USA: “Over my dead body!”

Several indigenous communities are vehemently against Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall along the border between the US and Mexico. According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in Göttingen, they are not willing to allow their territory to be divided by an impassable border. According to the human rights organization, several other projects planned by Trump are very problematic for indigenous communities as well – including the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in North Dakota and the Keystone XL pipeline, which is supposed to transport tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico,  and which is currently still vetoed by President Barack Obama.

“The about 28,000 indigenous Tohono O'odhan in Arizona are determined to prevent the construction of the wall. They don’t want to be separated from their relatives in Sonora on the Mexican side of the border,” reported Yvonne Bangert, the STP’s expert on questions concerning indigenous peoples, on Friday. “For the Tohono O'odham, it is crucial to be able to access their entire traditional land, in the US and in Mexico. For them, the frontier was so far practically non-existent.”

The vice president of the tribal council, Verlon Jose, has already announced resistance against the wall, which is supposed to be more than 15 meters (50 feet) high: “Over my dead body,” the Washington Post quoted. The Tohono O'odham are preparing for resistance. If necessary, they will follow the example of the Dakota of Standing Rock, who set up a resistance camp (with up to several thousand activists) in April 2016 to fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and to defend their drinking water sources.

“According to federal legislation, the public administration authority BLM would have to find an agreement with the Tohono O'odham if they want to carry out such a project on their land. But the Tohon O'odhan are not prepared to negotiate,” said Bangert. “Thus, the future president would have to put up with a 120-kilometer-long gap in his frontier wall unless he can get the congress to have the stretches of land declared as non-tribal territory. This, however, would lead to considerable resistance by the Tohono O'odhan.”

The Tohono O'odham have been living in the area between the south of Arizona and Sonora in Mexico for thousands of years. The territory has been divided by a 120-kilometer-long border between Mexico and the USA since 1853, but the indigenous peoples have special passports allowing them to cross the border unhindered.

Header Photo: Michael Vadon via Flickr