NY Times article on Arizona Indian tribe near Mexican border and caught up in drug war

[alp227]

In Drug War, Tribe Feels Invaded by Both Sides
by Erik Eckholm
January 24, 2010

SELLS, Ariz. — An eerie hush settles in at sundown on the Tohono O’odham Nation, which straddles 75 miles of border with Mexico.

Few residents leave their homes. The roads crawl with the trucks of Border Patrol agents, who stop unfamiliar vehicles, scrutinize back roads for footprints and hike into the desert wilds to intercept smugglers carrying marijuana on their backs and droves of migrants trying to make it north.

By the bad luck of geography, the only large Indian reservation on the embattled border is caught in the middle, emerging as a major transit point for drugs as well as people.

A long-insular tribe of 28,000 people and its culture are paying a steep price: the land is swarming with outsiders, residents are afraid to walk in the hallowed desert, and some members, lured by drug cartel cash in a place with high unemployment, are ending up in prison.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/us/25border.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[Igel]

1. Yeah, I feel sorry for them.

It's gorgeous land--well, mostly.

But it's also a bit of the "chickens coming home to roost" problem, as well.

The US knew that it was a corridor for illegal immigration. But the O'odham on the south side of the border and the O'odham on the north side are the same tribe. They didn't want to have immigration barriers up, so they kept it fairly easy for people to cross the international border because it wasn't considered any sort of tribal border.

At the same time, nobody wanted to set up immigration checkpoints around the border of the reservations. South of the border the Mexicans didn't want to and the O'odham didn't, north of the border the O'odham objected.

In other words, there was a long stretch of securitized border with a gaping hole in the middle. Illegal immigrants went through the middle.

It took no time for the drug runners to also realize that the absence of any obstacle at the border, the lack of good cooperation between the tribe and the natives, and the absence of any obstacle at the Mexico-O'odham and O'odham-US territory lines meant for easy smuggling.

Now they're cooperating. Now that they have a rather serious problem. One that sounds like what a lot of other property holders have described.

I've seen people complain about Border Patrol checkpoints set up dozens of miles from the border in S Arizona. What they don't realize is that between the reservation and national parks, it's possible for illegal immigrants to get a fair ways inside the state before they hop over to the interstate.