"Before a border existed, Apaches and Comanches moved freely about the Southwest and into present-day Mexico. Today, tribes like the Yselta del Sur Tribe of Texas have many relatives on the other side of the border.

Indigenous people like the Aztec inhabited Central America long before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. Native blood surges through multiple generations of Mexican families today.

If not for U.S. leaders' lust in fulfilling dreams of Manifest Destiny, Mexican border issues might not be as complicated today. But military officers like Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee succeeded in part by taking Mexico's territorial lands of California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico during war with Mexico beginning in 1846."

Get the Story:
'Immigrants' are often indigenous to America (The Missoulian 5/7)

Relevant Links:
Jodi Rave Lee - http://www.missoulian.com/jodirave

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