Learn the ‘real’ history at Presidio Museum

The Spanish built the Presidio San Agustín military fort and established modern-day Tucson on Aug. 20, 1775.

While this is the city’s founding date, Presidio Museum director Amy Hartmann-Gordon said please don’t use “birthday” to mark the occasion.

“We don’t use the word ‘birthday’ anymore, we call it a celebration,” Hartmann-Gordon said. “We recognize that it’s the founding day of Tucson, but we also wanted to recognize that this is the longest inhabited valley in North America.”

Before the Spanish Presidio, the area was home to residents who called the valley “Scuk-Sǫn,” (pronounced Skuk-shone), or “spring at the base of the black mountain.”

This year, the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission and the Presidio Museum will host the “Celebration of All Things S-cuk Son/Tucson.” The fiesta on Aug. 19 will commemorate the founding date of modern Tucson and the hundreds of years before it.

“We want people to learn about our history and understand that it’s impactful on them even today,” Hartmann-Gordon noted. “It’s worth understanding how people came to the valley… the exchanges they had with one another and how it’s all affected our community today.”

The Presidio Museum plans to celebrate this rich history in full. The free event will feature the Mariachi Los Diablitos, Chinese Lion Dances from the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center and soldier drills by the Tucson Presidio Garrison.

The celebration will also include Walia music from the Desert Sky Winds Walia Band. According to the Presidio, dancing will be encouraged.

“We have all kinds of community partners,” Hartmann-Gordon explained. “Everyone who represents a cultural or historic organization will come down to the event, and everyone has a booth.”

Along with the entertainment, the Presidio Museum has invited other historic groups that have helped create Tucson, including the Buffalo Soldiers, the Mormon Battalion and the Mexican American Heritage and History Museum.

Representatives from the Tohono O’odham Nation will commemorate the first peoples who inhabited the valley. Additionally, desert and Old Pueblo archaeologists will be onsite.

“What’s really fascinating about Tucson… is the varying people that have been a part of the community,” Hartmann-Gordon said. “History has sometimes not recognized the value some people have given their communities, and I think that’s something that museums are rectifying and working on.”

The Presidio Museum’s modern mission is dedicated to interpreting all facets of the area’s history, including the parts rarely mentioned in textbooks. The director and her team are working with the commission to portray the many influences that made Tucson.

“There’s a lot of work being done on how to interpret history as unbiased as possible, using as many different voices as possible,” Hartmann-Gordon said. “That is the approach we’re taking at the Presidio Museum in general.”

Before it was the “Celebration of All Things Scuk-Sǫn/Tucson,” the fiesta was arranged for decades, long before the Presidio was reopened in 2007. The Presidio Museum soon joined the commission and began hosting the event at its downtown location.

According to Hartmann-Gordon, it seemed only natural to have it at the site of the original Presidio San Agustín fort.

“Even though it was in our space, we as the nonprofit Presidio just came in to help out and be a part of the commission,” Hartmann-Gordon noted. “That has evolved where it is still hosted by the commission, but we do a lot more now to run the event.”

This year’s celebration marks the 248th anniversary of modern-day Tucson. While the Presidio acknowledges the valley’s longer history, they are also preparing for the city’s upcoming milestone.

Tucson will turn 250 a year before the United States, and the commission is already workshopping plans to celebrate.

“After this event, we’re going to be working toward our big 250th anniversary bash,” Hartmann-Gordon said. “We’ll work with the commission, the city and the county to come up with something great in two years.”

To help fund the celebration and all other operations, the Presidio Museum will host its online auction through Wednesday, Aug. 30. Donations will also contribute to programs from adult lectures and children’s workshops to events like Living History Days.

This year’s “Celebration of All Things Scuk-Sǫn/Tucson” will open Saturday, Aug. 19. Hartmann-Gordon hopes this initiative is not only a trend in museum culture but a foundation for the honest telling of history.

“You can stick with tradition in a community,” Hartmann-Gordon began. “But you can also be very cognizant of opening it to interpretation for as many voices as possible. That’s what we are doing with this celebration."