O’odham tribe remains ‘vigilant’ against attempts to remove sacred saguaros for U.S.-Mx border wall

The Tohono O’odham Nation expects a clash between federal officials and tribal members caused by the Trump administration’s removal of saguaros and other plants, part of imminent border wall construction along the Southern Arizona tribe’s 62-mile border with Mexico.

In recent weeks, Trump administration officials have said they would cull the giant cacti along the border, telling a judge in Washington D.C. this would begin on Monday, Oct. 12. While that deadline — provocatively set for Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day — passed without incident, tribal officials set up a temporary command and triage center in preparation for protests and a crackdown led by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Verlon Jose, the chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation, called the removal of saguaros “total destruction.”

“It’s as if they’re going to take one of our relatives and destroy them,” he said.
Saguaros — called ha:sañ in O’odham —are recognized as people in the tribe’s tradition, a belief memorialized in a tribal resolution passed in 2021, he said.

On Monday, Jose and other tribal leaders, including Vice Chair Carla Johnson, took a tour of the nation’s shared border with Mexico, along with U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva and Pima County Supervisor Jen Allen. The group headed past a prayer camp at the San Miguel gate on the border, and then east to a remote part of the reservation where they held small prayer vigil.

“Prayer is all we can do, the federal government is going to do what the federal government wants to do,” Jose said. He said leaders would pray not only for tribal members, but also for those “causing harm.”

“We have been through so much, but we are still here, and we still practice our culture,” he said, despite pressures from the U.S. government over the decades.

Grijlava said the coming construction is a “black eye” for the U.S. government, and “an abuse of the people of the nation.”

“The federal government has not been forthcoming with information,” she said, saying they have refused to communicate with her office or the tribe.

“It is a complete violation of sovereignty and consultation, and respecting the land and the people here,” Grijalva said. Grijlava’s district covers much of the Borderlands in Arizona, including the vast stretches of the O’odham reservation, which is nearly as large as Connecticut.

Vivian Juan-Saunders, the representative for Chukut Kuk District — which runs along most of the U.S.-Mexico — said the Trump administration’s action are re-opening old wounds causing a “deep psychological impact” on community members.

“We’re trying to heal from the last 250 years,” Juan-Saunders said.

The coming border construction threatens to unearth cemeteries, terrifying families who have loved one interred there, she said.

“We have a family that wants to unearth their child’s body,” Juan-Saunders said because “they don’t want their child’s body to be blown up” during construction.

During the first Trump administration, contractors used explosives to crack the rock on Monument Hill in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and members of the O’odham said this included ancient gravesites. CBP officials said archaeologists did not find signs of human remains, but Jose told the Tucson Sentinel earlier this year that he and other tribal members picked up the shattered remains by hand.

“That’s the trauma we’re feeling,” Juan-Saunders said.

She added a lack of clear information on where and when the wall will come weighs heavily on tribal members. “Whatever path they’re taking, they’re not telling us,” she said.

As rain threatened to overtake the vigil Monday, Jose pointed to the Baboquivari Mountains, which marks the reservation’s eastern border. He said he was frustrated by plans to continue the border road further up into the mountains, noting there are sacred sites and burial places further in the mountains.

“But this is still home,” he said. “This is still home to us. People still have a sense of connection here.”

The O’odham have endured in the harsh environment of the Sonoran desert, he said “because this is where the creator has placed us, and it’s our job to live as one on the land.”

In February, Tohono O’odham leaders warned the Trump administration was moving to build a wall along the tribe’s 62-mile border with Mexico, part of a larger plan by the Department of Homeland Security to build a so-called “Smart Wall” across 1,419 miles of the 1,954-mile border.

By the summer, the agency’s plans became clear and the O’odham filed suit, asking a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction against the Department of Homeland Security, and block construction and “pre-construction” activities for a so-called “Smart Wall” along the reservation’s 62-mile border with Mexico.

The tribe argued the border wall project would “unilaterally alter” their boundaries and result in the destruction of sacred mountain ranges such as the Baboquivari — the home of the creator god I’itoi — separate O’odham communities and families, and leave about 3,000 of their 37,000 enrolled members stuck in Mexico.

Trump administration officials argued they could build the wall because it sits in the 60-foot wide easement known as the Roosevelt Reservation. However, attorneys for the tribe said the Native American nation was recognized by Congress and the installation of a border wall, especially a secondary barrier and patrol roads, would diminish its sovereignty.

