Book Talk: ASU hosts Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, to Discuss Spy Towers on Homeland

Book Talk with Ophelia Rivas: Significant Impact 

Tempe Campus In-person, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026
Registration required: 8 seats left on Wednesday afternoon

https://asu.libcal.com/event/17604879

Come listen and learn from the three authors of Significant Impact, Ophelia Rivas from Tohono O'odham Nation of Ali Jeg'k village, Caitlin Blanchfield from Cornell University, New York and Nina Kolowratnik from Ghent University, Belgium about their newly released book!

Book Synopsis:

A collaboration between O'odham Elder Ophelia Rivas, human rights scholar Nina Valerie Kolowratnik, and architectural historian Caitlin Blanchfield, the book advocates against militarized infrastructures on Indigenous lands and challenges common protocols of environmental review, along with the Western frameworks of scientific classification and property embedded in them. The project makes visible the impact of surveillance when considered through Indigenous sovereignty and an O'odham epistemology of land. It offers a visual language that is sensitive to secrecy protocols within Traditional Knowledge and that challenges the colonial biases of Western cartography.

The book situates current surveillance infrastructure projects on the Tohono O'odham Nation within a longer history of settler colonialism and border militarization, and reflects on the role of environmental review within the politics of protection in Indigenous lands.

Learn more about the book here: https://urbannext.net/significant-impact-contesting-surveillance/

Date:

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Time:

11:00 am - 01:00 pm

Time Zone:

Arizona Time (change)

Location:

Hayden Library - Labriola Center 2nd Floor

Audience:

Freshman   Graduate   Transfer   Undergraduate  

Ṣapai Cui'ig

S-ke:g ‘Em-Jiwhidag

Yá'át'ééh 

Dagot’ee 

Welcome 

The Labriola National American Indian Data Center is an Indigenous-led library center where students and community members can celebrate and critically engage with American Indian and Indigenous scholarly works and creative writing. Its staff provides culturally relevant information and research support, and the center is a culturally safe learning space for Indigenous library users.

https://asu.libcal.com/event/17604879

https://lib.asu.edu/labriola

Hayden Library Parking

Hayden Library Address is 300 E. Orange St., Tempe, Arizona 85281, at the corner of Cady Mall and Orange Mall on the Tempe campus.
Garages Nearby are Apache Parking Garage, located close to the southern edge of the core campus near Apache Blvd and 10th Street Parking Garage, located within a short walking distance north/northeast of the library.

Censored News 2026

Apache Stronghold: Eleven Judges Call for Supreme Court to Protect Oak Flat

Oak Flat Litigation: Eleven Judges call for Supreme Court to Protect Oak Flat

By Wendsler Nosie, Sr., Apache Stronghold, Censored News, September 29, 2026

The Ninth Circuit today declined to rehear three lawsuits seeking to protect Oak Flat. While this is disappointing news, we are heartened that eleven judges joined opinions criticizing the court’s decision as a “tragic error” and calling for the Supreme Court to step in. Thus, the fight to protect Oak Flat is far from over. It is coming again to the Supreme Court.

Judge Graber, writing on behalf of ten judges, put it simply: “We were wrong.” She said “everyone knew that this second round of litigation was inevitable,” and the courts should act now: “This is our last chance to prevent the irreversible desecration of a place, of a religion, and of a people.”

Judge Bumatay criticized the Court’s “badly fractured decision” and emphasized that “[t]he importance of Oak Flat to the Western Apache cannot be overstated.”

Chief Judge Murguia called the Court’s decision a “tragic error” and warned that Oak Flat would be destroyed “[u]nless the Supreme Court steps in.”

The plaintiffs in these cases—including the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, and seven courageous Apache girls and women—now have the opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court. Our prayers will be with them as they do.

Apache Stronghold’s own case remains in federal district court in Phoenix. The government and Resolution Copper have asked the court to dismiss our case, but we have asked the court to let the case continue so we can prove that the destruction of Oak Flat is illegal. We are still waiting for the district court to rule. Whatever the outcome, we will continue using every legal avenue available to protect Oak Flat.

