Ancient Tohono O’odham artifacts were found not far from the Arizona-Mexico border — and now the tribe is calling for their return.
The site, called La Ciénega or “the wetland” is close to Nogales and contained 40 graves, 28 cremation vessels with ashes and shell ornaments inside.
A tribal representative told Tucson Sentinel Reporter Mia Kortright that “they’re excavating our ancestors.” Kortright said it’s just the latest example of this kind of thing.
And it’s all happening as the Trump administration is moving forward with its border wall construction even on the tribe’s sovereign land.
The O’odham are the only tribe whose reservation spans both sides of the border. And now, news is out that border wall construction crews have damaged an ancient archeological site in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge near the tribe’s reservation.
The Show spoke with Kortright more about La Cienega and what was uncovered by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History as a railway line was being built.
Full conversation
MIA KORTRIGHT: The La Cienega site was found on the south side of the U.S-Mexico border. It was discovered during construction. The Mexican government hired some, some archaeologists. They found what appeared to be about 60-ish homes, human remains, human cremains and burial pottery. And it basically denoted that there was a link between these two what are considered archaeological cultures known as the Trincheras and the Hohokam, which archaeologists will say border each other.
But when you talk to the folks at the Cultural Affairs Office of the Tohono O’odham Nation and you look at that, if you look at their map of their ancestral lands, they’re all part of that ancestral land. You know, it just kind of denotes that they were there. This is something that, you know, modern day it’s got an international barrier between it, but this is not how, this is not how everyday life went 4,000 years ago.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So, I mean, this happens sometimes, right? It’s not uncommon for artifacts like these to kind of be accidentally dug up in, in development in this region, right? There were a lot of people around from these nations thousands of years ago. This one they were excavating to build a railway line?
MIA KORTRIGHT: Yes. And an archaeologist with I believe it is the Old Pueblo Archaeology Center told me that Indigenous remains are found at least in the American Southwest almost daily.
LAUREN GILGER: Wow. So, common is something we can say, common it is.
MIA KORTRIGHT: Common it is. This happens a lot.
LAUREN GILGER: Wow. And so, you spoke with someone from the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Cultural Affairs Office, you say the lone specialist there on this stuff. What did he tell you about what they would like to see happen when this common occurrence happens, when there is, you know, an artifact uncovered?
MIA KORTRIGHT: Samuel Fayuant said that human remains are typically given a reburial all together about once a year. These funerary and ceremonial objects are often reburied on the Tohono O’odham Nation. It’s rare the repatriation process when it happens in Mexico because there are O’odham in Mexico. It’s happened before but typically the stuff is reburied either at a ceremonial site in Mexico or wherever it was found.
LAUREN GILGER: Does that make a difference, Mia, in terms of right now the, the efforts from the Tohono O’odham people to sort of maintain their sovereignty, maintain their history, maintain their culture?
MIA KORTRIGHT: Yeah, I think it does. You know, Mr. Fayuant talked to me about, you know, trying to get these remains and these ceremonial objects from museums throughout the United States. You know, it is generally considered disrespectful not just in the O’odham culture, in a lot of cultures to leave people’s remains out, you know, on display without their consent, right? You know, if we did that to, to one of our own Founding Fathers I’d imagine or, or somebody, our own ancestors, you know, somebody would probably have a problem with that.
So, yeah, yeah, it, it’s a reminder I think and I can’t speak for the O’odham perspective totally because I’m not O’odham. But yeah, I mean, this is, this is an indicator that they have been here since, you know, like they say, time immemorial. And I think it at its core it’s simply just a, just a fight for, you know, respect and invisibility.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. And of course, it comes at a very particular moment for this, right? Where we’re seeing this fight between the Trump administration and the tribe over the Trump administration’s construction of a border wall. The Tohono O’odham Nation’s very interesting in the sense that it is the only tribal nation, sovereign nation that exists on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, right? And that border wall would, would cut through their land. And now we know that there are cultural sites that have been impacted.
MIA KORTRIGHT: So, during our conversation Mr. Fayuant brought up there’s an intaglio on Cabeza Prieta, the wildlife refuge and it’s, it’s an intaglio built to resemble a fish. And the he showed me on Google Maps that the border wall was set to cross right over the tail of that whale. It was essentially going to cut off that tail.
And it looks like that just happened ... you know, during the first Trump administration it went over a sacred burial ground but they were able to come to some, at least some compromise where the bollards were not as deeply set in the ground, that way it would disturb less than it normally would. I couldn’t tell you the extent of the damage at the intaglio Las Playas, but from what my colleague’s coverage has denoted it’s, it’s a pretty hurtful experience for the O’odham.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. OK, we’ll leave it there. Mia Kortright, reporter with the Tucson Sentinel joining us to talk about this story. Mia, thank you for your reporting here, thanks for coming on The Show.
MIA KORTRIGHT: Thank you. Thank you Lauren.
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