{"id":9800,"date":"2020-02-19T19:43:33","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T00:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/arizona-national-monument-being-blown-up-for-border-wall\/"},"modified":"2020-02-19T19:43:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T00:43:43","slug":"arizona-national-monument-being-blown-up-for-border-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/arizona-national-monument-being-blown-up-for-border-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona national monument being blown up for border wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The border fence is surrounded by cacti at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Lukeville, Arizona, on February 16, 2017, on the US\/Mexico border. (Photo credit JIM WATSON\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A national monument in Arizona, home to rare species and sacred Native American burial sites, is being blown up this week as part of construction for President Trump\u2019s border wall, Customs and Border Protection confirmed to CBS News. \u201cControlled blasting\u201d inside Arizona\u2019s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument began this week without consultation from the Native American nation whose ancestral land it affects, according to the congressman whose district includes the reservation.
\n\u00a9 Getty Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
\n\u201cThere has been no consultation with the nation,\u201d said Congressman Ra\u00fal Grijalva of Arizona, who is the chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and whose district contains the reservation and shares 400 miles of border with Mexico. \u201cThis administration is basically trampling on the tribe\u2019s history \u2014 and to put it poignantly, it\u2019s ancestry.\u201d
\nCustoms and Border Protection told CBS News that the blasts are in preparation for \u201cnew border wall system construction, within the Roosevelt Reservation at Monument Mountain in the U.S. Border Patrol\u2019s Tucson Sector.\u201d
\nThe explosions are occurring on Monument Hill, a burial site for the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation, according to Grijalva.
\nThe border wall cannot be constructed on the Native American reservation because it is private land. The nation\u2019s burial sites, however, which Grijalva said are \u201cimmediately adjacent\u201d to the reservation, are on public land, making them fair game for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Customs and Border Protection.
\nGrijalva sent a letter to Homeland Security on January 7, expressing his \u201cserious concerns\u201d over the wall\u2019s construction on historically tribal land. He urged the department to consult the nation \u201cgovernment-to-government,\u201d before moving forward with construction.
\nHe has not heard back.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s been stonewalling, no response for any request,\u201d he said.
\nWeeks before construction began, Grijalva \u2014 along with Tohono O\u2019odham elders, chairman Ned Norris Jr, and archaeologists \u2014 toured the nation\u2019s sacred ceremonial sites, located within Organ Pipe. The group saw rock piles and burial sites with bone fragments dating back thousands of years. One burial site, known as Las Playas, contained artifacts that go back 10,000 years.
\n\u201cWhat we saw on Monument Hill was opposing tribes who were respectfully laid to rest \u2014 that is the one being blasted with dynamite,\u201d Grijalva said.
\nIn addition to the monument\u2019s cultural significance, the land is also a designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, an international effort to \u201cconserve samples of the world\u2019s ecosystems.\u201d
\n\u201cThe Organ Pipe Cactus Biosphere Reserve is a first-generation biosphere reserve created in 1976 for the conservation of the unique resources representing a pristine example of an intact Sonoran Desert ecosystem,\u201d according to the National Park Service\u2019s website. \u201cThe biosphere designation has helped to attract scientists from around the world to Organ Pipe Cactus to conduct a variety of important studies to help us better understand the Sonoran Desert and the impact of humans on this amazing landscape.\u201d
\nLike other remote land that the border wall will bisect, many people are concerned with how the unnatural barrier will irreparably impact Organ Pipe\u2019s unique habitat.
\nCustoms and Border Patrol says they have an \u201cenvironmental monitor\u201d present during the blasts and other \u201con-going clearing activities,\u201d but would not clarify to CBS News what the monitor is doing, or who they are.
\nThe Trump administration has been able to legally construct the border wall over public land due in large part to a little known law passed in the wake of the 9\/11.
\nThe REAL ID Act of 2005 gives the federal government broad power to waive other laws that stand in the way of national security. Under REAL ID, the Trump administration has waived dozens of laws \u2014 including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Environmental Protection Act \u2014 in its bid to construct the border wall.
\n\u201cOf the 21 times the (REAL ID) waiver has been enacted since 2005, 16 of those instances have occurred in the last two and a half years,\u201d reads the letter Grijalva sent to Homeland Security.
\nAccording to the congressman, construction of the border wall has been expedited in Arizona due to an abundance of public land. In Texas, another border state, building the wall has been slowed because it is largely private land.
\nEfren Olivares, director of the racial and economic justice program at the Texas Civil Rights Project, told the Pacific Standard last year that the REAL ID has essentially eliminated federal laws protecting public land.
\n\u201cThe idea that the secretary of (the) DHS could come to your community and say no laws apply here, what kind of rule of law is that?\u201d Olivares said. \u201cPeople should be outraged to know that Homeland Security can wield that kind of power.\u201d
\nGrijalva said repealing REAL ID has been a priority of his for many years.
\nHe plans to convene a hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources\u2019 subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples in the coming weeks to address the impact of the wall \u2014 and waiver \u2014 on Native American communities.
\nIn his letter to Homeland Security, Grijalva wrote: \u201cUsing this waiver to avoid essential federal government responsibilities to tribes is unnecessary, reckless, and counter to the Department\u2019s own policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of the Huffington Post)<\/p>\n

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The border fence is surrounded by cacti at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Lukeville, Arizona, on February 16, 2017, on the US\/Mexico border. (Photo credit JIM WATSON\/AFP via Getty Images) A national monument in Arizona, home to rare species and sacred Native American burial sites, is being blown up <\/p>\n

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