U.S. is Dynamiting #Kumeyaay #SacredMountain for #BorderWall Expansion

Kumeyaay's sacred mountain is being dynamited at the same time Hia-Ced #Oodham's sacred place is being bulldozed for this border wall on the #Arizona border.

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, May 15, 2026

"The United States government is dynamiting the sacred place of Kumeyaay, who live on both sides of the border, and blasted two sacred monoliths that were 60 to 120 million years old. The U.S. began blasting #CerroCuchumá in early April, a historic and #SacredSite where their #MedicinePeople carry out ceremonies, without consultation as required by U.S. federal law."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/05/us-is-dynamiting-kumeyaay-sacred.html

#USPol #ProtectTheSacred #DefundCBP #RespectTheTreaties #TohonoOodham #KumeyaayPeople #NativeAmericans #SacredSites #SacredLand #NoBorders

I'm sharing a paper that I wrote about the story of Pia Machita, a Tohono O'odham elder who led his village in resisting military conscription from 1940-1941.

It is a powerful story and one that brings to mind other moments of Indigenous resistance to the draft, including the Oklahoma Green Corn Rebellion.

FYI- the paper was first written for a class at Tohono O'odham Community College, but I did some rewriting on it after I turned it in.

https://jmb.mx/blog/2026/03/11/the-rebellion-of-pia-machita/

Tagging: @ehasbrouck @ChrisAintMarchin

#TohonoOodham #Oodham #PiaMachita #DraftResistance #MilitaryDraft #MilitaryConscription #Indigenous #Arizona #IndigenousLaw #Mexico #GadsdenPurchase

O'ODHAM RESISTANCE:
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AT THE BORDER

12:30 p.m. Sunday, April 6
Holland Sanctuary at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson
4831 E. 22nd St., just east of Swan Rd.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/ofelia-rivas-oodham-resistance-human.html

#firstNations #Oodham #Resist #Tucson #VoiceAgainstTheWall

U.S. Justice Department Rejects #CivilRights Complaint Filed for Murder of #RaymondMattia by #USBorderPatrol

By #OpheliaRivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall, via #CensoredNews, January 6, 2025

"The system of justice for the killing of an American Indian is as expected by the people. The numerous federal agents on the Tohono O'odham reservation are justified in killing our people as they will not be held accountable by the system that pays them to be heavily armed and unmonitored on our land.

"The border patrol have not been prosecuted for deaths, rapes, molestations and human and drug trafficking.

"The Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice wrote to me:

"'The tragic death of Raymond Mattia, who was shot and killed at his home, by officers of U.S Customs and Border Patrol agents Whitehouse, SiFuentes, and Torralva, on May 18, 2023.'

'Mr. Mattia’s death was indeed a tragic loss. Mr. Mattia’s death was indeed a tragic loss. However, the information provided about the circumstances surrounding his death does not disclose a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes enforced by the Criminal Section. Therefore, we regret that we are unable to assist with this matter."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/us-justice-dept-rejects-civil-rights.html

#JusticeForRay #JusticeForRayMattia #ACAB #CivilRightsViolation
#Murder #Tohono #Oodham #Arizona #MurderPatrol

U.S. Border Patrol Agents who Murdered #RaymondMattia, #TohonoOodham, Identified

Tucson Sentinel, reporter Paul Ingram, reports: "Three #BorderPatrol agents involved in the fatal shooting of a Tohono O'odham man in front of his home in 2023 were identified in legal filings on Friday.

"Earlier this year, the family of 58-year-old Raymond Mattia filed a lawsuit, accusing Border Patrol of excessive force and demanding the names of the agents who killed him.

"Attorneys Ryan Stitt and Marcus Bourassa filed an amended complaint, and on Friday issued a summons for Border Patrol Agents Scott Whitehouse, Dan Sifuentes, and Ivan Torralva, who they said 'shot and killed Raymond for no reason.'

"'Despite the lack of a threat and his compliance, at least three of the agents met his compliant calm demeanor with a hail of gunfire,' the attorneys wrote. Whitehouse, Sifuentes, and Torralva 'all fired their weapons at Mr. Mattia."

Excerpt posted in #CensoredNews:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/12/us-border-patrol-agents-who-murdered.html

Read more:
https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/121324_border_agents_named/bp-agents-involved-fatal-shooting-tohonooodham-man-named-l

#ACAB #JusticeForRaymondMattia #CivilRightsViolation #Murder #JusticeForRayMattia #Tohono #Oodham #Arizona #MurderPatrol

U.S. Justice Department Complaint Filed for the Murder of #RaymondMattia, #Tohono #Oodham, by U.S. Border Patrol and Tribal Police

Civil Rights Complaint filed by Ophelia Rivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall, and Signees

November 28,2024 Press Release, via #CensoredNews

"A complaint has been filed on November 7, 2024 with the Civil Rights Section of the United States Department of Justice seeking justice for violation of Mr. Raymond Mattia Sr. civil and constitutional rights.

"The unjust decisions made thus far are a blatant cover-up of biased processes and laws pertaining to American Indians.

"We strongly urge immediate compliance with the Interagency Memorandum of Agreement on December 1, 2022, regarding criminal investigations on Indian Country in the homicide of Raymond Mattia Sr.

"The Interagency MOU press release states, 'Department of Justice is committed to working with the Department of Interior and the FBI is committed to ongoing and continued collaboration with the Bureau of Indian Affairs,' said FBI Director Christopher Wray' on December 2, 2022.

