Yaqui Ceremonial Leader Jose Matus Passes to Spirit World -- Journeys on the Long Road

Jose Matus La Paz, Bolivia

Where have you gone my frined

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The year was 1995, and Jose Matus, Yaqui, was on that Indigenous delegation to Chiapas. We flew, road in the backs of trucks with AK47s pointed in our faces and hiked up mountains.
Jose distinguished himself by refusing to be part of the mass Catholic baptism of Mayans in the villages.
We spent our time on the mountain, with the Zapatistas who lived in a village, sleeping in huts, and a school building. We ate tortillas of fresh corn cooked in banana leaves. We celebrated beneath a single lamp as we heard of the movement for dignity and autonomy.
At night there was the sound of the shortwave. The resistance was a little over one year old. Marcos and the Comandantes were out there somewhere in the mountains, in the jungles. A helicopter hovered overhead, already the military had assassinated people in the village above us, the people who grow corn and coffee with their hands.
That was when I first met Jose Matus, Yaqui spiritual leader.
In the years that followed, I went with Jose to the Yaqui villages in Sonora, near the coast, and listened to his family play music, and speak of struggle and survival.
During those years, Jose made the long journey, about a six hour drive south of Tucson, to the villages to bring back the spiritual leaders who maintained the ceremonies in southern Arizona. The Deer Dancers. The Pascoles.
When Bolivia President Evo Morales put out the call for the Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth in Cochabamba in 2010, we made plans to go. A generous man, Peter, paid for Jose to travel to Bolivia for the gathering.
As it turned out, Jose and I departed from the same plane in La Paz, Bolivia, and somehow shuffled through immigration.
Then, I had a heart attack. It was Jose who went for medicines for me, and somehow I survived, at least somewhat, for the conference. He took me for food and watched out for me during those days.
With Jose, there was always laughter. That sort of laughter where everyone knows this secret joke.
In the years that followed, Jose continued the Ceremonies, and worked hard to continue gatherings for the Indigenous Alliance without Borders.
All of our friends know these words are inadequate and do not do justice to this Long Road, how we all lived, struggled and survived.
Today, my friend Jose passed to the Spirit World.
Where have you gone my friend.
I'm hoping that this journey, like all the others, will be a grand one, and take you in peace to where you need to go. With love and light.
-- Brenda

On Western Shoshone land, Jose Matus words

In 2008, as we gathered on Western Shoshone land, Jose shared these words with Indigenous.

Here's an excerpt from the article I wrote, the words of my friend.

Yaqui ceremonial leader Jose Matus describes the crisis at the US/Mexico border, where the border wall and Homeland Security's increased restrictions violate lifeways present since time immemorial.

Matus said Homeland Security's increased border restrictions are interfering with the Yaquis ability to preserve their culture and ceremonies.

Matus, speaking at the Indigenous Environmental Network’s Protecting Mother Earth Conference on Western Shoshone lands, said Yaqui in the United States are faced with the loss of their language, Hiaki. The declining number of Yaquis speaking the language is affecting the Yaquis ability to maintain their ceremonies.

Matus said one of the ways Yaqui maintain their ceremonies is by bringing in Yaqui from Mexico who are well-versed in the Yaqui language, knowledge and ceremonies.

Following the request of Yaqui elders in 1973, Matus began his 35-year effort to maintain the Yaqui ceremonies in the US by bringing in Yaqui ceremonial leaders from Sonora, Mexico, for temporary stays for ceremonies.

However, in recent years, the increased restrictions by Homeland Security and racist attitudes and migrant xenophobia in the US has resulted in increased legal obstacles.

“Now, Homeland Security is getting very, very strict,” Matus told the gathering of more than 700 people from the Americas on Western Shoshone land at South Fork, Nevada, July 17 -- 20, 2008.

Matus said that earlier he was able to work with border officials to get ceremonial leaders across the Southwest borders. “As time went goes by, legislation changes and attitudes change, including the anti-immigrant hysteria.”
Matus said the fight against terrorism created more obstacles. “That has created more obstacles. That has affected all the people who have relatives in Mexico.”

