Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

November 13, 2007

US Apartheid Wall under construction on Tohono O'odham lands

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

SAN MIGUEL GATE, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION (Arizona) -- The United States' Apartheid Wall is under construction on Tohono O'odham Nation lands, shown here at the San Miguel Gate. Minutes after this photo was taken, a delegation of Mohawks and other Native people stood before the Border Patrol with fists held high in solidarity and would have intervened in the arrest of Mayans, if the Border Patrol had not packed the Mayans into a vehicle and sped away. Delegates from the Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas were disgusted to see the border wall going up on Indian land; the "cage" where men women and children are held on Indian land; and the arrests of Mayans, mostly women and children, on Tohono O'odham land. The construction of the border wall on O'odham land has already resulted in the digging up the ancestors of the O'odham from their final resting place, on the western side of Tohono O'odham Nation lands by the contractor Boeing. The border wall will also be a barrier for the traditional ceremonial route of O'odham. Although it is endorsed by the Tohono O'odham Nation government, individual O'odham are protesting the wall with support from Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas. (Photo Jay Johnson-Castro)

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