#tohono o'odham land

[tiliman2]

[cryptotheism]

A Review of The Way Of The Shadow Wolves: The Deep State And The Hijacking Of America by Steven Segal

Alleged rapist and human trafficker, cop groupie, washed-up action movie star, and personal friend to Vladimir Putin, the paradox of Steven Segal is how he manages to stick around despite being –by damn near every account– a universally unpleasant vacuum of charisma. I could go on, but I feel that no introduction of Steven would be complete without the tale of the headlock. Legends tell of Steven’s conflict with legendary martial artist and hollywood stunt coordinator “Judo” Gene Lebell. Allegedly, the two fell into an argument on the set of the film Out For Justice. The crux being Steven’s claim that he was “immune” to being choked unconscious. Allegedly, LeBell called his bluff, and put the actor in a headlock. A headlock that resulted in Steven losing consciousness, and control of his bowels. Steven denies the story. He also wrote a book.

The book is garbage, but garbage in a way that can be easily overstated. I wanted to take a page from other reviewers of this book, and call the text what it is; a fever dream of exhausting mediocrity, swaddled in delusions of grandeur. I wanted to whale on it. I wanted to denounce it like some ridiculous fire-and-brimstone preacher of internet literary criticism. But this does not capture the core, the essence of Way of the Shadow Wolves. There is a paradox at the heart of this text, a contradiction that even now I struggle to describe. Because despite everything, despite the balls-to-the-walls premise, the disastrous prose, and the buckwild plot, this book is deeply and powerfully boring. To call it a fever dream is to imply that it might be exciting. 

Some books are bad in a way that must be experienced firsthand. This is not one of those books. In a way, I feel that you’ve already read this book. You know Steven Segal. You met him in elementary school, when he told you he has “every black belt.” You met him in college when you tricked him into smoking a bag of oregano. You met him at your most recent family gathering, where you were trapped in an awkward one-sided conversation about “those people.” The bad-ness of Steven’s work is deeply familiar. 

We have our boots. We have our waders. We have our shovels. But, before we wade into the shit, there is one more thing we need to get out of the way: The Shadow Wolves are real. In 1972 the United States government agreed to the Tohono O'odham Nation’s demand that border enforcement agents patrolling their land have at least one quarter native ancestry. The result being the specialized unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers known as The Shadow Wolves. In the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, Dr. Eggman states that they are who trained him in the art of tracking. 

WAY OF THE SHADOW WOLVES

Let us cook Way of the Shadow Wolves from scratch. Think of every dogshit C-list action movie you’ve ever seen. Ideally, you want the trash cuts of post-9/11 hysteria marbled with ex-cia heroes and vaguely arab villains. Drop it all into a stockpot. Next, roughly dice some comic books and kung-fu movies, the more racist the better. Now add some datura, it doesn't matter if it's edible or not, because you saw a native American in a movie make something like that once and you’re totally 1/64th Cherokee. Add a whole can of Qanon and a whole can of racism. Boil until you have pacing thicker than mud. 

Way of the Shadow Wolves is a police procedural meets a spy thriller, a fast-paced action drama about elite agents on the fringes of the law who have the huge sweaty meaty balls to do what needs to be done for our country. It is Steven's attempt at the action schlock he embodies as an actor. Our hero is John Gode: Shadow Wolf. Reservation-born native American tracker, ICE agent, and Kung-Fu master. I believe he might have been described at one point. If he was, I do not care. Steven does not care. It does not matter. John Gode is Steven, and he’s the most badass dude to ever not be gay. He is: Special Agent Shaman Cop. He’s gonna beat up the deep state. That’s all you need to really need to know. In fact, it is shocking just how little you need to know about this book. 

We begin in a movie theater, where our protagonist is alone, watching the end credits of a movie about the atrocious treatment of native Americans on behalf of the united states government. When the film finally ends, John says to himself “It’s about time.” He gets up to leave. The chapter immediately ends. My compliments to the chef. A delightfully bland apéritif of a character introduction. Steven uses the essential point of first contact with our protagonist to tell us vital information like “He doesn’t like it when movies are long.” or maybe “He didn’t like this movie about the trail of tears.” It is unclear. To quote English-Albanian philosopher Dua Lipa, “Go girl, give us nothing.”