The Indigenous Alliance Without Borders is now working Akimel O’otham in Gila River, Arizona, some O’odham in Mexico, Raramuri/Tarahumara in Mexico, the Yaqui Nation in Arizona and other Indigenous Peoples whose rights are being violated by border rules and border wall construction.

The Indigenous Alliance Without Borders was created in 1997 in response to harassment of Indigenous Peoples crossing the border. Border agents were violating and destroying ceremonial items and frightening and intimidating women, children and elders.

“We have tried to set up permanent border crossing rights for the Yaqui, Gila River Pima and Raramuri.” Matus said the alliance recently began working with Tewa from El Paso, Texas, where the border wall construction is now destroying cultural rights and sacred places.

“The wall itself is a lethal weapon that the US government is using to kill thousands of undocumented crossers.”

Matus said the border wall is destroying the environment, sacred sites and the connection between relatives in Mexico and the United States.

“Now they are destroying and dividing the Tewa and Kumeyaay ceremonial grounds,” he said of the Tewa in the region of El Paso, Texas, and Kumeyaay, in California and Baja, Mexico.

Matus said the alliance is examining possible legislation to ensure border crossing rights. However, he said Indian Nation governments need to support border crossing rights in order for legislation to pass in the United States. At the same time, the United States government is intimidating tribes to prevent them from exercising their rights at the border.

“We are all terrorists as far as they are concerned. They put us through all these obstacles as we try to cross that border," Matus said.

While Indigenous Peoples are attempting to maintain their culture and ceremonies, they are unjustly targeted.“For national security reasons, we can not bring our elders across the border for ceremonies,” Matus said.

Copyright Brenda Norrell, may not be republished without permission, or used for commercial gain.

Apache Stronghold joins Poor People's Campaign in Washington, Dec. 4, 2017

APACHE STRONGHOLD joins POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN

in WASHINGTON DC on DECEMBER 4, 2017

WHAT: Press Conference & Mass Meeting, goo.gl/8dM2W4

DATE: Monday, December 4, 2017

TIME: 10:00am

WHERE: United Methodist Building (Conference Rm 1),

100 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, DC

Washington, D.C.: On Monday, December 4, 2017, Apache Stronghold, an Arizona-based nonprofit of Western Apache families and other Indigenous peoples, will make the journey to Washington, DC, to join and support the "Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival."

Please attend the press conference and mass meeting, learn about how to get involved, and find a way to support work of Apache Stronghold and join the Poor People's Campaign for our times.

In recent battles to protect their sacred and ecologically unique lands, groundwater resources, riparian habitats, and endangered species against both U.S. legislators and multinational mining companies, the San Carlos Apache Tribe has come up short. In 2014, as part of a must-pass $500 billion omnibus military funding bill, Arizona politicians sneaked in a rider to give away 2,422 acres of public lands to a $72.9 billion company, Rio Tinto—despite the fact that unemployment on the San Carlos Apache reservation is at 67 percent. According to Apache Stronghold founder Wendsler Nosie, "This is where we say, 'Enough is enough. No more.'"

Apache Stronghold will add volume to the collective voice of the new Poor People's Campaign for, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in 1963,

Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles of racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its Indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it. 

Apache Stronghold is a grassroots Indigenous organization committed to protecting sacred Chí'chil Biłdagoteel (Oak Flat) and Dził Nchaa Si'An (Mount Graham), fighting for clean air, water, and food, and battling continued colonization. Apache Stronghold supports the Poor People's Campaign's call for education, housing, jobs, and social mobility, just as Dr. King proposed in his still unfinished revolution 50 years ago.

To learn about Apache Stronghold and its efforts to preserve Western Apache culture and religious freedom, and to defend Western Apache sacred places such as Dził Nchaa Si'An and Chí'chil Biłdagoteel, visit:

• "What's at Stake in Oak Flat?" goo.gl/G2gX9r
• "Apaches Fight Mining Company Over Land" (video), goo.gl/SV48Sy

To learn more about the Poor People's Campaign, visit: poorpeoplescampaign.org

Press Contact:

Wendsler Nosie, founder, Apache Stronghold

Phone: 928-200-7762; Email: Apaches4ss@yahoo.com

P.O. Box 766, San Carlos, Arizona 85550; http://www.apache-stronghold.com

Attorney Rachel Lederman -- New case to focus on mass arrest of Standing Rock Water Protectors

Militarized police at Standing Rock. Photo by Rob Wilson.

