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 Nation Denied Injunction to Halt Border Wall

Tohono O'odham Nation Denied Injunction to Halt Border Wall

Photo: Border Wall construction near Yuma, Arizona. Photo US Army Corps of Engineers.

A federal judge's rejection of the Tohono O'odham Nation's lawsuit to stop construction of the border wall means the blowing up of six mountain peaks and a heavy construction staging area on tribal land to be chosen by contractors. The Nation is now considering its options.

The Threat on O'odham Lands by Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

Now being released, "Significant Impact: Contesting Surveillance Infrastructure on Tohono O'odham Je'ved" by Ophelia Rivas, Caitlin Blanchielf, and Nina Kolowratnik.

The Threat on O'odham Lands by Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

By Ophelia Rivas, Censored News, July 12, 2026

O’odham VOICE Against the WALL

4oodhamrights@gmail.com

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security threatens to construct the Metal Wall on 62 miles of Tohono O’odham Nations lands adjacent the United States and Mexico International border. 

The O’odham Way of Life is dismissed in waiving national protective laws, as was done with the 2006 Secure Fence Act Vehicle Barrier and the 2014 Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan.

Tohono O'odham Ophelia Rivas: Honoring the Ha'shan in Spain: International Peace Building

 

Women Civil Rights Center, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, province of Barcelona, Spain
Ophelia and Carmen Uros, Director of Civics, Volunteering and International Cooperation of Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council. Photo courtesy Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham.

The Honorable Ha'shan International Peace Building

Courtesy Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, and Women's Civil Right Center, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain, Censored News, Dec. 16, 2025

The humble Ha'shan was honored as a part of a photograph exhibition by Ophelia Rivas, at the 2025 Build Peace Conference at the La CIBA, Women Civil Rights Center in Santa Coloma de Gramenet in the province of Barcelona, Spain.

Ophelia is from Ali Je'gk (Little Clearing) village on the Tohono O'odham reservation located in the state of Arizona, on the United States and Mexico border.

Tohono O'odham Ophelia Rivas Speaks on Israeli Spy Towers in Spain

"Our Fire is Burning," Tohono O'odham Ophelia Rivas Speaks on Israeli Spy Towers in Barcelona, Spain

Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, speaks at Build Peace in Spain. Photo Build Peace, Censored News

Building Peace Conference in Spain

By Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, Censored News, Nov. 22, 2025

French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=8603

SANTA COLOMA de GRAMENET, Spain -- Today I am speaking of the absence of true peace on O'odham lands, including personal peace, peace for plants and animals, peace for mountains and valleys, and peace for water and air.

The O'odham are under continuous surveillance from the U.S. government perspective of border security for protection of the american way of life.

Native Women Arrive for Ute Walk and Protest of Uranium Mill at White Mesa Ute

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, and Dianna Uqualla, Havasupai, arrive for today's Ute Spiritual Walk and Protest. Photo copyright Ofelia Rivas, Censored News

Native Women Arrive for Ute Walk and Protest of Uranium Mill at White Mesa Ute

Tiokasin's Guest on First Voices Radio: Ofelia Rivas, O'odham Rights

First Voices Radio -- Ofelia Rivas, Guest

Listen Now

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/first-voices-radio/episodes/ofelia-rivas-guest

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, speaks with First Voices Radio host Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Lakota. Ofelia describes how the U.S. Border Patrol murdered her friend Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham, at his home on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Ofelia shares how Ray's father was her spiritual mentor and taught her about O'odham ceremonies. "Raymond is my ceremony brother, and I have a lot of respect for him."

Ofelia describes the moments leading up to Ray's murder when about 25 U.S. Border Patrol trucks arrived. After murdering Raymond, Ofelia could hear the U.S. Border Patrol agents laughing about murdering him. The gunfire included two shots from the back, and U.S. Border Patrol agents bashed in Raymond's body after he was shot and dying.

"He died such a painful death," Ofelia said. "He was unarmed."

Ofelia filed a civil rights complaint which was denied by the U.S. Justice Department. A Tohono O'odham Nation police officer, a non-tribal member, who had continually harassed Raymond, led the U.S. Border Patrol to Ray's home that night.

Ofelia said this tribal police officer's actions are a hate crime.