Censored News 2026

Bizarre Flights Above Tohono O'odham Nation: US Military Claims it is Eliminating Enemy Drones

The MQ-9 drone parked on a tarmac in Arizona. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

Bizarre Flights Above Tohono O'odham Nation: US Military Claims it is Eliminating Enemy Drones using Direct Energy Lasers.

The U.S. military now claims it took out three enemy drones overnight that were targeting the US Border Patrol.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 25, 2026 Updated

TUCSON -- Those Bizarre Border Flights. The unidentified flights above the Tohono O'odham Nation border have now been identified as military drones, the kind used in war zones. After being spotlighted for weeks in our news reports, the U.S. military now says it took out three enemy drones using direct energy lasers, saying that the drones posed a threat to the U.S. Border Patrol. 

Book Tour: Spy Towers Impact Revealed by Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

The Book Tour for 'Significant Impact' begins at the Ajo Library in Ajo, Arizona at 5 pm on Sept. 28, 2026. The Book Tour brings the authors to Tucson, Phoenix, Tohono O'odham Nation, Canada and Mexico. There's also pending dates in New York in January.

Significant Impact: Contesting Surveillance Infrastructure on Tohono O'odham Je'ved

By Ophelia Rivas, Caitlin Blanchfield and Valerie Kolowratnik 

Significant Impact: Contesting Surveillance Infrastructure on Tohono O’odham Je’ved brings together stories, essays, and narrative cartography in a counter environmental assessment to document and describe the effects of surveillance infrastructure on the Tohono O’odham Nation—a Native American reservation on the United States-Mexico border.

A collaboration between O’odham Human Rights advocate Ophelia Rivas, human rights scholar Nina Valerie Kolowratnik, and architectural historian Caitlin Blanchfield, the book advocates against militarized infrastructures on Indigenous lands and challenges common protocols of environmental review, along with the Western frameworks of scientific classification and property embedded in them. The project makes visible the impact of surveillance when considered through Indigenous sovereignty and an O’odham epistemology of land. It offers a visual language that is sensitive to secrecy protocols within Traditional Knowledge and that challenges the colonial biases of Western cartography.

The book situates current surveillance infrastructure projects on the Tohono O’odham Nation within a longer history of settler colonialism and border militarization, and reflects on the role of environmental review within the politics of protection in Indigenous lands.

Purchase 'Significant Impact' by scanning the RQ code above on the poster,

Censored News 2026

'Tohono O'odham Sacred Mountain Facing Demolishment' by Ophelia Rivas

O'odham Western Sacred Mountain

'Tohono O'odham Sacred Mountain Facing Demolishment' by Ophelia Rivas

By Ophelia Rivas, September 25, 2026

Our western sacred mountain is threatened by US-DHS border infrastructure development. Our long standing relative with its ceremonial footprints is facing desecration and demolishment for a backward deranged eurocentric ideology of security.

While destroying nature to build a foreign structure without regard to cultural and environmental consequences, this country builds their false sense of security.

This security from immigration is created by the same government to continue to rage authority and control beyond this southern border in their false sense of dominate economic wealth.

This mountain is less than a mile from our community Ali Jeg'k, (little clearing) of the
Gu Vo (big pond) district of the Tohono O'odham reservation.

Requesting your strong energy and morning offerings to protect ancient places.

Ophelia Rivas
from O'odham homeland

Copyright Ophelia Rivas, Censored News. Content may not be used without written permission, or in any way for revenues.

Mohawk Nation News 'The Red-X: Ursula Honking on Bobo!'

Read at Mohawk Nation News

https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2026/09/24/the-red-x-ursula-honking-on-bobo/

US Military Surveillance After Federal Agents Take Control of Tohono O'odham Nation

US Army surveillance over the Tohono O'odham Nation, at 3:50 am on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026

US Military Surveillance After Federal Agents Take Control of Tohono O'odham Nation

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 23, 2026

Update: Mystery aircraft is military drone. Military drone and helicopters deployed to eliminate enemy drones on the border, the military says.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/09/bizarre-flights-above-tohono-oodham.html

The flight patterns of US military aircraft over the Tohono O'odham Nation leave questions unanswered.

