That's the Tohono O'odham Sonoran desert homeland pictured above. They gather food (like saguaro fruit) and materials for their signature traditional basketry from these same lands.
Almost every one of the stories cited above includes some variation on this sentence: "The investigation was turned over to the Tohono O'odham police department." Again from AP, 2/17/2004 (no public link, sorry):
The situation has taken reservation resources away from community policing and has compromised the tribe's health care system. It also has polluted tribal lands, instilled fear and corrupted some residents with drug money, according to the tribe... The tribe spends about $3 million annually on border activities that include search-and-rescue operations and autopsies for border crossers... Yet the tribe has received only $30,000 from the federal government during the past few years - since the number of illegal immigrants started climbing.
But the tribe doesn't get a nickel from the Department of Homeland Security. That's because the (Republican at the time) Congress wrote the bill establishing DHS excluding them from consideration. With most federal agencies, tribes get TAS (Treatment as State), and get funding on a similar legal footing as the states. From DoJ to fund their police departments, from HHS for clinics and community health reps, from the EPA to establish water quality standards that reflect their own cultural practices, from Interior for a variety of tribal functions, and so on. But in 2000, George Bush ran for office saying that tribes should be under state jurisdiction (in violation of more treaties than you could shake a stick at), and that's how the new cabinet agency established on his watch runs. AP, 8/30/06:
The Tohono O'odham Nation has spent years trying to limit intrusions onto its land, with little obvious success. The reservation is crisscrossed with at least 160 smuggling trails, littered with trash and even shrines erected by migrants. The tribe has given unprecedented access to the U.S. Border patrol in hopes of stemming the tide. Now the tribe wants more direct financial help from the Department of Homeland Security, tribal officials said.
"We're caught in the middle of this whole problem," Tribal Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Sanders said. "It creates a really high stress level for our people."
The 25 tribes along the southern and northern US borders are forced to appeal for money directly from states because the Homeland SecurityAct of 2002 does not recognize Indian nations as sovereign governments. That adds a layer of bureaucracy and brings complaints that tribes are left out of the federal decision-making process.
Abramoff-associated tribes got good results in their lobbying efforts. Tohono O'odham has not been so effective. One of the biggest problems with cronyism is that real problems are left unaddressed.
Consider this from nativevillage.org, May 2005:
Arizona: One of the busiest--and deadliest--stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border is on the Tohono O'odham Reservation. Tribal officials say this part of the border is being ignored by federal border enforcers. Tohono O'odham Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders is unhappy about Homeland Security's failure to work effectively with the tribe. In March, the Border Patrol announced it would send more agents to the reservation to help reduce deaths and stop illegal immigration Juan-Saunders said she wasn't told or consulted about the effort beforehand. She heard about it on the radio on the way to work. "I'm tired of being ignored," she said.
It's not that the tribe doesn't have the know-how. In fact, the reservation-based Shadow Wolves are widely acknowledged as one of the best desert tracking units on the planet. Unfortunately, they've been handled like a political football, with the group in danger of disbanding as many have taken early retirement.
Shadow Wolves read damage to and fibers left on saguaro cactus spines
The Tohono O'odham stretch of the border is prime candidate for the new "Security Wall". But these people, much affected by trans-border traffic, don't want it. Why's that? From the New York Times, Sept. 20, 2006:
If the fence is built, however, it could have a long gap -- about 75 miles -- at one of the border's most vulnerable points because of opposition from the Indian tribe here.
...
"I am O'odham first, and American or Mexican second or third," said Ramon Valenzuela, as he walked his two children to school through one gate two miles from his O'odham village in Mexico.
...
Tribal members, who once gave water and food to the occasional passing migrant, say they have become fed up with groups of illegal immigrants breaking into homes and stealing food, water and clothing, and even using indoor and outdoor electrical outlets to charge cellphones... Tribal members, however, fearing the symbolism of a solid wall and concern about the free range of deer, wild horses, coyotes, jackrabbits and other animals they regard as kin, said they would fight the kind of steel-plated fencing that Congress had in mind and that has slackened the crossing flow in previous hot spots like San Diego. "Animals and our people need to cross freely," said Verlon Jose, a member of the tribal council representing border villages. "In our tradition we are taught to be concerned about every living thing as if they were people. We don't want that wall."
...
Ms. Juan-Saunders said helicopters swooped low and agents descended on a recent ceremony, apparently suspicious of a large gathering near the border, and she has complained to supervisors about agents speeding and damaging plants used for medicine and food... Mr. Rodriguez acknowledged the concerns but said agents operated in a murky world where a rush of pickups from a border village just might be tribal members attending an all-night wake, or something else.
This last bit reminds me of "misunderstandings" in the US occupation in Afghanistan. It typically goes like this: Afghans are celebrating a wedding by shooting some volleys of "happy fire". So the US bombs the wedding. Whoops!
Other border tribes have had similar reactions. According to the Arizona Daily Star (link expired, sorry):
"The Earth is where God put us since time immemorial. But suddenly you can't go visit your cousin anymore," says Louis Guassac, executive director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force in California, which advocates more open borders for the 3,500 members of the Kumeyaay Nation who live on both sides of the international line... For the nearly 12 million people who live along the U.S.-Mexican border, the line is an unnatural divider, splitting cultures that are otherwise alike. Sealing the border would forever divide communities and tribes whose strong cross-border ties are integral to their identities, a Star investigation found.
...
