Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing: The Akimel O'odham and Cycles of Agricultural Transformation in the Phoenix Basin - Paperbackby Jennifer Bess (Author) Where the Red Winged Blackbirds Sing examines the ways in which the Akimel O'odham ("River People") and their ancestors, the Huhugam, adapted to economic, political, and environmental constraints imposed by federal Indian policy, the Indian Bureau, and an encroaching settler population in Arizona's Gila River Valley. Fundamental to O'odham resilience was their connection to their sense of peoplehood and their himdag