Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 27 February 2020
Tribal leader: Work to build border wall hurts sacred land

Construction crews perform a controlled detonation at the base of Monument Hill in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument west of Lukeville, Ariz., on Wednesday,
Feb. 26, 2020.
Associated Press
By ANITA SNOW struction crews this month Secretary Chad F. Wolf told of Kris Eggle, a park ranger son-based environmental
Associated Press began blasting and bull- Congress on Tuesday that who died while while pursu- nonprofit Center for Bio-
PHOENIX (AP) — A Na- dozing through hills to build he plans to travel soon to ing suspected drug cartel logical Diversity challenges
tive American leader from a 30-foot (9-meter) steel meet with the tribe to dis- members.Environmental those assertions, saying on
Arizona grew emotional wall 60 feet wide (18 meters cuss their concerns. advocates and elected Twitter that he has seen
Wednesday as he told a wide) in Organ Pipe Cactus U.S. Reps. Ruben Gallego officials are concerned chopped up cactus on the
congressional committee National Monument. and Raul Grijalva, both about the wall's potential ground and water being
about the pain members of Environmental groups also Arizona Democrats, also effects in Organ Pipe, in- wasted for concrete during
his tribe feel about U.S. of- are decrying the work at spoke against construction cluding on water from an recent visits.
ficials blasting through land the national parks system of the wall during the meet- underground aquifer and Jordahl posted a video on
they consider sacred to site that's named for its ing of the House Natural migrating animals. A des- social media earlier this
build part of President Don- cactuses resembling or- Resources Committee's ert oasis in the monument, month of one of the blasts
ald Trump's wall along the gan pipes and is a largely Subcommittee for Indig- Quitobaquito Springs, is that are carving a pathway
U.S.-Mexico border. untouched example of So- enous Peoples. The Tohono home to the endangered for the wall through Monu-
"No one reveres our mili- noran Desert habitat. O'odham Nation stretches Sonoyta mud turtle and ment Hill. It showed a long
tary veterans more than "It's hard to see the blast- across southern Arizona Quitobaquito pupfish. line of puffs of smoke and
the O'odham, however, ing that you showed on and into Mexico. Border Patrol Chief Roy D. dust rising up from the dry
dynamiting these sacred the video today because I U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, Villareal, of the agency's desert landscape dotted
sites and burial grounds is know in my heart what our a New Mexico Democrat Tucson Sector, said on Twit- with scrub and cactus.
the same as bulldozing Ar- elders have told us: that it and member of the La- ter in recent days that over The U.N. has designated
lington National Cemetery is home to our ancestors," guna Pueblo tribe, also 90% of the cactuses near the monument an Interna-
or any other cemetery," Norris said, choking up. spoke passionately, saying: the construction area were tional Biosphere Reserve.
Tohono O'odham Nation The administration says "When tribal leaders don't carefully transplanted, sav- The Army Corps of Engi-
Chairman Ned Norris told archaeological monitors have a seat at the table, ing more than 2,000 indi- neers has said the Depart-
lawmakers in Washington. working with Customs and indigenous history is lost." vidual plants. He also said ment of Defense awarded
His testimony came hours Border Protection and the U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, an archaeological monitors $891 million in contracts to
after the government car- Army Corps of Engineers Arizona Republican, noted had not found burial sites or Southwest Valley Construc-
ried out a new round of ex- have found no sign of buri- that Organ Pipe is a well- human remains in the det- tors in May to build the bor-
plosions near the southern al or other sacred sites in known human and drug onation zone at a place der wall on Organ Pipe and
border as a group of invited the area. Department of smuggling corridor and site called Monument Hill. Cabeza Prieta National
journalists watched. Con- Homeland Security acting of the 2002 shooting death Laiken Jordahl of the Tuc- Wildlife Refuge.q