New case to focus on mass arrest of Standing Rock Water Protectors

Racism, disinformation and bias in North Dakota courts, attorneys fight for water protectors -- Attorney Rachel Lederman, Water Protector Legal Collective, speaking at AIM West Conference

Article by Brenda Norrell

Audio by Govinda Dalton

Spirit Resistance Radio

Censored News

Attorney Rachel Lederman
Photo by Karen Wright

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the State of North Dakota -- where prosecutors and the media work for the oil industry -- attorneys for Standing Rock water protectors are filing new charges following the mass arrest of 125 water protectors in prayer.

Speaking at the AIM West Conference here, Attorney Rachel Lederman, board member of the Water Protector Legal Collective, said a new lawsuit is being filed challenging the mass arrest of water protectors on Oct. 22, 2016.

“We are going to challenge this mass arrest in civil court,” Lederman said.

“They can’t surround 125 people on a prayer march -- surround them, and tell them to get on their knees -- arrest them, put them in dog kennel-like enclosures, tell them to strip search, do strip searches of elders, and hold them in jail for days without allowing them to be bailed out," Lederman said.
"We can't let this kind of thing go on."

Describing the uphill battle of fighting for justice in a racist and biased legal system in North Dakota, Lederman pointed out there has been a lot of pressure to prosecute water protectors in North Dakota.
"The oil industry rules."

Lederman also pointed out that the land where the resistance took place is protected by Treaty. The Treaty for this unceded land of the Dakota and Lakota is a legally binding agreement, she said.

Efforts are underway internationally to uphold this.

The judicial system in North Dakota has been racist and biased following the disinformation campaign of TigerSwan, she said.

Currently, two water protectors remain in jail on baseless charges, and seven people face federal charges.

"There is an enormous amount of bias and racism against the Indigenous defendants and allies resisting DAPL," she said of the resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline.

Most people in the northern part of the state are in favor of the oil industry, she said.

Lederman said there were 800 water protectors charged, and some are still being recharged.

--The Creation of Water Protector Legal Collective

Lederman, who also does work with the National Lawyer's Guild in San Francisco, said last September she answered a call to go out to the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
She helped form a new legal group to defend and advocate on behalf of that movement, Water Protector Legal Collective. WPLC has become an Indigenous led, independent non-profit, based in North Dakota.
The WPLC attorneys have been providing criminal defense for almost 800 arrested and charged criminally in North Dakota.

They are also coordinating federal offenses for seven people charged for serious federal charges.

Meanwhile, the attorneys have filed a civil lawsuit over the horrific police violence at Backwater Bridge on Nov. 20, 2016.
The attorneys are now preparing to file additional civil litigation, and involved in international efforts.
Between August of 2016 and February of 2017, about 800 people were arrested while protesting and in prayer ceremonies, resisting the Dakota Access pipeline.

“All of these people were charged  criminally, most in state court,” she said.
Justice in the cases was hindered by the lack of local attorneys in the public defender's office there.
"Almost all the 800 cases were without any legal basis,” she said.

"We had a challenging and interesting situation."
It was difficult for out-of-state attorneys to become licensed in North Dakota. It required extensive documents and was a long process that could take about one year.
So, WPLC petitioned the North Dakota Court to allow out-of-state attorneys to work in conjunction with local attorneys.
Now, out-of-state attorneys are representing hundreds of water protectors for free.
"There is an enormous amount of bias and racism against the Indigenous defendants and allies resisting DAPL.”

She said people in the northern part of the state are in favor of the oil industry.
Still, 300 cases have been dismissed, and almost 400 cases remain open.
"The court system became completely overwhelmed."
Instead of dumping the cases, which would have happened in San Francisco, the cases continue.
There are not the same speedy trial rights in North Dakota. Now, trials are scheduled through the spring of 2018.

-- Water Protectors Charged with Federal Crimes
Six water protectors continue to face charges in federal court: Red Fawn Fallis, Little Feather, Michael Marcus ‘Rattler,’ James White ‘Angry Bird,’ Brennon Nastacio, and Dion Ortiz.