I have been dancing around the quality of the writing. It seems impossible to approach without the footing of a new paragraph, an opponent that requires full-focus, an all-out assault. It is nigh-incomprehensible. I hate comparing bad writing to drugs. It feels too easy. But there is a specific air to Way of the Shadow Wolves. There is a distinct cadence, simultaneously manic and lethargic, that comes from attempting to write while day drunk on over-prescribed amphetamines. And make no mistake, if Steven was not entranced by the muse of Too Many Uppers And Downers At The Same Time, if he wrote this thing stone sober, that is worse. Small quotes will not do the writing style justice, you must see for yourself how sentences flow into each other:

“The desperado’s mind went back in time to a small town in Mexico twelve years before, where he first met his two cohorts when they were thrown together by a tragic set of circumstances. Their parents had been gunned down by a cartel who was at war with a competing cartel for control of the area, which was a pathway to the American border near Nogales, Arizona. All three had been shepherded to a local mission where they were being cared for by the Franciscans, who were becoming overwhelmed by the growing number of children left homeless due to the rampant killings by the warring cartels . . .”

Labyrinthine. A paragraph structure that would feel more at home with Calvino, or Garcia Marquez at his most experimental, though stripped of its deft control and musicality. Segal will regularly change temporal perspective in the middle of sentences. A single run-on sentence will begin in the past, have a middle clause in the present, and then return to the past by the end. There is a downright massive cast of characters for a 200 page book. Damn near every chapter introduces three or four more names, and we are lucky if Steven describes them before discarding them entirely. This book is a slog. I find myself losing patience with Steven. 

—

Some time has passed since I began writing this review. Originally, my approach was surgical disassembly. I was going to go over the plot, summarize its anatomy, pick apart its flaws with surgical precision. But the more I cut, the more I felt as if I was the butt of a joke. I was performing an autopsy on a clown, pulling sheets of colorful rope from its gut, and the cadaver was laughing at me. 

There is a moment, about halfway through. A woman approaches John at a bar. An assassin, who later attacks John in the parking lot with karate. A furious series of crescent kicks, effortlessly blocked by John Gode, who punches her in the ribs and knocks her to the ground. Realizing that her martial arts are defeated, she draws her gun, but John Gode is too fast. He fires his own weapon before she can get the shot off, killing her instantly. “Her round went upward toward the sky as she fell backward with eyes wide open, seeing nothing.”

This scene stuck with me. It illustrates one of the critical flaws at the heart of Way of the Shadow Wolves. Nothing hurts John. Nothing even gets close. He does not struggle. He does not sweat. He does not bleed. Steven clearly intends this scene to be badass, a moment where his self-insert hero defeats a dangerous enemy without trying. This book is an action movie, but John’s untouchability makes every action scene read as a moment of profound and boring cruelty. This was not a contest of master martial artists. This was an adult kicking a child in the throat.

I find myself losing patience with Steven. I am running out of humorous ways to describe this vapid tripe. This is, in my mind, the greatest condemnation of bad writing. There is no hell lower than being boring to mock. I see myself as a sort of sommelier of the awkward and disastrous. I will be the first to tell you “Wait! Don’t throw that out! There are things to be learned!” But Steven repeatedly proves himself to be a sort of Alchemist of Shit, capable of transmuting theoretically interesting bullshit into just fucking nothing. If this book deserves credit for anything, it is its miraculous ability to squander its own premise. 

Why write this? Any of this? Steven clearly does not read. Or, if he does, he seems to subsist entirely on a diet of comic books about monkeys that do kung-fu. Why write this? At some level it all comes down to “because Steven wanted to” right? 

Right? 

But I cannot shake the feeling. To call this book masturbatory is to imply that Steven might have enjoyed it. There is a desperation to the power fantasy here. To be feared by men, desired by women, revered by all, yaddah yaddah yaddah, all the same trite excretions of blunt masculinity. But there is something else. Steven wants the same thing that every conspiracy theorist wants; a simple world. A world he can understand. Steven is exhausted, overwhelmed with a world he feels he can neither effect nor understand. I am exhausted. 

