Tribal leader: Work to build border wall hurts sacred land
Source: Associated Press
By ANITA SNOW
an hour ago
PHOENIX (AP) — A Native American leader from Arizona grew emotional Wednesday as he told a congressional committee about the pain members of his tribe feel about U.S. officials blasting through land they consider sacred to build part of President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“No one reveres our military veterans more than the O’odham, however, dynamiting these sacred sites and burial grounds is the same as bulldozing Arlington National Cemetery or any other cemetery,” Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris told lawmakers in Washington.
His testimony came hours after the government carried out a new round of explosions near the southern border as a group of invited journalists watched. Construction crews this month began blasting and bulldozing through hills to build a 30-foot (9-meter) steel wall 60 feet wide (18 meters wide) in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Environmental groups also are decrying the work at the national parks system site that’s named for its cactuses resembling organ pipes and is a largely untouched example of Sonoran Desert habitat.
Read more: https://apnews.com/5381ad657d0ad69224e991d7717a6698
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