New photos from the Center for Biological Diversity show major damage to an ancient archeological site in Arizona during border wall construction.
The nearly 300-foot-long, fish-shaped etching, called an intaglio, is approximately 1,000 years old and located in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
The site is just feet from the Arizona-Mexico border in an area slated for construction of a secondary border wall to run parallel to the existing wall.
New photos from the Center for Biological Diversity’s Russ McSpadden show a 50-foot swath of earth near the fish’s head has been scraped away.
“It was clear right away the damage is permanent,” McSpadden said.
The site is located near the Tohono O’Odham reservation and on the tribe’s traditional lands, said Tribal Chairman Verlon Jose in a video on Facebook.
“This was more than land, it was memory, it was identity, it was history,” Jose said. “For us O’odham, sacred sites are not just places, they are living connections to our ancestors.”
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said a border wall contractor disturbed the site nearly two weeks ago, and that the remaining portion will be protected.
Jose called on federal officials to take better protections in the future. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last year waived a host of environmental and other protections to expedite border wall construction.
“The Tohono O’odham nation has made our position unmistakably clear to federal officials: this must never happen again,” Jose said.
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