Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

February 20, 2020

Mohawks urge Tohono O'odham to blockade border wall construction and offer help


Mohawk Warrior Society flags at a rail blockade on the tenth day of demonstration in Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ont., Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020. Mohawks are in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

Mohawks urge Tohono O'odham to blockade border wall construction and offer help

Tohono O'odham urged to blockade border wall construction without fear

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat

Mark Maracle of the Mohawk Warrior Society said Tohono O'odham should shut down construction of the border wall. Maracle said Mohawks stand ready to help them and fear should not control their minds.

"They should blockade the fence," Maracle told Censored News today, Thursday.

"If our people up in the north can blockade railroads, they can blockade that fence too."

"The support has grown all across Turtle Island."

"When we were down there, we told them if they want to do something we would be supportive," Maracle said of a large delegation of Mohawks to the Tohono O'odham Nation during the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit.

"They have to take the initiative down there to do it on their own."

"They should have no fear when the truth is on their side."

Meanwhile, Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs plan to meet with Tyendinaga and Kahnawake Mohawks.

Although the RCMP says today it will leave the land of the Wet'suwet'en, Maracle said, "They speak with forked tongues."

Maracle said Tohono O'odham should not allow fear to control their minds. "All it takes is a couple of people, and for them to put up the Mohawk flag."

During the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit in 2007, Mohawks were on the border on the Tohono O'odham Nation south of Sells, Arizona. They saw U.S. Border Patrol agents arresting Indigenous women and children and jumped from their cars on the road and ran to rescue those being arrested. The U.S. Border Patrol agents, shaken and afraid rushed away with the young women and children in the federal paddy women on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Mohawks asked why the Tohono O'odham allows this to happen. They asked why the Tohono O'odham Nation government allows the U.S. Border Patrol on their lands and the abuse of Indigenous Peoples on their land. After seeing a U.S. spy tower south of Sells, they asked how could this happen on sovereign Tohono O'odham land. The spy tower was next to a large chain-link cage used to imprison migrants, many of whom were Indigenous. They said the cage was no more than a dog pen.

Already on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the Arizona border, located near the western edge of the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Trump administration and contractors, Southwest Valley Constructors, have blasted into Monument Hill, an area where human remains were found during the border wall destruction. The area was a burial place for the ancestors of Tohono O'odham.

Trump waived all federal laws to build the border wall, including laws protecting Native American sacred places, Native American burial places, endangered species and those protecting the land, water and air. Some of these endangered species live no place else in the world but here in the Sonoran Desert.

Meanwhile, rail blockades are expanding in Canada, with support pouring in from as far away as London and Paris today. A sit-in in London is currently underway. Back in Canada, RCMP said they will serve an injunction on the rail blockade near Edmonton. A lockdown was underway in San Francisco in support, and earlier trains were blocked in Seattle. The international borders and gateways to New York have also been blocked for periods of time.

In Canada, Via Rail said it shut down all its nationwide trains. CN rails said it shut down its railroads in the eastern part of Canada due to the blockades.

The Mohawks at Tyendinaga and Kahnawake continue their rail blockades today. They said they will continue the blockades until the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs are satisfied.

(Below) Today, Thursday: RCMP to female: "I'm pretty sure if we go through your car we could find some reason for impounding it." (Threatened, handcuffed and released today while gathering needed firewood. Video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1230555179885350912


Below: Breaking News from Neskonlith


Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is along the western edge of the Tohono O'odham Nation on the Arizona border south of Phoenix, and southwest of Tucson.
                     

Actions spread through the U.S. and the world in support of Wet'suwet'en. Below, an action in Idaho.


Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News. For permission to repost, contact brendanorrell@gmail.com

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