Native American activists from across the country came to the Rio Grande Valley on Saturday to protest the treatment of migrants at the U.S. border, including children detention and family separation.
Dozens of people gathered at a park in McAllen to stand in solidarity with the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe.
The was one of the groups to help organize the . They're a network of Native American families and organizations who mobilize through indigenous cultural values.
The tribe鈥檚 people have lived throughout south Texas, northern Mexico and along both sides of the Rio Grande for centuries.
They鈥檙e not federally recognized and there鈥檚 little documentation on the tribe, but members are keeping their history alive.
Emma Garcia Ortega, a tribal elder, took to the stage at the rally.
鈥淲e have not gone anywhere,鈥� said Garcia on stage. 鈥淭hey may say we have. They may say that we鈥檙e in the history books. No, we鈥檙e still here and we will always be here.鈥�
Garcia also called for the end of family separations on the border of their relatives from the south.
鈥淎nd to think that our babies are being separated. What鈥檚 going to happen to them?鈥� asked Garcia from the stage. 鈥淲ill they ever see mama again? Will they ever see grandpa and grandma? Will that husband ever see his wife and that wife see her husband and her family?鈥�
Garcia is Carrizo/Comecrudo and Lipan Apache.
She said she always knew about her indigenous roots because her parents would talk to her about it, but growing up she had a hard time accepting her Native identity.
鈥淭here was a theater we used to go to on Saturdays and they showed all these cowboys and indians and the Apaches attacking the trains and it was horrible what they were doing to the people and I would tell my daddy, 鈥榊o no soy Apache,鈥欌�� said Garcia. 鈥淗e would say, 鈥楴o son las pel铆culas. They鈥檙e only the movies.鈥� I didn鈥檛 want to be an indian because that鈥檚 the way they saw me and I knew I wasn鈥檛 that.鈥�
Nellie Jo David, who is part of the in Arizona, was also at the rally.
She said her community back home was divided when the border was created in 1854 by the , which acquired what is now southern Arizona and part of southwestern New Mexico. Some of her people were in Mexico, while the others remained on the U.S. side of the new border.
鈥淥ur ancestors were told that we would be able to move freely and the border was nothing to us. In my mind, the border doesn鈥檛 exist because both sides of O鈥檕dham territory is one territory. It鈥檚 a big hurt to learn our history and to see what the result of it has come.鈥�
David said during the 1980s, there was an increase of border patrol presence in their region. David said today, her people cannot enter, or exit, their reservation without going through a border patrol checkpoint.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also facing integrated fixed towers, which are these very tall apparatuses that have these high powered cameras and they鈥檙e putting them on the reservation and they鈥檙e putting them facing communities and they basically watch us 24/7,鈥� she said.
After the rally, members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe invited people to visit one of their campsites.
Members of the tribe and supporters have been camping out for the past several months at the . It鈥檚 about a mile from the Rio Grande near the town of San Juan, where some of their native ancestors are buried. There are also tombstones that date back to the Civil War. Veterans from World War I, World War II and the Korean War are also buried there
The Trump administration has proposed a wall that would cut right through the cemetery. Dr. Christopher Basaldu, a member of the Carrizo/ Comecrudo tribe, camped out for months to protest the wall.
鈥淭hey haven鈥檛 bulldozed the area. We don鈥檛 know how much longer that鈥檚 going to last,鈥� said Basaldu. 鈥淐BP has announced in a last June that they are going to try and avoid the cemetery, but what does that mean? I don鈥檛 trust that CBP is communicating honestly.鈥�
Basaldu said he鈥檚 concerned about the Supreme Court鈥檚 recent decision that would allow
. Basaldu said it鈥檚 important to continue protesting the wall, but also family separations 鈥� something he said has happened in the past.
鈥淢aking slaves out of Native people and then stealing Africans from Africa and making slaves out of them over here. It鈥檚 a long history of stealing and separating children from their families,鈥� said Basaldu. 鈥淚n the boundary of the United States for many generations, even when families would fight to keep their children.鈥�
Basaldu said members of the tribe will continue to camp out at the cemetery to protest the border wall and they鈥檒l make their voices heard to protest anything that dehumanizes their community or any native and brown people.
Reynaldo Lea帽os Jr. can be reached at Reynaldo@TPR.org and on Twitter at
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