Raymond Mattia

Read more:

Tohono O'odham Nation police officer's vendetta revealed in murder of Raymond Mattia

Censored News: 

The vendetta of a Tohono O'odham Nation police officer is revealed by attorneys for the family of Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham, who was murdered when Tohono O'odham police and U.S. Border Patrol agents fired 38 shots at him, striking him with nine bullets, in front of his home.

“I don’t know exactly where that motherfucker's at," a Tohono O'odham Nation police officer told U.S. Border Patrol agents as they met shortly before Raymond was murdered. The officer is a non-tribal member, hired by the tribal police department.

"During a series of interviews between 2011 and 2013, on the border in Raymond's community, Ali Jegk, Raymond told Censored News that he videotaped U.S. Border Patrol agents escorting Mexican cartels bringing drug loads across the border. When Raymond submitted the evidence, it vanished."

Continue reading:

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/12/tohono-oodham-police-vendetta-revealed.html

Civil Rights complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Justice for justice for Raymond Mattia on Nov. 7, 2024, by Ophelia Rivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/us-justice-department-complaint-filed.html

The Intercept: Arizona prosecutor fails to charge Border Patrol agents in Mattia's death

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/11/border-patrol-raymond-mattia/

First Voices Radio

Tiokasin’s guest this week is our friend Ofelia Rivas. Ofelia says this on her website (oodhamrights.org): “The O’odham way of life is based on the land that has held the remains of our ancestors since the creation of this world. The O’odham did not migrate from anywhere according to our oral history.  Our creation tellings record our history and teach the O’odham the principles of life. The survival of O’odham today is our him’dag.” Ofelia can be reached at her email address: 4oodhamrights@gmail.com

Support Ofelia's human rights work on her website, O'odham Rights

https://www.oodhamrights.org/

U.S. Justice Dept Rejects Civil Rights Complaint Filed for Murder of Raymond Mattia by U.S. Border Patrol

 

Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham

U.S. Justice Dept Rejects Civil Rights Complaint Filed for Murder of Raymond Mattia by U.S. Border Patrol 

By Ophelia Rivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall

Censored News, January 6, 2025

The system of justice for the killing of an American Indian is as expected by the people. The numerous federal agents on the Tohono O'odham reservation are justified in killing our people as they will not be held accountable by the system that pays them to be heavily armed and unmonitored on our land.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents Identified that Murdered Raymond Mattia

 

U.S. Border Patrol Agents who Murdered Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham, Identified

Tucson Sentinel, reporter Paul Ingram, reports:

"Three Border Patrol agents involved in the fatal shooting of a Tohono O'odham man in front of his home in 2023 were identified in legal filings on Friday.

"Earlier this year, the family of 58-year-old Raymond Mattia filed a lawsuit, accusing Border Patrol of excessive force and demanding the names of the agents who killed him.

"Attorneys Ryan Stitt and Marcus Bourassa filed an amended complaint, and on Friday issued a summons for Border Patrol Agents Scott Whitehouse, Dan Sifuentes, and Ivan Torralva, who they said "shot and killed Raymond for no reason."

U.S. Justice Department Complaint Filed in Homicide of Raymond Mattia by O'odham Voice Against the Wall

Raymond Mattia, Sr., Tohono O'odham, Photo courtesy Ophelia Rivas

U.S. Justice Department Complaint Filed for the Murder of Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham, by U.S. Border Patrol and Tribal Police

Civil Rights Complaint filed by Ophelia Rivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall, and Signees

Ophelia Rivas

4oodhamrights@gmail.com
November 28,2024
Press Release

In honor of all fallen Earth Warriors, Defenders of the Land, Water, Sky and Sacred Fire, from the original O'odham lands.

O'odham VOICE Against the WALL Honors, Raymond Mattia Sr.

A complaint has been filed on November 7, 2024 with the Civil Rights Section of the United States Department of Justice seeking justice for violation of Mr. Raymond Mattia Sr. civil and constitutional rights.

Interior Sec. Haaland Speaks on Protecting the Earth at DNC, Apparently Forgetting that She is Destroying It

Paiute and Shoshone defended Peehee Mu'huh, the Paiute Massacre Site in northern Nevada. Lithium Americas of Canada, called Lithium Nevada in the U.S., filed a lawsuit against the defenders and continues to drill for lithium where their ancestors remain.