I fear my earlier allusions to expressionist novels may have been more spot on than I imagined. Way of the Shadow Wolves has a plot in the sense that Sunny-D contains fruit juice. Its presence is a formality, a ceremonial hat worn for tax purposes. The plot is there, but it is unimportant. This is not a text that can be debated with. Because within the world of the text, politics is not complex. It is not actually a web of interconnected groups, each with their own interests, rivalries, alliances, and historical contexts. Behind all of it is two things: Good guys, and bad guys. The good guys are all working together, and the bad guys are all working together. 

I find myself losing patience with Steven. I fear my earlier allusions to expressionist novels may have been more spot on than I imagined. Way of the Shadow Wolves has a plot.

John Gode finds a human tooth in the desert. It belongs to a body, a body of a woman described in lurid detail. Nearby, he meets a young native American man, a man who calls himself Sweet Tooth. The body is missing teeth, missing hands, missing feet. A trademark cartel killing. A young native American man. “I’m gonna be like, your assistant right?” A buddy cop dynamic. Meeting the task force. Tailing an ICE van full of cartel soldiers. A hostage situation. A shootout in the desert. Far away, faceless men in suits with masonic ranks plan a mass killing. Some sounded like they had Arabic accents. Freemasonry. Interrogation with a snake. The corpse was a woman. The woman was a reporter. She had the evidence on a flash drive, evidence that proved the existence of the deep state. What if its all connected? A sex scene, or almost a sex scene. A sex scene interrupted. A shootout in the desert. Kung Fu assassins at a bar. A cartel defector. A shootout in the desert. What if its all connected. They’re working with the Jihadists. The USA is already “half latino.” The government is paying the cartels to ship Jihadists north across the border. They’re well-trained and well armed. You can’t trust anyone. A terrorist defector who hears the voice of the prophet. The ghost of John’s grandfather. The sun sets over the Sonora. A shootout in the desert. They kidnapped John’s mother. Bring them the flash drive. They’re planning to bomb the casino. A shootout in the desert. The police chief was a traitor. The Catholics are in on it. Its all connected. A shootout in the desert. Assault by night. Rescuing the hostage. A knife dipped in pigs blood. A pit of vipers in the sonora. 

Steven ends a chapter with the line. “They had functioned like a well-oiled machine that had just saved two innocent lives. All lives matter. Do they not?” 

I am tired. I find myself at a neighborhood block party, trapped in a conversation I’ve had a thousand times. This time the man on the other end is a sweaty divorcee in range glasses who looks like a sunburned thumb. Last week, it was a woman with a necklace of crystals and blonde hair bleached blonder. “Haha yeah” I say, looking down at my phone. “Burgers look good this year huh?”

Thank you to my Patreon supporters who made this review possible.

[ethn11winter24]

The Power of Native American Protest Music

By Ithzy Lopez-Casiano

Native Americans have been the targets of genocide and hatred since the foundation of the United States of America. Music has always been an outlet for expression in every culture. What better way to combine the two and create music with a purpose- a purpose to speak up, fight back, and inspire. Protest music started gaining popularity around the late 1960s and 1970s. Some recognizable artists who made career-changing hits with their protest music are Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and John Lennon. However, this post is not about any of these artists or their causes. Instead, this space is dedicated to focusing on the remarkable works of Indigenous musicians only and the impacts they continue to have on Indigenous issues. 

A Little Bit of History... 

The United States was founded upon corruption and the genocide of Indigenous peoples; therefore, there is systemic wrongdoing by the American government today. Protest songs emerge as a response to the need to protest. Since the rise in popularity of protest music in the mid-1960s, numerous reasons fueled this need for dissent. Indigenous history since the colonization has, unfortunately, been full of rage and tears, from events like Wounded Knee to the Red Power Movement to current environmental activism. Indigenous artists have found ways to express their anger towards American government and injustice. Here are some key events that inspired artists to speak up: 

"The Rock" occupation-- The occupation of Alcatraz Island on November 4th, 1969, sparked the Red Power Movement, although it wasn't simply the sole cause of the entire movement. The 18-month occupation of "the Rock" was led by Bay Area Native American students and community members. The purpose  was to draw attention to the promises the Johnson administration had neglected to fulfill. "The Proclamation of the Indians of All Tribes", proposed treaty stating,"We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars ($24) in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent sent by the white man's purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago." (The Alcatraz Proclamation: Annotated). The government ended the occupation by cutting electricity and basic resources to the island, forcing everyone to leave. 

