David A. Yetman obtained his Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Arizona. He later went on to work as a professor for the University and as an associate research scientist for the University of Arizona Southwest Studies Center. He was also elected to three terms as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and served as executive director of the Tucson Audubon Society. David Yetman's career has also expanded into the realm of television, as host of The Desert Speaks, a local Tucson PBS program on KUAT, and internationally distributed PBS program In the Americas with David Yetman.

Dr. Yetman is also an accomplished author and photographer. His books include: Where the Desert Meets the Sea: A Trader in the Land of the Seri Indians; Sonora: An Intimate Geography; Gentry's Rio Mayo Plants: the Tropical Deciduous Forest and Environs of Northwest Mexico; Scattered Round Stones: A Mayo Village in Sonora, Mexico; Mayo Ethnobotany: Land History, and Traditional Knowledge in Northwest Mexico; and Hidden People: The Guarijíos of Northwest Mexico and their Ethnobotany.

This collection contains materials that primarily concern Yetman's terms as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The majority of the collection comprises newspaper clippings pertaining to either Yetman or the Pima County Board of Supervisors. This collection also contains correspondence, speeches, campaign materials, photographs and certificates.