The question is: With military surveillance from the air, and 10 spy towers built by Israel's Elbit Systems on tribal land -- why are so many migrants left to die on the Tohono O'odham Nation. Are the expensive surveillance systems failing, or is the United States involved in a crime against humanity.

Standing Rock's Mni Wiconi Reunion -- Lolly Be 'The Spirit was Present Again'

Standing Rock's Mni Wiconi Reunion -- Lolly Be 'The Spirit was Present Again'

Lolly Be (front) with friends at Mni Wiconi Ten Year NODAPL Reunion

'This reconnection has to do with our future and not only the past.' 

By Lolly Be, Censored News, Sept. 22, 2026

Phew what a whirlwind!

I feel like I went through a portal to another realm of camp life and now I’m sitting in an airport trying to make sense of these two worlds. I can tell you that living together in community with shared values and purpose feels a lot more Real than this modern society.

I didn’t have expectations when I showed up. I am actually amazed at how we managed to attune to the strong frequency we shared 10 years ago. This gathering was relatively small compared to the camps, maybe just over 100 people, but the spirit of what we all lived back then was present again.

Mohawk Nation News 'The Caroussel' is Spending out of Control

 

THE “CAROUSSEL” IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL!

https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2026/09/21/the-caroussel-is-spinning-out-of-control/

Posted on September 21, 2026 by Shé:kon

Mohawk Nation News

MNN. Sep. 17, 2026. The Two Row Wampum and the original indigenous languages were meant to stop all the evil that was coming to great turtle island onowarekeke. The colonial banker, now the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, without our knowledge or permission, is offering his foreign followers, the settlers and the globalists, a unique experience. “Canada” Inc. comes from the Mohawk word “canadien” meaning ‘squatters’. The King of England owns the corporation known as ‘Canada’. Canada’s settler colonists vote for the Prime Minister of the colony to rule over them. His job is to run the day–to-day operations for the corporation owner and to increase growing dividends for the international shareholders. That is why the Prime Minister swears allegiance only to the King of England.

In The Spirit of Resistance, Mni Wiconi 10 Year NODAPL Reunion Photo Page

In The Spirit of Resistance, Mni Wiconi 10 Year NODAPL Reunion

"Seeing our beautiful Water Protector relatives together is a great medicine for our souls.' -- Jean Roach, Lakota

Mni Wiconi Ten Year NODAPL Reunion. Courtesy photo, Censored News.

"Ten years ago. My life changed for the better. My circle grew tenfold," Waste Win Young said of her friends, Water Protectors, during the Mni Wiconi Ten Year NODAPL Reunion on Porcupine Creek in Standing Rock, North Dakota.

Those who have passed to the Spirit World were honored at the Mni Wiconi Ten Year NODAPL Reunion. Photo by Leta Killer. See all of the Water Protectors honored at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590930076131
Mni Wiconi Memorial. Thanks to Leta Killer for creating this slide show of Water Protectors who have passed to the Spirit World. The Mni Wiconi Reunion slide show can be viewed on the live broadcast at hour four, minute 26. It is 43 minutes long. (You can move the timeline forward at the bottom of the screen to 4:26.) Thanks to Govinda Dalton for the livestream. Day 2 live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2DeLSmqWA

Live from Mni Wiconi NODAPL Reunion at Standing Rock

Live from Mni Wiconi NODAPL Reunion at Standing Rock

The broadcast ends today with a beautiful tribute to those who have passed to the Spirit World.

