Tohono O'odham Nation Tribal Members Unwelcome at US-Mexico Border Gate Gabriela Maya Bernadett - Indian Country Today
go to original April 6, 2016

The Tohono O’odham Nation faced a rude awakening on March 3, when tribal members found fencing, poles and three signs posted up at the San Miguel Gate located on the boundary of Chukut Kuk District, one of the eleven districts of the Nation and right on the U.S.-Mexico international border.



The signs, one in Spanish, one in English, and one in both Spanish and English, were posted on the Mexican side of the border and said that the boundary is “private property” and “the Tohono O’odham Nation nor any other agency of the United States Government has any jurisdiction over this land.”

The signs, fencing and poles were allegedly posted up by a Mexican family that owns the land. For a tribe that spans two countries, the signs and fencing were an unwelcome gesture threatening the rights of tribal members accustomed to passing freely through the gate as long as they had their tribal IDs.

The tribe, located in southern Arizona, shares 75 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. This border was established through the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, when the United States acquired what is now southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, yet there had always been an understanding that the O’odham could cross freely to visit communities on the other side.

According to the Tohono O’odham Nation website, historically traditional O’odham lands stretched south to Sonora, Mexico, but after the border was established the O’odham communities in Mexico dwindled, and currently there are nine communities remaining on the Mexican side.

Though an international border runs through O’odham land, the O’odham people are not so easily separated. According to the tribe’s tribal college website, as of 2007, there were 1,800 enrolled O’odham in Mexico. In fact, the O’odham in Mexico have their own form of governance.

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