2 O'odham activists arrested after blocking border wall construction in southern Arizona

TUCSON — Two O'odham activists protesting the building of the border wall were arrested Wednesday after blocking construction activity near Quitobaquito Springs in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

The springs in southwestern Arizona are sacred to the Tohono O'odham and Hia-Ced O'odham, who lived in the area as recently as three generations ago, and are one of very few natural sources of water along the vast, rugged Arizona borderlands. 

The area also is at the crossroads of construction efforts to replace existing vehicle barriers with 30-foot steel bollards as part of a $891 million replacement project at Organ Pipe. 

The National Park Service police, with the assistance of U.S. Border Patrol agents, arrested the two activists, according to a statement from Border Patrol's Tucson Sector.

"You do not have permission to be here. This is O'odham land. You don't have permission to take the water ... our artifacts, our history. You're taking our history," one of the protesters said as park service police led her in handcuffs to a white van, a video posted to social media about the protest and the arrest showed.

The two activists are members of the O'odham Anti Border Collective and Defend O'odham Jewed, a grassroots movement of tribal members and allies formed in opposition to border wall construction on ancestral tribal lands and to the desecration of sacred sites. 

The groups said Wednesday's protest was led by "O'odham u'wui," or women, and referred to them as "water and land defenders."

Video posted to the group's Facebook page showed the two women sitting on the blade and the excavator of two bulldozers prior to their arrests, as Border Patrol agents and construction crews looked on, some of them recording with their cellphones.

"This land means so much more than a wall. The animals mean so much more than your guns, your weapons, your toys," one of the two women said in another video showing the moment park police handcuffed and arrested her.

Vanessa Lacayo, a National Park Service spokesperson, confirmed the two arrests and said officers transported them to the Florence Correctional Center. 

"Both women were in an area of the monument temporarily closed to pedestrian and vehicle traffic. They were also interfering with agency functions," Lacayo said.

In addition to Organ Pipe, construction crews are replacing border barriers in other areas adjacent to the Tohono O'odham Nation, which is on the U.S.-Mexico border and has registered members on both sides.

Crews have started replacement work at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, west of Organ Pipe, and at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and Coronado National Forest, east of the Nation.

All four parks, which are federally protected wilderness areas, are ancestral O'odham lands and contain many sites of historical and cultural significance.

Previously, the O'odham Anti Border Collective and Defend O'odham Jewed organized a partial blockade of a border wall assembly site in Coolidge on Aug. 26 to protest wall construction.

The two groups issued a call to action asking supporters to gather at Quitobaquito Springs to continue opposition to border wall construction. They each set up bail funds.

The protests at Organ Pipe are similar to protests this summer by members of the Kumeyaay Nation, who blocked construction of border barriers east of San Diego.

Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.

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