On YouTube: Day 2

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2DeLSmqWA

Mni Wiconi NODAPL Ten Year Reunion: A Time for Healing, Prayer and a New Generation

Mni Wiconi NODAPL Ten Year Reunion: A Time for Healing, Prayer and a New Generation

By Water Protectors, Censored News, Today, September 18, 2026

PORCUPINE CREEK, Standing Rock Nation -- It is a time for celebration, a time for healing and prayer, and a time for a new generation. It is the Mni Wiconi NODAPL Ten Year Reunion. This morning Lakota Chief Arvol Looking Horse is leading a Ceremony with the Headsmen.

Lakota Youth Runners Now at the NODAPL Reunion at Standing Rock

LAKOTA YOUTH RUNNERS, RUNNING FOR THE WATER

Lakota Runners in 2006 took their message to Washington as the movement began to protect the water at Standing Rock. Now, the DC Runners are arriving at the Mni Wiconi Ten-Year NODAPL Reunion on Porcupine Creek. Photo courtesy DC Youth Runner Jasilyn Charger, Lakota.

THE DOGS OF WAR: The A.I. Crime Syndicate

THE DOGS OF WAR: The A.I. Crime Syndicate

A.I. is used in the development of robots. Image: U.S. Marines testing robotics for war.

Universities are not only promoting A.I., artificial intelligence, but are now offering classes in how to benefit from the theft.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept. 17, 2026

Universities across the country are now offering classes in A.I. (how to use stolen data to make more money for yourself.)

The trail is long back to Israel and Epstein at Arizona State University.

ASU is now offering a class in A.I. for investigative journalists. ASU is even offering a certificate. We wish this was fake news and not an oxymoron.

Live from Standing Rock: One More Time

Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio at Standing Rock, broadcasting live in August 2016. Phyllis Young, Standing Rock Lakota, welcomes Apache delegation from Oak Flat. Photos by Jean Roach, Lakota. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/08/oak-flat-at-oceti-sakowin-camp-photos.html

Standing Rock Spirit Resistance Radio 2016

Live from Standing Rock: One More Time

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept, 14, 2026

Great News! Govinda and the crew are back! Govinda will be broadcasting live from the NODAPL Reunion on Porcupine Creek!

"It will be interesting to see what we've learned, what we need to do now, and how to make that happen," Govinda said Monday.

Now, we can once again share the peoples voices live from Standing Rock with the world. It was in August of 2016 that Govinda arrived from the west, and Michelle Cook, Dine,' arrived from the southwest.

'Jaguars' Arrested on the Border

Screenshot from video Censored News

Land Defenders on the Arizona border stopping construction of the double border wall were arrested today.

"See you guys later. We'll be back!" called out one of the 'endangered species' arrested on the border today, east of Nogales. The jaguars won't be able to find their mates if this double border wall goes up. Power to the jaguars. -- Censored News

Statement by Land Defenders at Lochiel, Censored News, September 14, 2026

Watch https://www.facebook.com/kate.scott.973823

Mohawk Nation News 'Akwesasne Mohawks Oppose US Senate Bill 3475 to Claim NYS'

AKWESASNE MOHAWKS OPPOSE US SENATE BILL 3475 TO CLAIM NYS
Posted on September 7, 2026 by Shé:kon

Mohawk Nation News


MNN. SEP. 7, 2026. U.S. SENATE BILL 3475 IS A PIECE OF LEGISLATION INTRODUCED IN THE 119TH CONGRESS TO AUTHORIZE, RATIFY, AND CONFIRM THE AGREEMENT OF SETTLEMENT AND COMPROMISE RATIFYING THE AKWESASNE MOHAWK LAND CLAIM IN NORTHERN NEW YORK STATE.