Interior Sec. Haaland Speaks on Protecting the Earth at the Democratic National Convention, Apparently Forgetting that She is Destroying It

Genocide takes me many forms: Genocide in boarding schools; the production of weapons for genocide in Palestine; and the genocide of poisoning and destroying the Sacred Ceremonial Places, where the prayers and songs keep the people alive. -- Censored News

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 23, 2024

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland spoke about protecting the planet at the Democratic National Convention -- apparently forgetting her support for lithium mining into the Paiute Massacre Site Peehee Mu'huh in Nevada, and the fact that she is being sued by three Native American Tribes in Arizona for destroying the sacred.

“Let me go back to a lesson I learned in the deserts of the Southwest. We all have a role in protecting our earth for future generations," Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, told the DNC on Thursday.

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas: The Pirates Who Stole My Words

Ofelia Rivas on her homeland. Photo by Jason Jaacks copyright, Censored News

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas: The Pirates Who Stole My Words

White privilege and piracy permeates university professors and dissertation writers, says Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, pointing out that today more than 20 books use her words about O'odham and the border without her permission. The pirates range from the United Nations and book authors, to non-profits and corporate-paid activists.

By Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, Censored News, August 13, 2024

Pirates

In 2003 the Elders from my fathers community and the ceremony Elders from my mothers community appointed me by consensus to be their voice.

Prior to 9-11 hundreds of heavily-armed border patrol soldiers invaded O'odham lands violently attacking O'odham in their yards, homes, communities, on reservation roads and state highways.

Deb Haaland doesn't care about the yellow-billed cuckoo: Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache make appeal in letter

 

Yellow-billed cuckoo. Photo National Geographic

Deb Haaland doesn't care about the yellow-billed cuckoo: Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache make appeal in letter

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 9, 2024

SAN PEDRO VALLEY, Arizona -- Deb Haaland doesn't care about the yellow-billed cuckoo. She doesn't care about the migratory birds traveling north who enjoy the water and trees here. Haaland doesn't care that the bulldozers for SunZia's transmission line, taking wind energy to California, are destroying an ancient village site of the ancestors of San Xavier O'odham.

The federal court failed to stop her, so Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations appealed to Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, in a letter on Monday.

Ofelia Rivas: Food Delivery for O'odham and Reflections on Solidarity with Palestine

 

The Long Road Home

Ofelia Rivas: Food Delivery for O'odham and Reflections on Solidarity with Palestine

By Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham
Censored News

It was a wonderful day, visiting with people. We share old stories and everyday life stories. People on subsidy programs, fixed incomes and working families just working to pay bills every month. Nutritional food -- peaches, grapefruit, raisins, carrots, onions, potatoes, corn tortillas, and cheese was today’s pantry support.

Cultural desecration of burial places and holy places is Elbit Systems in O’odham lands. We live under surveillance and military presence along the US/MX border, United States homeland security.

Recent action by the Arizona prosecutor to call the killing of Raymond Mattia a justified ‘clean shot’ without justice for his children and family and community. All the innocent lives killed, raped, molested and imprisoned by the heavily armed military called the border patrol continues without justice. 

The genocide of a culture in the Gaza Strip was promoted by war criminals; the United States government and international bodies, created and enacted to protect all life, must be held accountable by the people. 

Solidarity for Palestine and all Life.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, is the longtime founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall, and has spent her life battling the US Border Patrol, and battling for human rights, on her homeland, the Tohono O'odham Nation. Ofelia's website is O'odham Rights https://www.oodhamrights.org/

White Mesa Ute: 'Revolution of the Heart' March Against Uranium Mill

Spiritual march against the uranium mill poisoning White Mesa Ute today in southeastern Utah -- Photos by Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, reporting live for Censored News.

Justice Department Refuses to Prosecute US Border Patrol Agents who Murdered Raymond Mattia

 

Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham

Justice Department Refuses to Prosecute US Border Patrol Agents Who Murdered Raymond Mattia

In a devastating cover-up, and denial of justice, the federal prosecutors in Arizona said they will not prosecute the Tohono O'odham police and US Border Patrol agents who murdered Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham, on the front steps of his home. Raymond was shot nine times in a hail of bullets. Earlier, Raymond had videotaped the local US Border Patrol agents running drugs through his community. When he submitted the evidence to authorities, the video evidence disappeared. The Intercept reports today on the refusal by the US Attorney's Office in Arizona to carry out justice. -- Censored News.

