"While in southern Arizona over winter break with the Student Leadership Initiative of the Embrey Human Rights Program, I had the opportunity to meet with and interview various actors in the border debate. In particular, my research focused on the effects of the U.S.-Mexico border on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Inhabiting 2.8 million acres, with 75 miles of international border, the Tohono O'odham Nation is a key actor on the border, and it is important that their voice and their concerns are adequately heard when discussing the border issue.

The Tohono O'odham Nation is the only nation on the U.S.-Mexico border that has fully recognized nation members on both sides of the border. The border, created by the Gadsden Purchase and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in the mid-19th century, split the nation and its people in half, which has left approximately 2,000 O'odham citizens living in Mexico, where there is no comparable designated Tohono O'odham reservation.

As Verlon Jose, the Chairman of the Legislative Council, conveyed to our group, "We didn't cross the border; the border crossed us."

While the border split the nation, the two treaties recognized the rights of Indigenous Peoples to maintain land, culture and religion, regardless of political borders. The current U.S. immigration policies violate these treaty obligations, as well as the rights of the O'odham."

Get the Story:
Jordan Johansen: Student research reveals unheard voice of Tohono O’odham Nation on U.S.-Mexico Border debate (The SMU Daily Campus 4/24)