Environmental Justice Efforts-- Indigenous peoples are constant battles for the protection and preservation of their ancestral burial grounds and land resources. In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Native Americans across the country advocate for the restoration of land and water resources, like the Kumeyaay tribe and Tohono O'odham tribe protesting against the boarder wall's impact on wildlife habitats, or the Standing Rock Sioux tribe protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Indigenous Musicians and Their Work 

Let's delve into the heart of the matter. Who are Native American artists that make protest music and what does it sound like? I have created a Spotify playlist with some of the artists I've discovered and you can listen to it HERE. 

As mentioned earlier, Native American issues have persisted for a long time, so the music varies in dates depending on the most relevant issues of the era. Here are some of the top impactful musicians that I have compiled:  

In 1962 Peter LeFarge wrote "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," he was one of the first musicians that wrote music about Indigenous issues. This song recounts the story of Ira Hayes who was a Native American and Pima Marine who served in World War II. He was one of the six men in the iconic photograph who stood the American flag up in Iwo Jima. Despite being recognized as a war hero, Hayes faced discrimination and injustice upon returning home.

In 1969 the Native American rock and funk band Redbone was founded. Redbone became popular for their performances and music that heavily reflected their culture and traditions. Known for their top hit "Come And Get Your Love," they also produced their powerful protest song "We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee" bringing awareness to the tragic 1890 massacre which killed about 300 people of the Lakota tribe.  

Jimi Hendrix, of Cherokee and African descent, continues to be one of the most influential and iconic musicians of all time. He was well known for being antiwar and preforming live extended guitar riffs of his songs as political statements. His most notable antiwar songs include "Machine Gun" and his cover of "Star Spangled Banner" preformed at Woodstock in 1970. 

Buffy Sainte-Marie is widely recognized for her protest music in the 1960s within the folk rock genre. She has been a dedicated activist for Indigenous rights and cultural preservation. Her activism extended to issues like Native American education and the treatment of Indigenous peoples. Some of her most impactful songs are "Universal Soldier" and "Now That The Buffalo's Gone." 

Aztlan Underground, founded  in 1989, gained traction with their 1995 album Decolonize, addressing social justice issues for Native Americans and indigenous Mexican-Americans. I personally love this album a lot because their sound is classic 90s hip hop and rock. 

In more recent times, Raye Zaragoza has been releasing music centered around Native American issues. Her popular song "In The River" (2016) raises awareness of the Dakota Access Pipeline issue and its dangerous effects on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation's water supply. 

The Importance of Protest Music 

Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote an article titled "The Power of Protest Songs"(2013). She explains the importance of protest music and why it can be more significant and effective than any other written protest work. 

"My 1963 song “Universal Soldier” impacted thousands of soldiers, students and families during the Vietnam war. It made a difference to the lives of people who are still thanking me 50 years later. On the other hand, along with “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone” and other Native American issue songs, it got me blacklisted by two political administrations and effectively silenced my voice in the United States, just when Native peoples most needed to be heard" (Sainte-Marie par 3).  

What Sainte-Marie experienced reflects a pattern of history where artists who engage in activism, especially on controversial or challenging topics, may face backlash from authorities or institutions. Sainte-Marie's experience highlights the complex relationship between art, activism, and political repercussions. Despite the challenges, her enduring impact on those who were influenced by her music demonstrates the lasting power of art to inspire and provoke thought.  

Sainte-Marie's philosophy on protest music is that it must contribute to a movement to help verbalize the raw emotions of the cause. Protest music is supposed to inspire others to act and fight!  

According to Sainte-Marie, the ingredients to a good protest song are as follows: "brief, well-focused and catchy for the short attention spans of ordinary people" (Sainte-Marie, par 7). She describes protest songs as good journalism because they describe the moment in time they are written in, why emotions are so strong, and why the issue is important enough to be listened to.  

Protest Music Is... 

Native American protest music is a vital form of artistic and cultural expression that plays a significant role in advocacy, Indigenous empowerment, and strengthening social justice efforts. Yes, Native peoples have deep rooted traumas associated with the colonization of their land, but their musical resistance is a clear demonstration of healing and empowerment. I strongly encourage you to go and discover young artists singing about issues happening today, many of them are quite catchy! 