After the lawsuit was filed, CBP awarded the project — dubbed Tucson 5 Project — to SLSCO LTD, a Texas construction company, backed by nearly $47 million in funding from Congress authorized last year.

CBP officials told the court a secondary wall was not part of the award to SLSCO, but this was an “option.”

As part of the project, contractors marked hundreds of saguaros and ocotillos with silver tags, and the agency said contractors would begin removing them on Oct. 12, or Columbus Day, which has increasingly become referred to as Indigenous Peoples Day.

“The fact that this desecration will take place on Indigenous Peoples Day is disrespectful to all tribal nations,” said tribal officials last week. “Nation leadership is demanding that the courts put a stop to this lawless behavior that has already caused irreparable damage to our environment and cultural heritage, all in the name of constructing a costly and ineffective border wall,” said tribal officials on Oct. 9.

As the removals loomed, attorneys for the tribe sought an emergency injunction, telling U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington D.C. the “destruction of massive numbers of saguaro cacti that will commence early next week absent intervention by this court constitutes quintessential irreparable harm.”

However, Leon was unmoved and rejected their request Thursday, writing in a 5-page decision that federal officials have “identified serious national security and public safety concerns at the international border” and an injunction would intrude into the “ordinary process of administration and judicial review.”

The judge said while tribal officials “identified weighty interests at stake in this case, I see no compelling reason to revisit my conclusion that the balance of equities and public interest favor the government at this juncture.”

“Trespassing on our land to remove the sacred saguaros is like having masked men break into your house and destructive wall,” said Jose on Friday after Leon’s decision was published. “This is a violation of our sovereignty, of our religious liberty, and of our land.”

“The nation will continue to fight to prevent this senseless devastation from going forward and we are grateful for the overwhelming community support we have received,” he said.

Jose, the tribe’s elected chief executive, said in recent weeks Border Patrol agents have been increasingly “disrespectful” to tribal members, including one incident last month when an agent demanded he answer questions about his presence while sitting alone in his truck checking his phone messages.

At the San Miguel gate, a group of tribal member, or fire keepers, have been maintaining a prayer camp and vigil since contractors began arriving on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Since Aug. 25, members have endured heat and monsoon storms to maintain the fire and a thatch of smoldering creosote to create a space to share tribal knowledge and traditions, while keeping an eye on the border wall contractors. Tribal officials previously tried to block contractors by citing them for trespassing on their soverign land. However, on Aug. 27 the contractors were backed by armed Border Patrol agents— including members of the agency’s elite tactical team, or BORTAC— who screened the contractors as they conducted soil sampling and “other activities.”

On Monday, it was clear the camp had expanded and dozens of tents and cars were near the gate. A fire smoldered and groups from both U.S. and Mexico met and spoke across the border.

In preparation for potential confrontations between federal agents and O’odham members, tribal leaders set up an emergency operations center at the San Miguel Community Center, about 5 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, and about 90 miles by road southwest of Tucson.

Staffed with about 30 personnel, including EMTs, fire and police officers, the center is prepared to offer help people injured in clashes with U.S. Border Patrol, including the use of pepper spray, or simple dehydration, said Anthony Manuel, administrator of the tribe’s emergency mangement office.

Manuel said they were prepared to “triage” patients if necessary, using a mobile health clinic to treat some people for injuries.

“This will be our Day 1,” Manuel said. “If we do have an influx of people that are hurt or injured, that’s something we can accommodate.”

Tribal officials repeatedly said while federal officials promised “consultation” they were not told when federal contractors could arrive to remove the saguaros and ocotillos. “We’re just in the dark, like you guys,” Manuel told reporters. “It’s just the unknown that’s going to have us on our toes.”

While CBP officials told Judge Leon in court they could begin the first stages of border wall construction on Monday, contractors were a no-show, tribal officials said.

“Border wall contractors who are slated to remove thousands of sacred saguaros from the Tohono O’odham Nation’s reservation did not make an appearance today on tribal lands despite earlier communications indicating that work could begin on the Indigenous Peoples Day holiday,” said tribal officials.

“Prayer is all we can do, the federal government is going to do what the federal government wants to do,” Jose later added. He said leaders would pray not only for tribal members, but also for those “causing harm.”

“We have been through so much, but we are still here, and we still practice our culture,” he said, despite pressures from the U.S. government over the decades.