"The Arizona prosecutor ruled there was a 'just cause' of 38 shots and 11 bullets striking a peaceful unarmed American Indian man.

"Raymond Mattia Sr. had called tribal police for assistance, undocumented persons had entered his home demanding the use of his cellphone. Ray stepped out of his one-room home doorway as shown on the Homeland Security border patrol body cameras and complied to the demands of over 10 border patrols and 1 tribal police.

[Graphic description of Raymond's murder has been omitted]

"According to Zach Stoebe, public affairs with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, the homicide of Raymond Mattia Sr. is, 'a case that does not rise to the level of a federal criminal civil rights violation or a criminal violation in Arizona law.' (USA Today, Oct. 16, 2023)

"We call for justice for an American Indian man, Raymond Mattia Sr., a human, an O'odham, a member of the federally-recognized Tohono O'odham Nation. Ray is a father, a brother, a hereditary ceremony leader, a community councilman and a friend with a Right to Live and Exist.

"This is the legacy of the United States of America regarding the American Indian. Truth Day November 28, 2024."

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/us-justice-department-complaint-filed.html

#JusticeForRaymondMattia #JusticeForRayMattia #CivilRightsViolation #ACAB

It's great that Joe Biden is apologizing for genocidal Indian boarding schools in the US, but it rings a little hollow when it's used as a blatant campaign stunt. If there's one thing indigenous people still have, it's memory. Biden could have made an apology at any point in his term and people would have remembered, and it sure would have come across more sincere than 10 days before an election.

---

"Speaking at Gila River Indian Community today, Biden made no apologies for the tens of thousands of Palestinian children murdered with U.S. bombs that he has sent to Israel. Biden made no apologies for his war crime of sending U.S. white phosphorus to Israel for genocide.

"Interior Sec. Deb Haaland made no apologies to Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache for bulldozing their ancient villages and burial places for transmission lines. Haaland made no apologies for allowing a Canadian company to dig into the Paiute Massacre Site for lithium. Haaland made no apologies for issuing a permit to an Australian company to drill into Hualapai's ceremonial place for lithium in Arizona.

"Instead, they used the crimes against Native American children in boarding schools for the advancement of their political campaign."

---

CENSORED NEWS: O'odham Woman Becomes Hero When Genocide Joe Comes to Town

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/oodham-woman-becomes-hero-when-genocide.html?m=1

#USPol #Indigenous #Oodham

In other news... WTF!

Dangerous Low Flying Jets Target More #Tohono #Oodham, #Apache and #Yaqui Communities

via #CensoredNews, Oct 5, 2024

Wild Earth Guardians:

"The Threat: The U.S. Air Force is proposing low-level fighter jet maneuvers and supersonic flights over White Mountains, Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, and more. It will affect the Tohono O’odham Nation, #WhiteMountain and #SanCarlosApache Nations, and #PascuaYaqui Tribe.

Wilderness and Sacred Places at Risk

The Wilderness areas at risk include the Gila and Blue Range Wildernesses in New Mexico, plus the following Wildernesses in Arizona: Superstition, Salt River Canyon, White Canyon, Needles Eye, Aravaipa Canyon, Galiuro, Santa Teresa, Fishhooks, Bear Wallow, Escudilla, Mount Baldy, Chiracahua, Arrastra Mountains, Tres Alamos, Rawhide Mountains, Harcuvar Mountains, Swansea, East Cactus Plain, Harquahala Mountains, Aubrey Peak, Upper Burro Creek, Hummingbird Springs, Organ Pipe Cactus, Cabeza Prieta, Coyote Mountains, Big Horn Mountains, Baboquivari Peak, and Pajarita Wildernesses. In addition to these 30 designated Wildernesses, this proposal also threatens the Blue Range Primitive Area as well as many Wilderness Study Areas.

Eighteen of these Wildernesses were designated by the 1990 Arizona Desert Wilderness Act, which unfortunately contained a bad special provision that allows military overflights. But that doesn’t mean the proposed action won’t damage those Wildernesses, nor does that 1990 law give the Air Force a free pass to damage the other Wildernesses.

"The Air Force wants to make changes to 10 #MilitaryOperationAreas (#MOAs) to enhance its airspace training capabilities. Specifically, the Air Force wants to lower the altitudes of existing MOAs to support low-altitude training (in some cases, as low as 500 feet above the ground, and in one case, The U.S. Air Force has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes a massive increase in low-level jet training flights in more than 1.2 million acres of designated Wilderness in Arizona and New Mexico. Such activity would shatter the area’s natural sounds, ruin the wilderness experience for visitors, and stress native wildlife.

"Your help is needed by October 9 to tell the Air Force to keep low-altitude jets, sonic booms, and supersonic flights out of these Wildernesses (link below).

"The Air Force also wants to authorize supersonic training at lower altitudes in more MOAs, lower the minimum release altitude for flares, and authorize use of chaff bundles containing up to 5 million #aluminum-coated silica fibers, which are used to obscure radar, and are designed to stay airborne as long as possible before they settle to the ground."

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/dangerous-low-flying-jets-target-more.html

Link to Submit Public Comments (#Arizona):
https://www.arizonaregionalairspaceeis.com/comments/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=3ae8a8ee-8716-4497-b5d2-cb08a9bd0157

#ProtectTheWilderness #DefendTheSacred #USAirForce #SoundPollution #AluminumPollution