The Tohono O’odham Native Americans have for thousands of years inhabited an area extending South to Sonora, Mexico to Central Arizona, west to the Gulf of California and east to the San Pedro River in an area known as the Papagueria.[1] Today, the Tohono O’odham, whose population number around 20,000 living on reservation lands are confined to the third largest reservation in the United States (approximately 4,450 square miles). The Tohono O’odham are one of only a few American Indian tribes that have never been relocated from their ancestral lands.[2] Unlike native groups along the U.S.-Canada border, the Tohono O’odham were not given dual citizenship after the Gadsen Purchase.[3] Many of the customs of the Tohono O’odham consist of ceremonies requiring back and fourth movements across the border—something they did freely for decades. Many of the Tohono O’odham are also Mexican born.

In 2007 the U.S. Border Patrol begin construction on a 75 mile vehicular border wall through the Tohono O’odham lands, effectively dividing the multi-national sovereign nation in half. During construction the remains of direct ancestors of five families living on the reservation were unearthed.[4] Homeland Security destroyed 69 graves. In direct violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, three hired archaeologists who boxed, bagged and removed the remains from the burial site and their cultural director failed to report the finding to the tribal government until two days had passed.  The graves were among 11 archeological sites identified before the construction of the wall.[5] Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. evoked the vision of the horror of this event at a Congressional field hearing, stating, “Imagine a bulldozer in your family graveyard.”