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Tucson — or Cuk Ṣon as the O’odham peoples call it — is one of the oldest inhabited areas in the country, with human history in the region stretching back more than 4,000 years. Early Indigenous communities developed sophisticated irrigation canals and agricultural systems along the Santa Cruz River. So when Spanish imperialists arrived in the 1600s, they encountered established Indigenous communities, including the O’odham peoples and Apache groups fighting to defend their land and autonomy. Still, Spain erected the Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón in 1775, forcibly incorporating the region into the colonial province of New Spain. When Mexico later gained independence from Spain in 1821, Tucson became part of the Mexican state of Occidente and later Sonora. Then, through the Gadsden Purchase in 1854 — when the U.S. bought southern Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico — Tucson, a city far older than the U.S. itself, became part of the country.