Dion Ortiz and Littlefeather are still in jail.
“Those arrestees need more support," she said.

Red Fawn was recently released to a halfway house and awaits trial.

--Water Protector Attorneys do not support plea agreement or diversion
Recently judges tried to close down the program where out-of-state attorneys represent water protectors.

But that effort was defeated.
"It is beyond the ability of the local attorneys to deal with."
There are large numbers of cases which have no basis for arrest, no witnesses.
Prosecutors are putting pressure on water protectors to enter into plea agreements. However, WPLC does not support this.
For water protectors, the charges have been an economic burden, because they must return to North Dakota for trial.

Meanwhile, local attorneys were overwhelmed with the amount of discovery in the cases.
She said none of the water protectors represented by Water Protector Legal Collective have taken plea agreements or diversion offers.

However, some of those charged did accept these. They were represented by local lawyers, not WPLC.
Still, the prosecutors continue to file new charges with new penalties. This can result in new warrants, even though there is no factual or legal basis for the charges.

Regardless of the baseless charges, Lederman said, “We are starting to get large numbers of cases dismissed.”

-- Police Violence at Backwater Bridge
Water Protector Legal Collective attorneys filed a federal lawsuit over the Nov. 20, 2016, police violence at Backwater Bridge.
Sheriff and local police fired water cannons, explosive grenades and so-called less-lethal weapons at water protectors, she said.
"Many were engaged in prayer and singing on the bridge throughout the night."
As a result of the police violence, hundreds of water protectors suffered injuries and hypothermia. Dozens were taken to the hospital, she said.
One woman lost part of her arm due to an explosive grenade.
Another woman suffered a detached retina and lost partial vision, as a result of a chemical weapon canister.
Water protectors suffered broken bones and horrible injuries.
A lawsuit was filed immediately.
Water protectors’ attorneys asked the judge for an injunction to restrict the use of dangerous munitions, in order to halt police shooting these into crowds in the dark in the future.

It is an uphill battle, she said. Even though it is federal court, it is still federal court in North Dakota.
A local judge has been very influenced by local media, and the disinformation campaign of TigerSwan. Water protectors were portrayed as a terrorist group by TigerSwan, she said.
This case was taken up by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minn.
The Court of Appeals confirmed the lower court’s decision, and denied these restrictions, which would have halted the use of those weapons.

The Eight Circuit is the most conservative circuit, she said.
"We are still fighting."
None of the legal or factual issues have been resolved in this case.
A class action lawsuit continues for compensation for those injured on the night of Nov. 20 at Backwater Bridge. This case continues in Bismarck, North Dakota.

-- New lawsuit over police mass arrest on Oct. 22
Now, another lawsuit will be filed as a result of the mass arrest on October 22, when 125 water protectors were arrested on their Prayer March.
They were diverted by police into an empty field, and surrounded by ATV buggies. At gunpoint, police told water protectors, “Get on your knees, you are under arrest.”
There was no dispersal order, no opportunity to leave. There are no witnesses on behalf of state.
Still, three people were found guilty in state criminal court. As a result of these random sentences, two water protectors were sentenced to jail. One for eight days and another for 18 days.
The court’s action was random, since 125 people were charged and most of the charges were dismissed.
“We are going to challenge this mass arrest in civil court.”

“They can’t surround 125 people on a prayer march, surround them, and tell them to get on their knees, arrest them, put them in dog kennel like enclosures, tell them to strip search, do strip searches of elders, and hold them in jail for days without allowing them to be bailed out.”
"We can't let this kind of thing go on."

--Surviving the pressure to prosecute, protecting the water
During questions following her talk, Lederman was asked if there is more pressure to prosecute with Donald Trump in office.
Lederman said pressure to prosecute hasn't increased. There was already a lot of pressure to prosecute.
"The oil industry rules."

Prosecutors are working for the oil industry, she said.

She also pointed out that the Dakota Access Pipeline was originally to be in the Bismarck area, but was redirected to the Standing Rock area to poison their water.
Now, there is a spill of Keystone pipeline in South Dakota not far away from Standing Rock.
Lederman said she hopes to see more protests, more resistance.
The model of Standing Rock camps’ Water Protector Legal Collective, which created legal support in a rural area, can be replicated, she said.
Meanwhile, the legal battle over the DAPL pipeline continues. Recently, the speeded-up permit was ruled illegal in federal court in Washington, D.C. However, the federal court has not stopped operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The Treaty is a legally binding document. This is unceded land of the Dakota Lakota Nations, she said.

