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Trump’s border wall expansion just bulldozed an ancient tribal site
The damage came as the Trump administration advances a second border barrier and smart wall, with more than $11 billion allocated for new security projects.
- A Department of Homeland Security contractor bulldozed a roughly 60-foot swath through a 1,000-year-old intaglio in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge on Friday, causing irreparable damage to the ancient site.
- The destruction occurred as part of President Donald Trump's $46.5 billion border barrier expansion project, which requires clearing land for a secondary wall near the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Despite discussions between refuge managers, archaeologists Rick and Sandra Martynec, and contractors to protect the site, O'odham runners alerted elder Lorraine Marquez Eiler to encroaching construction the day before destruction occurred.
- Lorraine Marquez Eiler, an elder of the Hia-ced O'odham Indigenous people, described the damage as "an emotional subject," emphasizing the site's deep ancestral significance to her community.
- The incident mirrors previous DHS border construction impacts on sacred sites, including a burial ground in Organ Pipe National Monument, raising concerns about the effectiveness of environmental protections for tribal heritage.
16 Articles
16 Articles
Border wall crews damage 1,000-year-old site as tribe warns of risks - Copper Courier
Tohono O’odham tribal leaders continue to voice opposition to the construction of a physical border wall that would cut through their lands and potentially destroy cultural resources, a warning that came as crews damaged a 1,000-year-old site in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Federal officials acknowledged the damage to a huge intaglio, a carving in the ground, about 30 feet from the border, and said undamaged areas of the site have…
Trump Border Wall Crews Damage 1,000-Year-Old Native Etching in Arizona
Construction crews building President Trump’s hostile border wall razed a portion of a Native American archeological site in Arizona estimated to be at least 1,000 years old.Approximately 60 to 70 feet of the 272-foot-long Las Playas Intaglio, a design etched into the ground in Southwest Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, suffered damage from heavy construction machinery, as first reported by the Washington Post. The intaglio, a t…
Trump’s border wall expansion damages Native American site in Arizona
The border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is expanding by around three miles a week, and that construction is now impacting an ancient tribal site. President Donald Trump ordered an aggressive expansion of the wall, backed by funding in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Now, The Washington Post reports that recent construction in southern Arizona has damaged a rare Native American archaeological site. Native American site damaged Construction c…
On the southern border of the United States, President Trump has further expanded the border protection wall. According to »Washington Post«, a fish-shaped geoglyph over 1000 years old has now been partially destroyed.
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