Press Release Statement Opposing S.3475 Published July 28, 2026 Modified July 28, 2026

We are here today in the spirit of the Two Row Wampum, a concept that predates European settlement on this continent, but is the first treaty made by our ancestors with yours. We are not to interfere with one another’s affairs. Therefore our presence with you today is not to interfere with your affairs, it is to ensure that Bill S.3475 does not interfere with ours. We are here on behalf of Kanien’kehá:ka-Mohawk / Haudenosaunee Governance and Our Future Generations due to our responsibility for the land. Honourable Senators, representatives, officials, relatives, and all those gathered here today: We come before you with respect, humility, and a heavy responsibility; not as your constituents – as Kanien’kehá:ka-Mohawk Nation title holders of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. We are here today to oppose the proposed Land Claim Settlement Agreement that would have adverse effects on our Indigenous system of governance, which predates the formation of both the U.S. and Canada. We speak today for the land, the water, the people, the women, the children, for the families, the hereditary leaders, the clans, the ancestors, and for the generations not yet born. We ask you to listen not only with your legal minds, but with your conscience. Because the matter before you is not only a bill before your legislature, this settlement would have long-reaching detrimental impacts.

Epstein Survivor Describes Sex Trafficking by Tucson Border Patrol -- While Agents Seize Tohono O'odham Land for Border Wall Construction

Epstein Survivor Describes Sex Trafficking by Tucson Border Patrol -- while Federal Agents Seize Tohono O'odham Land for Border Wall Construction

Photo by Tucson Border Patrol

An Epstein survivor describes the child sex trafficking of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Tucson, where she was a victim. She said detainees are being tortured to death during "trafficking tourism." At the same time, Tucson Border Patrol agents, heavily armed, are preventing Tohono O'odham tribal police from entering their own land to issue citations to border wall contractors. Meanwhile, the media has ignored a cartel witness from Sinaloa, Mexico, who described the trafficking of young girls in the Epstein files.

Updates: Epstein, the Sinaloa Cartel, and more were at a golf course party in Los Angeles where a Hollywood producer is accused of strangling a girl to death, Mexico's media reports. link Update: Cryptocurrency, how it is used to launder money, scroll down.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept. 4, 2026

TUCSON -- It is one of the best kept secrets in the Epstein files.
Only one newspaper, in Mexico, reported it.

An FBI protected witness called TS-47, a former cartel operative in Sinaloa, Mexico, said the cartel provided Epstein with girls, 14 to 16 years old, who were trafficked through Laredo, Texas. The cartel operative said he provided girls to Epstein in the U.S. and Caribbean. The arrangements for the girls for "marketing parties" for investors were made at a New Jersey golf course. The current president of the U.S. is implicated, Excelsior reports.

This week, an Epstein survivor described how U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Tucson were sex trafficking children as young as 9 years old.

"I am a survivor of presidential-level political blackmail and sexual espionage, blackmail trafficking," Heather said during a series of videos.

Bulldozers Crushing Nature's Life near Tohono O'odham's Sacred Springs

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is being bulldozed for a second border wall. Bulldozers are 0.7 miles from Quitobaquito Springs. Photo from video by Russ McSpadden, Center for Biological Diversity.

Bulldozers Crushing Nature's Life near Tohono O'odham's Sacred Springs

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 2, 2026

Bulldozers are now crushing the life of the natural world on Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, 0.7 miles from the sacred ceremonial place of O'odham, Quitobaquito Springs. It is home to three endangered species, a pupfish, a snail, and a mud turtle.

One Land Defender Turns Military Around at 'No Border Wall' Tree Sit in Lochiel, Arizona

One Land Defender Turns Military Around at 'No Border Wall' Tree Sit in Lochiel, Arizona

One land defender turned around a bunch of military, National Guard, today, with a cop rented helicopter coming to the rescue. At the end of the day, the land defenders are still there. Great work KPFA Radio on the ground. O'odham are with land defenders at the tree sit in Lochiel, Arizona, where they don't back down. 'No border wall.' -- Censored News.

By KPFA, Sept. 2, 2026

Tribal members and activists are continuing to occupy tree sits, blockades and a prayer camp at several points along the U.S. / Mexico border in Arizona to resist the expansion of the Trump administration’s border wall, which they say amounts to ecocide and violates Tribal sovereignty.

In Lochiel, Arizona, tensions escalated this morning, with additional federal law enforcement entering areas near the encampment.