Tohono O’odham Nation says no National Guard or wall on its land at the border – By Gabe Ortiz (dailykos.com) / April 17 2018
The Tohono O’odham people have lived in the areas that are now portions of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora before any modern borders existed. “But a U.S.-Mexico land deal in the 1800s ‘dissected” the nation’s indigenous lands in half,” according to Splinter, and “the tribe has been fighting border walls ever since so that their people can travel freely.” Now, also “worried about Trump’s plan to send ‘anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000’ members of the National Guard to the border”—and onto their lands—Tohono O’odham Nation leaders are speaking out against the administration’s strong-arm efforts:
Tohono O’odham chairman Edward D. Manuel recently went on a local radio station to tell members of the tribe that no National Guard or military personnel were welcomed on the land, according to a spokesperson for Manuel’s office. The tribe also released a statement announcing the Border Patrol has agreed to not send military personnel to its land. (Border Patrol officials in the Tucson Sector, which covers the area where the tribe lives, did not respond to a request for comment.)
According to Splinter, “the Tohono O’odham Nation now controls the second largest Native American land base in the United States, including 75 miles of the US‐Mexico border.” But with Trump using Central American moms and kids to manufacture a crisis at the border, as well as demanding the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to an already over-militarized border region, the Tohono O’odham Nation is making it clear that not only are U.S. military forbidden from their land, but Trump’s damned wall is as well. With some Tohono O’odham people crossing the border to Mexico daily for life necessities like water, a wall would be a logistical—and inhumane—nightmare:
The Tohono O’odham’s nation says they want to protect their homeland and that they already cooperate with the Border Patrol. But they say walls and military personnel are not a sensible solution to anything
In a video from the Tohono O’odham Nation, vice chairman Verlon Jose stressed that communities working together to respect the lands and inhabitants is what has worked. He said that following 9/11, officials and the local people worked “to put together another tool, in terms of a vehicle barrier, so that animals may migrate freely. We do not own the land, but we care for the land.” Additionally, the Tohono O’odham Nation has already spent millions of its own money on border security. “A wall built along the border we believe is not the answer to securing America,” said vice-chairman Verlon. “Walls throughout the world have proven to not be 100% effective.”
