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| Bulldozers scrape the sweet earth bare today near O'odham's Sacred Quitobaquito Springs. Video by Russ McSpadden. |
O'odham Ancestral Land Being Stripped Bare at Sacred Quitobaquito Springs for Second Border Wall
Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 18, 2026
QUITOBAQUITO SPRINGS, Arizona -- The ancestral land of O'odham is being stripped bare near Sacred Quitobaquito Springs, home to pupfish, snails and turtles found nowhere else in the world, except here in the fragile Sonoran Desert.
Quitobaquito Springs is a place of prayer and ceremony for O'odham. The federal government is destroying this land for a second border wall, that is being protested here on the Arizona border, and from California to Texas.
The roads are closed, but Russ McSpadden hiked into the area Monday and found the destruction underway at Organ Pipe National Monument.
East of Quitobaquito Springs, the earth has been bulldozed bare.
"There are burial sites here and cultural sites here, and the spring is home to three endangered species," McSpadden said.
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| 'WARNING NO TRESPASSING' signs are now posted on the borders of the Tohono O'odham Nation. A federal judge in Washington ruled on Friday that a border wall will not be trespass and the government's interest outweigh those of the Tohono O'odham Nation. Further the judge said the land where the border wall will be built, a 60-foot-mile strip along the north side of the border, is "likely" Roosevelt Reservation created by presidential order in 1907. The Tohono O'odham Nation countered and said this has been O'odham land since time immemorial. |
The scraping of the earth is near the western border of the Tohono O'odham Nation, where O'odham are on alert and watching for border wall contractors who may attempt to enter their sovereign land. The Nation has posted 'No Trespassing' signs at its border and told tribal police to escort border wall contractors off of their sovereign land if they attempt to enter.
The destruction is already underway near Sacred Quitobaquito Springs, and in Lochiel, east of Nogales, where a tree sit is saving a cottonwood, hundreds of years old, from the excavators that have already destroyed three of the grandmother trees.
"At one location, about 3.4 miles east of Quitobaquito, a massive staging yard is being expanded. At a second, about 2.5 miles east of Quitobaquito, a linear swath of desert has been bulldozed bare for the second border wall," McSpadden said.
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| Quitobaquito pupfish in Quitobaquito Springs |
"The leveled areas are in one of the most culturally and ecologically significant landscapes in the Sonoran Desert," McSpadden said.
"The second wall is planned to run about 100 feet north of the existing border wall. It will extend through the Quitobaquito area, threatening the spring, its surrounding wetland, and plants and animals found nowhere else in the country."
"This is one of the greatest environmental disasters in American history," McSpadden said, pointing out a second border wall could destroy Quitobaquito Spings.
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| The endangered Sonoyta Mud Turtle makes its home in the spring-fed desert oasis. |
"Quitobaquito Springs provides critical habitat for three endangered species — the Quitobaquito pupfish, Sonoyta mud turtle and Quitobaquito tryonia, a tiny springsnail found only at the spring. The Center successfully advocated for Endangered Species Act protection and critical habitat for the Sonoyta mud turtle and has repeatedly challenged threats to the pupfish and Quitobaquito Springs," McSpadden said.
McSpadden urged those who love these wild places, these sacred places, to tell Congress to halt the destruction. 👉www.biodiv.us/borderwall.
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Scraping of the earth near Quitobaquito Springs. Photo Russ McSpadden. |
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| In total disregard for the fragile and sacred life here, the federal government is destroying O'odham sacred places and the home to endangered species. Video by Russ McSpadden. |
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