Works Cited:

"AIM song." YouTube, uploaded by Aligtr8, https://youtu.be/RbORbJBEhBg. Accessed 10 January 2024. 

CBC Music. "A Brief Evolution of Indigenous Protest Music." CBC, 19 March 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/music/read/a-brief-evolution-of-indigenous-protest-music-1.5062369. Accessed 10 January 2024. 

CBC Music. "Singing in the Face of Colonial Danger: Music’s Place in Indigenous Resistance." CBC, 5 July 2023, https://www.cbc.ca/music/singing-in-the-face-of-colonial-danger-music-s-place-in-indigenous-resistance-1.6504559. Accessed 13 January 2024. 

"Disaster at Wounded Knee." Library of Congress Classroom Mater. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/native-american/disaster-at-wounded-knee/. Accessed 13 January 2024. 

Howard University School of Law Library. "Indigenous Self-Determination." Civil Rights and the Law, Howard University, https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/indigenous/selfdetermination. Accessed 13 January 2024. 

Sainte-Marie, Buffy. Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. "The Power of Protest Songs." American Indian Magazine, https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/power-protest-songs. Accessed 10 January 2024. 

The New Inquiry. "The Alcatraz Proclamation: Annotated." The New Inquiry, https://thenewinquiry.com/the-alcatraz-proclamation-annotated/. Accessed 17 January 2024.

[kineticpenguin]

The tribe’s reservation has a population of 9,561, about 40 percent of whom live below the poverty line,and is situated on a large tract of land almost twice the size of Delaware that reaches from central Arizona down to a 74-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. Tribal law enforcement works closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies in the area, but the tribe has long opposed building a border wall on its land because its ancestral territory includes part of Mexico and many residents still have family on both sides of the international boundary.

Tribal opposition to a wall has long frustrated efforts by hardliners who advocate sealing off the southwestern U.S. border in an effort to stop undocumented migration. That includes former President Donald Trump, who pledged to build a "great, great wall" along the entirety of the border but quickly ran into practical issues, including the question of who owns the land.

Gosar, a devotee of Trump and an early supporter of Lake's candidacy, suggested in the interview that Lake could mount a significant confrontation with the tribe if she becomes governor.

Jesus fucking Christ.

[ratilda-lopez]

The Power of Native American Protest Music

By Ithzy Lopez-Casiano

Native Americans have been the targets of genocide and hatred since the foundation of the United States of America. Music has always been an outlet for expression in every culture. What better way to combine the two and create music with a purpose- a purpose to speak up, fight back, and inspire. Protest music started gaining popularity around the late 1960s and 1970s. Some recognizable artists who made career-changing hits with their protest music are Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and John Lennon. However, this post is not about any of these artists or their causes. Instead, this space is dedicated to focusing on the remarkable works of Indigenous musicians only and the impacts they continue to have on Indigenous issues. 

A Little Bit of History... 

The United States was founded upon corruption and the genocide of Indigenous peoples; therefore, there is systemic wrongdoing by the American government today. Protest songs emerge as a response to the need to protest. Since the rise in popularity of protest music in the mid-1960s, numerous reasons fueled this need for dissent. Indigenous history since the colonization has, unfortunately, been full of rage and tears, from events like Wounded Knee to the Red Power Movement to current environmental activism. Indigenous artists have found ways to express their anger towards American government and injustice. Here are some key events that inspired artists to speak up: 

"The Rock" occupation-- The occupation of Alcatraz Island on November 4th, 1969, sparked the Red Power Movement, although it wasn't simply the sole cause of the entire movement. The 18-month occupation of "the Rock" was led by Bay Area Native American students and community members. The purpose  was to draw attention to the promises the Johnson administration had neglected to fulfill. "The Proclamation of the Indians of All Tribes", proposed treaty stating,"We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars ($24) in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent sent by the white man's purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago." (The Alcatraz Proclamation: Annotated). The government ended the occupation by cutting electricity and basic resources to the island, forcing everyone to leave. 

