{"id":30699,"date":"2023-01-30T10:25:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T15:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=30699"},"modified":"2023-01-30T21:31:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T02:31:48","slug":"cronkite-news-hia-ced-oodham-seek-recognition-from-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2023\/01\/30\/cronkite-news-hia-ced-oodham-seek-recognition-from-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Hia-Ced O\u2019odham seek recognition from United States"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Lourdes<\/a>
Lourdes \u201cLulu\u201d Pereira is a student worker at the Labriola Center and the official archivist for the Hia-Ced Hemajkam LLC, which was established in 2015 to work toward federal recognition and reclamation of ancestral lands. Photo taken December 1, 2022, at Hayden Library in Tempe, Arizona. Photo by Campbell Wilmot \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u2018We were always sovereign\u2019: Hia-Ced O\u2019odham seek federal recognition as a tribe<\/div>\r\n
Monday, January 30, 2023<\/div>\r\n
By Scianna Garcia<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nPHOENIX, Arizona — The Hia-Ced O\u2019odham people were known for their nomadic lifestyle in the parched Sonoran Desert, and the \u201cSand People\u201d often were on the move in search of water sources, surviving in the harshest of terrains.

<\/P>\r\nBut lack of water wasn\u2019t the biggest threat to the Hia-Ced. In the mid-1800s, yellow fever swept through their ancestral lands, which lie on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border, and wiped out much of the population.

<\/P>\r\nAccording to descendants, only four Hia-Ced families survived \u2013 those who had fled to neighboring O\u2019odham land to escape the epidemic. Because their land was no longer inhabited, early American settlers believed the Hia-Ced had died out.

<\/P>\r\nToday, the number of Hia-Ced is about 1,000. An exact count is difficult to determine because census forms don\u2019t recognize a Hia-Ced tribe.

<\/P>\r\nIn Arizona, 22 federally recognized tribes inhabit nearly every region of the state, according to the Arizona State Museum<\/a>, but the Hia-Ced isn\u2019t one of them.

<\/P>\r\nBut some descendants of those four surviving families are working to change that. They\u2019re researching the history of the Hia-Ced to prove their existence and distinctions, and working to advocate for recognition with the federal government.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt isn’t our fault that there was an epidemic that affected the Hia-Ced O\u2019odham, but we still are a tribal community that deserves the federal recognition like every other tribal community here in Arizona,\u201d said Lourdes \u201cLulu\u201d Pereira, an Arizona State University student and official archivist for the Hia-Ced Hemajkam LLC<\/a>, which was established in 2015 to work toward federal recognition and reclamation of ancestral lands.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI believe the foundation of this comes down to the responsibility of the federal government \u2013 acknowledging those tribal communities that they inflicted genocide on, that they have put through hell and through disturbing, horrific actions.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nThe Hia-Ced Hemajkam LLC governing board, led by Pereira\u2019s mother, Christina Andrews, has seven members, who meet monthly on their quest to become federally recognized.

<\/P>\r\nHia-Ced aboriginal territory spans the west side of what now is the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation, west to Yuma, north to the Gila River and south to Puerto Pe\u00f1asco, Mexico.

<\/P>\r\nAndrews doesn\u2019t think it will be possible to reclaim the entire land, so the board is focusing on taking back the national park sites in Hia-Ced territory: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.

<\/P>\r\nFor the Hia-Ced, these cultural lands are sacred.

<\/P>\r\nAndrews has a clear message to the National Park Service: \u201cYou\u2019re just a babysitter for us right now, and that\u2019s fine. But we want to get our home back, and that\u2019s our goal.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nThe U.S Fish & Wildlife Service and NPS declined to comment for this story.

