By Derrick Broze, Anti-Media
(ANTIMEDIA) As we approach the era of Emperor Trump, the American public is waiting to see if he will bring change or more of the same (spoiler: it will be more of the same violence, theft, war, and division).
For the last year, President-Elect Trump has made a number of promises. Some border on fascist while others were likely just pandering in an attempt to win disenfranchised voters.
One of Trump’s more controversial proposals has been his call for a border wall that would stretch 1000-miles and rise 40 to 50 feet into the air. Trump will more than likely reverse his call for a border wall (as he has already begun to do with his vows to end Obamacare), but if he does attempt to go through with the plan, he will face opposition from a native community based in Arizona and Mexico.
At one point, the Tohono O’odham Nation ran north past Phoenix, Arizona, down to Sonora, Mexico, west to the Gulf of California, and east to the San Pedro River. When the 1853 Gadsden Purchase went into effect, the land was divided between the United States and Mexico. The remaining natives must show tribal identification cards in order to cross the border to visit family, access medical services, and participate in spiritual ceremonies. The Department of Security is also working to further militarize the O’odham land by building 15 permanent, fixed towers along the border. Now the O’odham are making it clear they will not allow their land to be further divided by Trump’s visions of a wall.
“Over my dead body will a wall be built,” Verlon Jose, the tribe’s vice chairman, said in an interview with local radio station KJZZ. Jose invited Trump to visit the reservation to understand why the wall is not welcome. Amy Juan, an O’odham tribe member and co-founder of the Tohono O’odham Hemajkam Rights Network, told the Washington Post that a border wall would be “devastating.”
“As a people, as a community, it would be a literal separation from our home. Half of the traditional lands of our people lie in Mexico,” Juan said.
It’s not only the O’odham who are fighting the border wall. Robert Holden, deputy director of the National Congress of American Indians, told Yes Magazine that the Ysleta Del Sur in Texas and tribes in California, such as the Kumeyaay, also have relatives in Mexico and will likely oppose the border wall. “There’s significant tribal sovereignty at stake here,” Holden says.
The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota is a spark that reignited native communities around the country. If the incoming puppet decides to pursue the border wall, he will be met with growing opposition from native nations and their allies. Whether the fight is against a pipeline or a divisive border wall, more and more indigenous Americans are waking up and uniting in a fight against environmental destruction, colonization, statism, and an increasingly militarized police state. Hopefully, President-elect Trump is aware of the growing opposition he will face — particularly opposition from native communities who are no longer accepting abuse from the U.S. government.
This article (These Native American Tribes Say They’ll Stop Trump from Building His Wall) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Derrick Broze and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article at edits@theantimedia.org.
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