2008 Tohono O’odham Nation chairman Ned Norris explained the significance of the border wall as:
Our land is now cut in half, with O’odham communities, sacred sites, salt pilgrimage routes, and families divided… We did not cross the 75 miles of border within our reservation lands. The border crossed us.
Chairman Ned Norris2“Tohono O’odham Nation challenges border fence,” Indianz.com, July 16, 2008, https://www.indianz.com/News/2008/009811.asp.
The primary problem that the border wall creates for the Tohono O’odham is limiting travel within O’odham land. This restriction hinders an important religious pilgrimage, called the Salt Pilgrimage, to Quitobaquito Springs. The spring is the only natural water source in the area, located in the Arizonian Sonoran desert. Human remains believed to be those of Tohono O’odham ancestors were uncovered there by border wall construction crews in October 2019,3Rafael Carranza, “Tohono O’odham historic sites at risk as border wall construction advances in Arizona,” azcentral.com, January 20, 2020, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/pinal/2020/01/21/tohono-oodham-historic-sites-risk-over-border-wall-construction/4527025002/. and the spring has long been considered the historic homeland of the O’odham.4“Quitobaquito Springs,” Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, National Park Service, accessed August 10, 2020, https://www.nps.gov/orpi/learn/historyculture/quitobaquito-springs.htm. Chairman Ned Norris Jr. said about the Salt Pilgrimage to the spring:
Regardless that it isn’t within our reservation boundaries anymore, but it’s clear, we have inhabited this area since time immemorial… They’re our ancestors. They’re our remnants of who we are as a people, throughout this whole area. And it’s our obligation, it’s our duty to do what is necessary to protect that.
Chairman Ned Norris Jr.5Rafael Carranza, “Tohono O’odham historic sites at risk as border wall construction advances in Arizona,” azcentral.com, January 20, 2020, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/pinal/2020/01/21/tohono-oodham-historic-sites-risk-over-border-wall-construction/4527025002/.
The spring is regarded as sacred, a living element provided to all from our Elder teacher.
Tribal elder Ophelia Rivas6Douglas Main, “Sacred Arizona spring drying up as border wall construction continues,” National Geographic online, July 20, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/07/quitobaquito-springs-arizona-drying-up-border-wall/#close.
The land of Quitobaquito Springs is regularly used for ceremonies and to pay homage to O’odham ancestors. Though there are five distinct bands of O’odham peoples, the spring is sacred to all O’odham.7Douglas Main, “Sacred Arizona spring drying up as border wall construction continues,” National Geographic online, July 20, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/07/quitobaquito-springs-arizona-drying-up-border-wall/#close. The importance of the site and the ancestral graves and shrines at the springs to all the O’odham means that many have to travel to the site, taking the Salt Pilgrimage.