Environmental Justice Efforts-- Indigenous peoples are constant battles for the protection and preservation of their ancestral burial grounds and land resources. In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Native Americans across the country advocate for the restoration of land and water resources, like the Kumeyaay tribe and Tohono O'odham tribe protesting against the boarder wall's impact on wildlife habitats, or the Standing Rock Sioux tribe protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Indigenous Musicians and Their Work 

Let's delve into the heart of the matter. Who are Native American artists that make protest music and what does it sound like? I have created a Spotify playlist with some of the artists I've discovered and you can listen to it HERE. 

As mentioned earlier, Native American issues have persisted for a long time, so the music varies in dates depending on the most relevant issues of the era. Here are some of the top impactful musicians that I have compiled:  

Jimi Hendrix, of Cherokee and African descent, continues to be one of the most influential and iconic musicians of all time. He was well known for being antiwar and preforming live extended guitar riffs of his songs as political statements. His most notable antiwar songs include "Machine Gun" and his cover of "Star Spangled Banner" preformed at Woodstock in 1970. 

Buffy Sainte-Marie is widely recognized for her protest music in the 1960s within the folk rock genre. She has been a dedicated activist for Indigenous rights and cultural preservation. Her activism extended to issues like Native American education and the treatment of Indigenous peoples. Some of her most impactful songs are "Universal Soldier" and "Now That The Buffalo's Gone." 

Aztlan Underground, founded  in 1989, gained traction with their 1995 album Decolonize, addressing social justice issues for Native Americans and indigenous Mexican-Americans. I personally love this album a lot because their sound is classic 90s hip hop and rock. 

In more recent times, Raye Zaragoza has been releasing music centered around Native American issues. Her popular song "In The River" (2016) raises awareness of the Dakota Access Pipeline issue and its dangerous effects on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation's water supply. 

The Importance of Protest Music 

Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote an article titled "The Power of Protest Songs"(2013). She explains the importance of protest music and why it can be more significant and effective than any other written protest work. 

"My 1963 song “Universal Soldier” impacted thousands of soldiers, students and families during the Vietnam war. It made a difference to the lives of people who are still thanking me 50 years later. On the other hand, along with “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone” and other Native American issue songs, it got me blacklisted by two political administrations and effectively silenced my voice in the United States, just when Native peoples most needed to be heard" (Sainte-Marie par 3).  

What Sainte-Marie experienced reflects a pattern of history where artists who engage in activism, especially on controversial or challenging topics, may face backlash from authorities or institutions. Sainte-Marie's experience highlights the complex relationship between art, activism, and political repercussions. Despite the challenges, her enduring impact on those who were influenced by her music demonstrates the lasting power of art to inspire and provoke thought.  

Sainte-Marie's philosophy on protest music is that it must contribute to a movement to help verbalize the raw emotions of the cause. Protest music is supposed to inspire others to act and fight!  

According to Sainte-Marie, the ingredients to a good protest song are as follows: "brief, well-focused and catchy for the short attention spans of ordinary people" (Sainte-Marie, par 7). She describes protest songs as good journalism because they describe the moment in time they are written in, why emotions are so strong, and why the issue is important enough to be listened to.  

Protest Music Is... 

Native American protest music is a vital form of artistic and cultural expression that plays a significant role in advocacy, Indigenous empowerment, and strengthening social justice efforts. Yes, Native peoples have deep rooted traumas associated with the colonization of their land, but their musical resistance is a clear demonstration of healing and empowerment. I strongly encourage you to go and discover young artists singing about issues happening today, many of them are quite catchy! 

[pazzesco]

Portal - San Xavier del Bac Mission - 1907 Edward S. Curtis

A National Historic Landmark, San Xavier Mission was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797.

The oldest intact European structure in Arizona, the church's interior is filled with marvelous original statuary and mural paintings. It is a place where visitors can truly step back in time and enter an authentic 18th Century space.

The church retains its original purpose of ministering to the religious needs of its parishioners.

San Xavier del Bac Mission - 2023

The parishioners are Tohono O'odham. For years, many have known the people as Papago, but during the 1980s, Papago was officially changed to the Tohono O'odham, meaning Desert People in the O'odham language. The Tohono O'odham are closely related to the Pima Tribe and are most likely descendants of the prehistoric Hohokam Culture. Many O'odham that reside on reservation are Catholics, but are very aware of their "himdage" which means "way of life". Many traditions and beliefs of the O'odham elders continue to be handed down from one generation to another. The O'odham language is thriving. There are several different dialects and these dialects come from different parts of the reservation.

