Tohono O'odham, faith leaders gather in prayer to protect sacred land from border wall

For Tucson residents, the fight over a proposed border wall is unfolding not only as a federal and tribal legal dispute, but as a direct threat to a landscape many people regard as central to the identity of the Sonoran Desert. Tohono O’odham leaders, faith representatives, Tucson officials and other supporters gathered Wednesday at the San Xavier District to pray against construction across the Nation’s southern border. Their gathering followed the removal of a cottonwood near Lochiel and came as federal contractors prepared to clear more vegetation, including saguaros, for a 62-mile border barrier.

The vigil began with a procession from Mission San Xavier del Bac to the San Xavier Community Center. Dozens of participants carried signs calling attention to the spiritual importance of trees and saguaros, including messages that urged people not to allow sacred cacti to be treated as religious symbols are treated in Christian tradition. At the community center, participants prayed, sang and blessed saguaros with water. The event brought together people from multiple faiths alongside Tohono O’odham community members and leaders.

Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose described the border as a wound to the Nation and said the wall would damage places used for worship, healing, food gathering and community life. He compared the landscape to a home whose front and back yards were being destroyed, followed by a demand to identify where relatives were buried. Jose said burial grounds and archaeological locations lie in the proposed construction area. The Nation keeps information about some of those places private, he said, in an effort to protect them.

The immediate catalyst for the gathering was the cutting down of a cottonwood near Lochiel that activists estimated was about 200 years old. The tree was one of four marked for removal near a protest camp in the San Rafael Valley. On Monday, federal agents raided the camp, where activists had maintained a continuous tree sit for 71 days. Activists said more than 10 people were arrested. Contractors later removed the last of the four cottonwoods, leaving Jose and other opponents mourning what they considered an elder presence in the desert.

Jose told those gathered that many elders who had previously fought the wall have died, while some surviving elders have said they do not want to live long enough to see it completed. He also said the Nation would continue resisting the project. The Nation’s Legislative Council recognizes the saguaro as a person, according to Jose, who said destroying the plants is comparable to harming Tohono O’odham children, elders and relatives. He said prayer would help guide the Nation through the next stage of the conflict.

The timing of the next stage remained a central concern at the vigil. Jose said crews planned to return Oct. 12 to begin clearing vegetation along the Nation’s border, including saguaros. Another report said contractors could begin removing foliage from tribal land as soon as Monday. The construction would be part of the federal government’s Tucson 5 project, a planned 62-mile effort intended to close what U.S. Customs and Border Protection describes as a longstanding gap in border security.

CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said the project targets a remote area that the agency considers one of the most dangerous smuggling and trafficking corridors on the Southwest border. In a statement, CBP cited decades of drug trafficking, migrant deaths and cartel activity, and said Congress funded the work, a federal court approved it and the agency is proceeding under applicable legal authority. The agency has also said it recognizes the need to protect environmental, wildlife and cultural resources during construction, while arguing that unauthorized immigration creates its own environmental problems.

For the Tohono O’odham Nation, however, the project raises questions of sovereignty, religious freedom and the protection of ancestral places. The Nation sued the federal government in June to stop construction. A federal judge ruled against the tribe in August, clearing the way for the project to proceed, but the Nation appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and is waiting for a decision. Jose said the presidential administration, the Department of Homeland Security, CBP and local Border Patrol leadership do not have authority to diminish the Nation. He also argued that although Congress waived more than 30 environmental laws for border construction, it did not waive the federal government’s authority regarding tribal sovereignty.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero attended the prayer gathering and reaffirmed the city’s support for the Nation. She said the Tucson City Council has repeatedly passed resolutions and joined legal briefs supporting tribal sovereignty and opposing the wall. Romero, who has launched an effort to plant 1 million trees in Tucson by 2030, said seeing the cottonwood fall was painful even though the tree was outside city limits. She emphasized that the Sonoran Desert belongs to everyone in the region. U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva also spoke, framing the dispute as a matter of religious liberty and asking how the public would respond if federal agents bulldozed a church for wall construction. For those gathered, the prayers and blessings were both a spiritual act and a public demand for consultation, protection of sacred land and an end to the wall project.