Trump is currently ordering for $8.6 billion in federal funding to construct a concrete wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that will cut through 62 miles of the sovereign Tohono nation in Arizona. Join us in alliance with the Tohono O’odham nation in their fight against President Trump’s border wall.

The tribal council of the nation has already spoken out against the wall as they recognize that the wall will be an ineffective form of border security. In the past, the nation has taken initiative to collaborate with agencies to increase border security, including the establishment of vehicle barriers in 2008 that led to a massive decline in apprehensions of undocumented immigrants. However, the current administration ordering for a border wall does not parallel the positive strides made for tribal land, as the wall will directly impact the culture and quality of life of tribal lands that would be affected.

Since the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, the US government has prioritized Anglo-American trade, land partitioning and economic opportunity over the rights of tribal lands such as the Tohono O’odham nation. In the 1990’s, the US government created their Southwest Border Strategy, which favored non-native security by funneling criminal trafficking into unofficial entry points within Tohono O’odham territory. In 2002, an amendment to the Homeland Security Act reinstated the national security responsibilities of the federal government, and deemed all tribal governments as local governments under state authority. Therefore, the legal and cultural sovereignty of tribes such as the Tohono O’odham nation continues to be under historical oppression today. While there have been improvements in federal support for tribal lands in recent years (Ex. U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007), the building of a border wall will further oppress the native population, and contradict policies such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, the National American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act that were designed to protect tribal sovereignty.

Building the border wall would further divide tribal nations and communities, and prevent tribal members from traditional pilgrimages or visits to cultural and sacred sites. Building the wall would further militarize the lands on the tribe’s southern boundary as well, as the US military currently employs the “defense in depth” strategy to criminalize immigrants at the border. The wall would endanger native animal migration and habitation, and destroy much of culturally sacred vegetation across the border’s terrain. In addition, a dam that provides the tribal nation with a great percentage of water would be cut off by the wall, and stifled from reaching the sovereign land.

Join us in the fight to protect tribal land and native American rights. Sign our petition to stop homeland security from building a wall that will impede on the sovereignty of the Tohono O’odham nation.