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Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

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brendanorrell@gmail.com

Akimel O'odham, Gila River -- Loop 202 Construction Disturbed Burial Places, Restricting Access to Sacred Mountain

O'ODHAM ABOUT LOOP 202: 'THESE CITIES ARE COMING CLOSER TO US, WE'LL POSSIBLY GET RUN OVER'

By Christine Prat

Censored News

French translation: 
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=57

The Loop 202 is a freeway leading around Phoenix, Arizona. It is partly existing east of the city and is now being extended westward. The decision to include the South Mountain Freeway in Loop 202 was taken in 1986. The final approval to extend it was received on March 10, 2015. The construction is planned to be completed in 2019. The extension implies destruction of a huge part of Moadag Do'ag, or South Mountain, which is sacred for the Akimel O'odham. A lot of destruction has already happened, but it is rapidly going on.

The Loop 202 is also part of the "Sun Corridor", a 'recreation' project, meant to develop a megacity from Phoenix to Tucson, maybe even from Prescott to Nogales.

As a matter of fact, Loop 202 extension is part of a much bigger project, the CANAMEX project. It is a road project devised as part of NAFTA, a free trade agreement between the USA, Canada and Mexico, designed in 1993 and signed by Bill Clinton in 1994.

In September 2015, I had talked with Andrew Pedro, Akimel O'odham activist, about the consequences of the project for the Tribe, and their struggle against it. At the beginning of October 2017, we met again, to talk about the present situation, regarding the construction and the struggle against it.

"It's the fall of 2017, and the construction of the 202 is still continuing" said Andrew. He went on talking about the legal aspect of the issue, as a court case against construction is now in the Court of Appeal of the 9^th Circuit in San Francisco. Arguments were supposed to be heard on October 28^th. Andrew Pedro wrote then "People from the Tribal Council went and attended the oral arguments. Now it's in a state of limbo again. The Court could take as long as six months to make a ruling in the case. The other litigants, PARC, said this is probably the end for them. They don't believe that the Supreme Court will take the case". It is not sure that the ruling will give more hope of stopping the construction, as the 9^th Circuit three judges already denied injunctions to stop construction. Andrew Pedro pointed out that, the project being in a Court case, construction should be held. However, ADOT has just stepped up construction speed, very likely hoping that when the Court will make a ruling, it will be too late to have a substantial effect on the project.

At the beginning of October, construction was mainly happening in what they call the Pecos segment, in the town of Ahwatukee, along the Pecos road. Many people in Ahwatukee, which is in 'white' territory, but where some O'odham live, are also against the Freeway.

The activists struggling against the project never expected much from the Court system, knowing that courts are not on their side. "… on one hand, they would protect Arizona's children and resources, which is predominantly a White group of people based out of Ahwatukee, and then you have the Gila River Indian Community with all their own legislation, but the lawsuits are joined, so that, if one case loses, the other case loses. So, we're kind of in a big mess with that as well." They don't trust their Tribal Council either, who "are not really fulfilling their purpose of protecting the community and protecting our sacred places and protecting our inherent right to be at these places".

There are other areas under construction. Among others, the Salt River segment, on the west side of the mountain, where bridge construction was about to start, pillars and concrete having been already brought. There is also construction on Interstate 10, 79th Avenue, to 43^rd Avenue, in between, a major freeway interchange is being built.

"For us, as O'odham people, it is hard to really put a focus on which areas need to be handled properly and first. Because that freeway is one big project and is 22 miles long, and with all those constructions happening, it's hard to say what could really stop them in one area, as they'll continue in another area" Andrew stated. "Nonetheless, those of us who do this work have not lost hope that we can still save our mountain from being destroyed, from further destruction."

A lot of people are demoralized and feel defeated, but, says Andrew, "we just got to keep moving forward."

Although outsiders mainly see the actions and protests, and thus view the issue as mainly political, O'odham people, and other Indigenous peoples, see another side to it, the cultural side, meaning "who we are." …"that is more powerful than the political world, because that keeps us grounded, it keeps us back to our roots and where we really come from, and why these things are important to us and why these places and these mountains are important to us in the first place."