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/11/border-patrol-raymond-mattia/

The United Nations and U.S. Government: What their new reports are not telling you

Saguaro cactus recklessly destroyed to build the border wall at Ajo, Arizona. Photo by Laiken Jordahl

The United Nations and U.S. Government: What their new reports are not telling you

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 11, 2023

French translation by Christine Prat

There are two new reports: One is the U.S. report on the destruction and violation of laws during the building of the border wall during the Trump era. The new report is by the US government's office that claims to be independent: The Government Accountability Office.

The other new report, making its way to the United Nations Human Rights Council, is the report from the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the militarization affecting Indigenous Peoples. The final report has some of the powerful testimony and struggles -- but it leaves out some of the greatest tragedies and heartfelt testimony.

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, on her homeland. Photo by Jason Jaacks. Ofelia's website is O'odham Solidarity at https://www.oodhamrights.org/

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, and founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall, has spent her life on the border in the struggle for human rights and battling the militarization of the border.

Ofelia responded to the two new reports and the murder of her childhood friend, Raymond Mattia, and fellow community member, murdered by the U.S. Border Patrol and law enforcement on May 18. Raymond was shot nine times in a rain of bullets on his front door steps, in Ali-Jegk on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Mediocre Border Wall Report Minimizes U.S. Government Violence and Destruction

An image you will not see in the U.S. government's new border wall construction report: Wildlife halted during migrations by the border wall. Congressman Grijalva calls the border wall a racist stunt and  "symbolic message of  hate." (Image: Skye Islands video/screenshot Censored News)

Mediocre Border Wall Report Minimizes U.S. Government Violence and Destruction

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, September 8, 2023

A new U.S. report on the border wall construction minimizes the violence and destruction by the U.S. government. The U.S. blew up Tohono O'odham and Apache burial places with dynamite, killed saguaro cacti, destroyed migration paths of endangered species, violated precious water, destroyed sacred sites, and scraped the fragile Sonoran Desert and border ecosystems.

The border report attempts to excuse the United States' failed consultation with Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui Nations, attempts to excuse the waiver and violation of all federal laws, and does not include the U.S. government's own agents' involvement with illegal drug and weapons running across the border.

The 72-page report, released on Thursday, by the Government Accountability Office assessed the destruction caused by building the border wall, from 2017 -- 2021. Although it is defined as an independent government office -- in reality, it is the government reporting on itself. Another fox in the henhouse.

The report states an emergency national security action was used to redirect U.S. military funding to build the border wall -- but it fails to point out that large numbers of U.S. Border Patrol and ICE agents have been arrested for drug running and spotting for the cartels. The report does not include the U.S. government's covert operations known as "gun-walking" across the border which supplies automatic weapons to the cartels in failed attempts to track automatic weapons to the cartels.

Indigenous Peoples Under Attack by Militarized Forces: From Peru to the Tohono O'odham Nation, murder with impunity

United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Human Rights Council

Indigenous Peoples Under Attack by Militarized Forces: From Peru to the Tohono O'odham Nation, Murder with Impunity

Native Hawaiians and Indigenous in Guam want the US military out; Russian youths want an end to war


By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

July 17, updated July 29, 2023

GENEVA -- Native Hawaiians want the US military off their lands, and training exercises in the Pacific shut down. An aquifer has been poisoned in Honolulu, and unexploded ordinances left behind make lands inaccessible.

Christopher Edward said the U.S. military installation in Hawaii is the largest in the world, 200,000 acres, and has resulted in the displacement of Native Hawaiians from their traditional lands. Edward testified before the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Edward joined Indigenous from around the world in reporting human rights abuses, during the session, "The Impact of Militarization on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

New database reveals where Native American human remains are being held

A depiction of one scene at Sand Creek by witness Howling Wolf Cheyenne

Give us our people back

Native American human remains are being held by museums and universities. Native Americans want to bring their ancestors home.

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

A new database reveals which museums and universities have human remains of Native Americans. It shows which places have made those available for return, and which ones have not.

The database by ProPublica shows those not returning remains to the Tohono O'odham Nation including the University of Arizona Museum and Arizona State Museum. The places that have not made remains available to Oglala Lakota in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, include Harvard University and Milwaukee Public Museum

“We never ceded or relinquished our dead. They were stolen,” James Riding In, Pawnee and longtime professor at Arizona State University professor, said of the unreturned remains.