Ali Jegk resident Margaret Garcia, 68, used to sleep on her porch in the hot summer, but moved inside because of Border Patrol searchlights. She's bothered by the high-speed chases and worries about her relatives in Mexico who need to travel to Sells for diabetes treatments. Like other village residents, she also worries about young tribal members who are lured by the big money of drug trafficking. Because she was born at home and doesn't have a government-issued birth certificate, Garcia has no passport. That means in less than two years, when the government will require passports for everyone entering the country, she may not be able to visit friends and relatives in Mexico at all, she says. Garcia and her neighbor Ofelia Rivas are two of about 25 O'odham who drive across Menager's Dam to Quitovac for an annual rebirth ceremony in July. In March, about the same number of people take a two-day spirit walk to the site as part of a ritual to bless the land.
...
"We're going to have to behave like the illegal immigrants, sneak around so that we can get to our ceremony," Garcia says in O'odham.
The Washington Post reported 10/6/06 that the money appropriated for the border barrier could also be redirected to other purposes, even without a signing statement:
But shortly before recessing late last Friday, the House and Senate gave the Bush administration leeway to distribute the money to a combination of projects, not just the physical barrier along the southern border. The money may also be spent on roads, technology and "tactical infrastructure" to support the Homeland Security Department's preferred option of a "virtual fence."
What's more, in a late-night concession to win over wavering Republicans, GOP congressional leaders pledged in writing that Native American tribes, members of Congress, governors and local leaders would get a say in "the exact placement" of any structure and that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would have the flexibility to use alternatives "when fencing is ineffective or impractical."
Would it be too much to hope that the Tohono O'odham could get support suitable to the problems they have to face? Maybe give the Shadow Wolves some meaningful respect?
And now, for the ODDBALL segment of our program:
It seems that middle class Mexicans have been opting for a new kind of "adventure vacation". A tribe in the country's north is offering guided, simulated, overnight "border crossing" hikes. And it's getting good word of mouth. Arizona Daily Star, 8/26/06 (again, link expired):
IXMIQUILPAN, Mexico -- On a moonless night, the group scurried down the canyon wall, its feet slipping in ankle-high mud. Sirens grew louder as the guide, clad in a ski mask and known as Pancho, urged the group to run faster.
"Hurry up! The Border Patrol is coming!"
...
The 20 or so people fleeing from the Border Patrol aren't illegal immigrants -- they're tourists about 700 miles from the border. Most are well-heeled professionals more likely to travel to the United States in an airplane than on foot. They've each paid 150 pesos --about $15 -- for what is perhaps Mexico's strangest tourist attraction: a night as an illegal immigrant crossing the Rio Grande.
Advertising for the mock journey, which takes place at a nature park in the central state of Hidalgo, tells the pretend migrants: "Make fun of the Border Patrol!" and "Cross the Border as an extreme sport!"
...
"It was cool -- it was very fun," gushed his friend Mauricio Palacios, 30. Until almost 2 a.m., the group scaled walls, hid in tunnels, jumped in the back of pickup trucks and trekked through a cornfield. Word of the tourist attraction has provoked much head-scratching among immigrant advocates and real-life immigrants who have made the trek across the border.
SUMMARY
There's two Congressional districts along the Arizona's border with Mexico, the 7th and the 8th. The former is represented by Raul Grijalva (D), and back in 2006, the Republicans abandoned all hope of retaining the latter, formerly held by retiring Rep. Kolbe (R), who publicly refused to support the wingnut nominated to run for his seat. And I don't read this editorial from the Tucson Citizen as good news for the GOP either.
Our Opinion: Border fence political theater, not real security
The gesture was pure political theater, as Bush urged those attending a fundraising breakfast to "Vote Republican for the safety of the United States."
When it comes to the border fence, Bush has it wrong. A fence will provide only the illusion of security. Real security will come only after Congress deals with immigration reform as a whole instead of breaking it apart piecemeal... As Gov. Janet Napolitano has said, "You show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder."...Besides, studies show that about 40 percent of the illegal immigrants here entered legally, then overstayed their permits. A fence fails to address that problem, too.
The fence will not deter illegal immigrants, but it will disrupt wildlife migration routes and cause more consternation to the long-ignored Tohono O'odham Nation, whose land straddles the border and whose citizens oppose the fence.
And this one was published last May! At this point, if the Republicans think they see light at the end of the tunnel, they've got to be worrying that it might be an oncoming train. Good, the more they're off their game, the better.
There's plenty of motivation for everyone to keep up the good work. Things are looking up for our chances in the midterms. The sooner these Republicans follow their cornocopia of scandals of into the sunset (in disgrace), the better. The sooner they go, the smaller the number of decades it's going to take to clean up after them. So kudos to all the contributions, GOTV, opposition research, canvassing &c. November 7th is an important benchmark, so let's stay focussed!!
Afterword from 4+ years on: Gabrielle Giffords was first elected to that seat, AZ-08, in 2006. I don't want to make it the point of the diary, but I had some hopes that after the Democrats took over both chambers of the Congress, and then the White House, the mad adventure of the Border Wall might have been dialed back. It's been a bit of a disappointment, as Dems fall all over themselves to "prove" that they want to protect the country from the southern brown menace.
At any rate: The main points of this old diary have become relevant to today's headlines. So it seemed like a good idea to re-post it. And, with groups, this one's posted to Native American Netroots and to Baja Arizona Kossacks.
Original version cross-posted to e Pluribus Media.