<\/P>\r\n \"Lorraine<\/a>

Lorraine Eiler, a Hia-Ced O\u2019odham woman, recalls growing up in Ajo, which is about 40 miles from the U.S. Mexico border and sacred Hia-Ced lands. Photo taken at in Ajo on November 18, 2022. Photo by Scianna Garcia \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\n

Complicated history with Tohono O\u2019odham<\/div>\r\nThe Hia-Ced had established a tribal home within the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation, with whom they share the heritage O’odham language. But internal strife led to some of the Hia-Ced striking out on their own, opting instead to reclaim their primary heritage.

<\/P>\r\nOtherwise known as the “Arene\u00f1os” or \u201cSand People,\u201d the Hia-Ced are cousins to the Akimel O\u02bcodham (River People) and the Tohono O\u2019odham (Desert People).

<\/P>\r\nAlthough the O\u2019odhams share a common name, distinctions between the tribes vary in dialect, geographic location, migration patterns, housing type and food.

<\/P>\r\nAndrews said the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation sold the Hia-Ced aboriginal lands to the federal government for $26 million in 1976 as part of the Indian Land Claims Act \u2013 without the consent or knowledge of the Hia-Ced.

<\/P>\r\nIn 1984, the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation unofficially adopted a Hia-Ced district as a part of their tribe. In 2013, the Hia-Ced officially became the 12th district of the Tohono O’odham Nation, led by Andrews as chairwoman, but the district dissolved two years later over disagreements regarding council decisions and district monetary budgets.

<\/P>\r\nIn an email, spokesperson Matt Smith said the office of Tohono O\u2019odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. isn\u2019t aware of any official efforts being made by the Hia-Ced to become federally recognized.

<\/P>\r\nLorraine Eiler, who is Hia-Ced but remains a member of the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation, said seeking federal recognition may not be in the Hia-Ced\u2019s best interest.

<\/P>\r\nEiler led the effort to dissolve the 12th district, according to an article by ICT<\/a>, a nonprofit news organization that covers Indigenous peoples.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI think in some ways, you’re going to be jeopardizing individuals that don’t have the means to live on very limited income, to relinquish from the tribe and try to seek another federal recognition,\u201d Eiler said, referring to the funding that accompanies federal recognition. \u201cIt’s going to be a hardship for them.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n \"Lourdes<\/a>

Lourdes \u201cLulu\u201d Pereira wears a Hia-Ced O\u2019odham ribbon skirt with the tribe\u2019s seal at the Hayden Library at ASU in Tempe, Arizona, on December 1, 2022. Photo by Campbell Wilmot \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\n

The path to federal recognition<\/div>\r\nAn Indigenous community can become federally recognized in two ways: by an act of Congress or through the Bureau of Indian Affairs<\/a>.

<\/P>\r\nTo become federally recognized through the BIA, the group seeking acknowledgment must submit a letter of intent to petition, then a documented petition including extensive evidence of the tribe\u2019s past, according to bureau guidelines. The Hia-Ced are in the process of collecting and assembling documents that prove their existence through the years.

<\/P>\r\nA tribe can also become recognized directly through Congress. Andrews has met with U.S. Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva, D-Tucson, in hopes of persuading him to introduce a bill that would federally recognize the Hia-Ced.

<\/P>\r\nBy becoming federally recognized, tribes \u201care eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, either directly or through contracts, grants, or compacts,\u201d according to USA.gov<\/a>. Cultural, historic and land preservation projects are among the benefits.

<\/P>\r\nAccording to the BIA<\/a>, federal recognition \u201cacknowledges your tribe’s status as a government with independent sovereignty derived from your historical status as a tribe before European contact and maintenance of your government without break since then.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nAndrews said she wants the Hia-Ced to \u201chave a voice at the table at the federal government level\u201d and lamented the exclusion of the group in decisions regarding their sacred lands.

<\/P>\r\nIn 2020, the Trump administration waived regulations that would have prevented border wall construction on Hia-Ced aboriginal land.

<\/P>\r\nAndrews said construction of the border wall in southern Arizona drained much of the water off Hia-Ced land and forced members to rebury three bodies from graves that had been disturbed.

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