The Tohono O'odham of today is a nation with a population of more than 24,000 people with their land totaling more the 2.7 million acres.

Mission San Xavier Chapel, Main Altar

Mission San Xavier Chapel, Side Alter

Inside view from the choir loft. Image: Esteban Jasso

[native-blog-deutsch]

Trumps Südwest-Grenzmauer zerstört heilige Stätten der Indigenen

Eine bundesstaatliche Prüfung des Baus der Grenzmauer im Südwesten unter dem ehemaligen Präsidenten Donald Trump hat ergeben, dass gefährdete Wildtiere bedroht sind und "irreparable" Schäden an natürlichen und kulturellen Ressourcen entstanden sind, darunter die Zerstörung einer Grabstätte und das Zünden von Sprengstoff auf heiligen indigenen Stätten in Arizona. Die zweijährige "Southwest Border"-Untersuchung, die am Donnerstag vom U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) veröffentlicht wurde, enthüllte, dass Bundesauftragnehmer Sprengstoff einsetzten, um indigenes Land zu räumen, um Platz für den Ausbau einer Patrouillenstraße zu schaffen. "Die Sprengungen beschädigten Teile des Monument Hill, einer Stätte, die von den Hia-C'ed O'odham, den Vorfahren der Tohono O'odham, und anderen Stämmen in der Vergangenheit für religiöse Zeremonien genutzt wurde und die nach wie vor für mehrere indigene Gemeinschaften von Bedeutung ist", heißt es in dem Bericht. Auf dem Monument Hill befinden sich die Überreste von Vorfahren der Apachen und der O'odham, die in stammesübergreifenden Kämpfen gekämpft haben, so die Beamten der Tohono O'odham Nation. Die Verantwortlichen der Tohono O'odham Nation erklärten gegenüber den Ermittlern, dass die "Beschädigung und Zerstörung solcher Stätten oft irreparabel ist, weil dadurch Riten, die von bestimmten kulturellen Gruppen verehrt oder geschätzt werden, unterbrochen oder beendet werden können". Der Abgeordnete Raúl Grijalva (Arizona) hatte die Bundesprüfung ursprünglich beantragt, nachdem Gemeinden entlang der Grenze gegen den Bau von Hunderten von Kilometern Mauern und anderen Sperren in Arizona, Kalifornien, Texas und New Mexico protestiert hatten. Die Tohono O'odham Nation ist einer der geografisch größten Stämme in den USA. Mit geschätzten 2,8 Millionen Hektar in der Sonoran-Wüste im Süden Arizonas erstreckt sich die souveräne Nation über die Grenze in den mexikanischen Bundesstaat Sonora.   In der Nähe der zerklüfteten Grenze liegt ein weiterer heiliger Ort - Quitobaquito Springs - eine große Wüstenoase, in der die O'odham Zeremonien abhalten. Bauunternehmer der US-Regierung, die an dem Grenzprojekt arbeiteten, "rodeten ein großes Gebiet in der Nähe der Quellen und zerstörten dabei eine Grabstätte, die der Stamm zu schützen versucht hatte", so Beamte der Tohono O'odham Nation, die von Bundesermittlern für die Prüfung befragt wurden. Die Führer der Tohono O'odham gehörten zu den Gemeinschaften, die sich 2016 am lautesten und vehementesten gegen Trumps Wahlkampfversprechen, eine Grenzmauer zu bauen, gewehrt haben. Der damalige stellvertretende Vorsitzende Verlon Jose machte landesweit Schlagzeilen, als er lokalen Nachrichtenorganisationen sagte: "Nur über meine Leiche wird eine Mauer gebaut werden." Stammesmitglieder versammelten sich, um ihr heiliges und souveränes Land zu schützen. Im Jahr 2017 stand Jose vor einer Karawane von Unterstützern in einer abgelegenen Topawa-Wüstenmission auf Stammesland. Er erläuterte die heilige Bedeutung des Landes für sein Volk und die Geschichte der US-Regierungsbeamten, die die Stätten ihrer Vorfahren zerstörten und indigene Familien durch Grenzmauern trennten. "Es ist eine indigene Angelegenheit, es ist eine menschliche