“The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is deeply disturbed by the intense escalation of actions by local law enforcement targeting nonviolent protestors in the traditional Tohono O’odham Nation’s homelands of southern Arizona. We will not stay silent while sacred sites are destroyed and unnecessary force is used against Native and non-Native land stewards,” says NCAI President Fawn Sharp. “The fact is the Nation should not have to continuously fight a battle borne of the federal government’s unwillingness to commit to tribal consultation. The Administration’s decision to build a border wall through the Nation’s sacred homelands, to avoid due process, and to destroy such a historic and meaningful place to the O’odham people illustrates a sheer lack of interest in a true government-to-government relationship.”

NCAI stands with the Tohono O’odham Nation and calls for the Administration to immediately stop border wall construction and perform the necessary consultation and environmental impact surveys that would protect and preserve land that holds sacred and irreplaceable significance to the Tohono O’odham people and their culture.

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