Are You Aware? The Hia-Ced O’odham and the Wall (a Crime Against Humanity)
This is part II in our “Nation to Nation” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here.
On March 20, 2020, a group of Hia-Ced O’odham leaders traveled to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to visit our sacred place of being. While there, I gasped at what I saw.
My heart bled in unbelief at the inhumane building of this counterfeit wall. It is counterfeit — not so much in its physical structure (because that is very real), but in its deceitful purpose. Truth be told, the majority of the drugs and human-trafficking come from the air, under the terrain, or corrupt officers. Cartels have a near-infinite supply of money and resources, and no border wall will stop them. The wall only destroys and obliterates the existence of a people, plants, and animals. I cannot comprehend how a government in these United States could take such an unconscious stance.
As I gazed upon the desert that held my childhood memories, I was reminded of stories of my people and my family who once walked the sacred landscape. I remember my grandma Fillman Childs Bell’s teachings that tied my existence to the intricately, tightly webbed Hia-Ced O’odham community, which now laid ripped to shreds. I was torn to tears. The stripping of the sacred earth, the tapping into the sacred pond, the unburial of human remains, and the blowing up of our sacred mountain all tell our story of the Hia-Ced O’odham history from time and memorial, now gone forever.
These sacred sites can never be replaced.
The most concrete example I could compare it to is the destruction of the twin towers by heartless terrorists. Like those terrorists, the federal government created fear and lies to validate their wrongful acts. This document cannot comprise the pain and injustice that the Hia-Ced O’odham hold in their hearts with the wall construction through its sacred lands.
As many who support President Trump’s immigration policy will state, the wall is “necessary” because Trump promised his supporters that he would build it — supporters such as Arizona House Majority Leader Warren Petersen, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Prescott), and Senator Martha McSally. It goes without saying that the ones enduring the consequences, meaning the Indians, are not counted among those to whom the president must keep his word.
The Hia-Ced O’odham (“Sand People”) are a small group of O’odham in the Southwest. Our aboriginal lands span from Ajo, Arizona, west to Yuma, Arizona, north to the Salt River, and south to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. We exist on both the United States side and the Mexico side. During colonization, only four families survived. I am fortunate that my family was one of them. We were a nomadic group. We traveled to where the waters flowed. We survived in the harshest of terrains.
One such stop for us was Ar’vai’pia, also known as Quitobaquito Springs. The federal government sold our aboriginal lands to the Tohono O’odham Nation for $26 million, without the consent of the Hia-Ced O’odham. Now they scourge our sacred lands with their wall. The Hia-Ced O’odham recently organized an LLC, the Hia-Ced Hemajkam, which is working toward becoming the 574th federally recognized tribe in the U.S. (see HiaCed.com).
In March 2020, when a national Native American radio program discussed the wall and its effects with the Hia-Ced O’odham territory, the Trump administration issued a waiver to be exempted for ongoing construction from environmental regulations, in addition to parts of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). What falls short is the fact that there was no government-to-government consultation between the Trump administration and the Hia-Ced O’odham and Tohono O’odham. This consultation mandate was issued on November 5, 2009, by President Obama’s Executive Order 13175. This orders federal agencies to “involve the appropriate level of decision maker in a consultation process.” This was never conducted.
The federal government is mandated to maintain ongoing communication with tribal authorities. To ignore this is unlawful.
Just as cities, states, and foreign nations expect to be informed of decisions that adversely impact them from the federal government, so do the Hia-Ced O’odham and Tohono O’odham Nations.
In 2017, oil began flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation is situated downstream, has been fighting against the construction of the pipeline out of concern for the potential environmental and health impact on their lands and people. Because of the breach of existing federal regulations and established treaties with Native American Tribes, on July 6, 2020, “a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered the [United States Army] Corps in March to conduct a full environmental impact analysis. He said that the Corps had made a ‘highly controversial’ decision in approving federal permits for the project. Among other things, he said the Corps had failed to answer major questions about the risks of oil spills.”
For now, the pipeline has been ordered to be emptied. It is hoped that this ruling will assist the Hia-Ced O’odham and the Tohono O’odham to receive justice in their efforts to stop the construction of the border wall on their sacred land.
Christina C. Bell Andrews, a member of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, is a graduate from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where she received her JD and Indian Law Certificate.
She is a Udall intern who worked in Washington D.C. for the office of Congressman Raul Grijalva, where she assisted in the creation of the Native American Suicide Prevention Act. Christina is Hia-Ced O’odham and a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Christina attended the University of Arizona, where she received a BA in Spanish and Portuguese, MA in English, and MPH in policy and management. She also holds an MBA in international business.
Her professional experience has been in government, health and human services, and education at the tribal, state, and federal levels. As the former chairwoman of the Hia-Ced District of the Tohono O’odham Nation, her experience was critical in developing the necessary physical and governmental infrastructure for establishing a tribal community. Christina hopes to facilitate continued efforts to educate, empower, and advocate for Native American communities. Currently, Christina works at the Pima County Attorney’s Office and continues to work with her Hia-Ced O’odham Tribe to gain federal recognition (see HiaCed.com).
Christina has 11 beautiful children (nine girls and two boys) and a very supportive husband. She is a member of Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
