am, to where our stories talk about where we come from as a people,鈥� Garcia said as he built a mesquite wood fire to boil the sugary fruit pulp into syrup.

From saguaro fruit to New Year鈥檚 wine

Starting in May, O鈥檕dham families check the saguaro buds. The fruit is usually ripe by mid-June, opening a one-to-four week harvesting window until the fruit is spoiled by the first summer monsoons.

After picking the first fruit, harvesters praise the Creator, believed to reside in a nearby mountain peak, the Baboquivari, that has been the site of many rescues of migrants who tried to evade U.S. border authorities.

Then they bless themselves with some of the pulp, often making a cross-like sign over their foreheads and hearts 鈥� for some, a reference to Christian beliefs many O’odham also embrace. They taste it and thank the saguaro for providing for them.

When it鈥檚 cut open 鈥� using the saguaro鈥檚 dried-up flower as a knife and leaving the pods by the saguaro for animals 鈥� the fruit is the color of a ripe watermelon. It changes shades from fuchsia to blood red as it鈥檚 processed at camp.

After the pulp is boiled for about an hour, it鈥檚 strained to remove any debris, fiber and seeds. The latter two are collected into patties that, after being dried in the relentless sun, make natural pectin for saguaro jam. Then the juice is cooked again, reducing it to a syrup, and its flowery, caramel-like smell pervades the camp.

Since the syrup is one-tenth the quantity of the harvested fruit pulp, it takes a pair of harvesters about 10 hours in the desert to get enough to make 64 ounces (1.9 liters) of syrup.

Finally, a bit of syrup is mixed with water and left to ferment to make wine for Nawait I鈥檌. That鈥檚 the dayslong ceremony in which O鈥檕dham pray together to their Creator to keep sending the monsoon rains that make it possible to plant traditional crops like beans, squash and corn.

The resurgence of traditional ways of life

For many Native Americans, losing access to land, natural cycles of agriculture and the local foods that sustained them for centuries has meant spiking rates of diabetes, alcoholism and other diseases that disproportionately plague their communities.

Too many elders lost their lives this way, putting at risk their language and traditions and more of their land.

鈥淚 watched them slowly pass away and no one took over,鈥� Tucker Lohse said. That鈥檚 why she, Francisco and others push to teach youth about saguaro harvesting and other practices.

鈥淚鈥檓 really proud Maria has picked it up,鈥� said Francisco鈥檚 mother, Josephine Ramon, adding that she鈥檚 relearning some traditions she was taught as a child from her daughter.

Ramon said she regrets not teaching the language to younger family members who lived off the reservation, as about one third of the nation鈥檚 30,000 members do.

City living also distances many from heirloom crops, which the Indigenous-run San Xavier Co-op Farm just south of Tucson is trying to regenerate, said one of its managers, Amy Juan, who harvests near the cousins鈥� camp.

鈥淲ith everything we do, there鈥檚 a teaching of some sort,鈥� added Garcia, who said he’s encouraged by programs on the reservation and beyond that help youth connect to their ancestral culture.

Francine Larson Segundo, who also harvests nearby, said her grandparents taught her about planting and caring for the saguaro.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e people, and they are our people, and when we鈥檙e gone, one will take our place,鈥� she said after picking the fruit for nearly two hours. 鈥淎nybody that鈥檚 younger than me, I have a responsibility to teach as much as I can.鈥�

Francisco鈥檚 aunt Helen Ramon, widely known as 鈥淕randma Helen,鈥� stopped by. She鈥檚 especially adamant about instilling in youth the need to treat the natural environment with the same respect due to fellow beings.

鈥淭hey need to carry on our traditions,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 lose our ways of being Native.鈥�

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.