Then Andrew explains that there are some new people coming in to help, Indigenous people who understand the cultural side. And also, "because now, there are more people from all over taking interest in the struggle itself because it's gonna later on affect other areas too. Be it in Tohono O'odham Nation, even in Salt River, already affected by the 101 freeway, because that crosses their area. So, they know how we're feeling out here. It's the same thing because we are O'odham people, Salt River is O'odham people…"

The effects of the 'greater' projects, the Sun Corridor and the CANAMEX, are also felt by Indigenous people outside the Gila River Indian Community. The CANAMEX project is a super highway from Guaymas, in Mexico, to Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada. Road construction and repair has already started, in Tucson, Nogales, Phoenix and in Casa Grande. In Casa Grande, a 'free trade zone', an international trade hub, called Phoenix Mart, is supposed to open next year. "So, it will just keep them encroaching and encroaching on us. We are still stuck in the middle of where so-called progress is supposed to be made, and development is supposed to come from" Andrew stated. Of course, tribal politics go with it, as they only see the money that could be made. However, it is less than certain that development brings any progress to the people, as the example of Interstate 10 shows: when it was built through the Gila River, they were promised roads, housing, jobs… but none of it happened, "if you drive through the I10 now, it's completely bare." With the new developments – Phoenix Mart, development in Tucson – "…these cities are coming closer to us, and that's the example of what's going to happen to us in the long run, we'll possibly get run over. …With the 202, people who drive over the Pecos Road right now, looking one way, they see Ahwatukee, looking the other way, they see the Reservation."

However, the important part is the mountain. It is in the center, it is the central segment of the freeway. There is also a housing development, a subdivision of Ahwatukee, between the ridges of Moadag Do'ag. The project is independent from the freeway, it is not ADOT, but possibly in the way. The mountain has already been blasted for a road. "That construction is also not finished, but it's there, the land has been wiped and destroyed in the middle of those ridges, and we're left with a mountain that has already been desecrated enough. And it's not even half of what ADOT wants to do" says Andrew.

The present road is a two lanes road, the freeway is supposed to be four lanes on each side, "which is a massive cut in the mountain".

What has already been done is bad enough, but "there is still another fight coming, the war isn't over," adds Andrew Pedro, "because the scale of the project is much larger". The project is in fact the CANAMEX Corridor, which will encroach on many other Indigenous areas, down to Mexico: the O'odham territory is cut by the border. Tohono O'odham and Hia C-ed O'odham territory goes across the border. Villages on the other side will be affected too.

Andrew Pedro states "We are being attacked here, we are in the center of Arizona, the O'odham people are here being attacked by the 202, the Tohono O'odham Nation is being attacked with the border, and then, in the North, there are plenty of struggles, from uranium mines to Snowbowl. Arizona is pretty much known for its attacks against Indigenous People."

The reason for these attacks has a name: Capitalism. "That's what kind of connect it all. Because the development that is happening is to help facilitate trade. That is Capitalism in Arizona, if you really want to get down to the root of what is happening to us. It's always gonna be the money that is the driving force behind a lot of these projects." The 202 is a trade corridor, so is the Sun Corridor. Those projects are supposed to bring business and development to the region, but it hardly has any effect on the local economy. "It doesn't help anybody at all. But by doing so, they bypass Indigenous People. They don't think about what's going to happen to our ceremonial grounds and our sacred places."

In the Gila River Indian Community, ADOT illegally uses Reservation roads. As a non-tribal entity, they should have a permit to use those roads, specially as the freeway is just off the Reservation. But they use those roads because it is a little quicker to reach the construction sites.

Construction has drastically restricted O'odham people's accessibility to the sacred mountain. It has disturbed ancestors remains, human remains have been excavated and are still withheld by the state of Arizona. People fear the increased pollution which will affect their health.

Andrew Pedro concludes "We will continue to fight, as they have to know they're going to pay for this, somehow. We will do everything we can. Whether that means protests and direct actions… It is a risk and people do need to realize what this mountain means to us and why these risks are important."

http://www.chrisp.lautre.net