Angelegenheit", sagte er über die Auswirkungen der Grenzmauer. "Das ist ein weltweites Problem, und wir sollten alles tun - ich weiß, dass wir das tun -, um diese Mauer zu verhindern. Er würdigte die Ältesten als frühe Umwelt- und Kulturführer, die sich schon lange gegen den Bau einer Mauer wehren, die Wildtiere, Land und Menschen gefährden würde. "Wir haben eine Verantwortung für alle Lebewesen auf dieser Welt", sagte Jose. Im Juli, Jahre nach seiner Klage gegen eine Mauer, von der er glaubte, dass sie dauerhafte, düstere Auswirkungen haben würde, wurde Jose zum Vorsitzenden der Tohono O'odham Nation gewählt. Die neue GAO-Prüfung analysierte Daten und Pläne der Bundesbehörden und umfasste Interviews mit Regierungsstellen. Außerdem wurden Interessenvertreter aus indigenen und anderen Gemeinschaften in der Nähe des Grenzbaus oder mit Fachwissen über Ressourcen- und Umweltschutz entlang der Grenze befragt. Die Prüfung dokumentierte Fälle, in denen der Bau der Sperranlagen viele Saguaro-Kakteen in Arizona zerstört hat. In den Gesprächen mit den Ermittlern der Bundesbehörden sagten die Anführer der Tohono O'odham Nation, dass der Saguaro für die Kultur und den Lebensunterhalt der O'odham von großer Bedeutung ist, da er eine wichtige Fruchtquelle darstellt und eine heilige Pflanze ist, der als Verwandter größter Respekt entgegengebracht werden muss." Viele weitere Saguaros starben, als Auftragnehmer der Bundesregierung die Pflanzen verpflanzten, so ein befragter Beamter des National Park Service. In Arizona ist es illegal, einen Saguaro oder andere einheimische Pflanzen auf privatem Land ohne eine Genehmigung und die Zustimmung des Landbesitzers zu fällen. Ein Verstoß gegen das staatliche Gesetz kann eine Straftat und hohe Geldstrafen nach sich ziehen. Es ist auch illegal, Pflanzen von Bundesland zu entfernen. Die Zoll- und Grenzschutzbehörde der USA (CBP), das Heimatschutzministerium und das Verteidigungsministerium haben sich auf Ausnahmeregelungen berufen, um "kulturelle und natürliche Ressourcen betreffende Gesetze beim Bau von Grenzsperren von Januar 2017 bis Januar 2021 zu umgehen", heißt es in der Prüfung. Grijalva reagierte auf die Prüfung in einer Stellungnahme an Arizona Luminaria. "Auf der ganzen Welt ist man sich einig, dass Zäune und Mauern keine wirksame Strategie zur Grenzsicherung sind - sie sind lediglich symbolische Botschaften des Hasses und der Spaltung", sagt er. "Aber was Trumps Grenzmauer so ungeheuerlich macht, ist, dass seine Regierung Dutzende von Gesetzen zum Umweltschutz, zur öffentlichen Gesundheit, zum Kulturschutz und sogar zur Auftragsvergabe außer Kraft gesetzt hat, um sie zu bauen. Die CBP und andere Behörden wie das Innenministerium haben zwar Pläne zur Schadensbegrenzung gemacht, aber die Prüfung zeigt, dass eine bessere Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Behörden und Methoden zur Bewertung des Ausmaßes des Schadens diese Bemühungen verbessern könnten. Das GAO empfiehlt unter anderem, dass der Leiter des CBP mit dem Innenministerium zusammenarbeitet, um eine Schadensbegrenzungsstrategie zu dokumentieren, in der die Aufgaben und Zuständigkeiten der einzelnen Behörden sowie Kosten, Finanzierungsquellen und Zeitrahmen festgelegt werden. In dem Plan sollte auch festgelegt werden, "wann die Behörden die Stämme konsultieren müssen". Grijalva kritisierte die mangelnde Rechenschaftspflicht der Bundesregierung gegenüber den lokalen Wählern. "Noch bevor die Bauarbeiten begannen, schlugen Gemeinden, Stämme und andere Interessengruppen Alarm wegen der kolossalen Schäden, die die Umgehung solch grundlegender Schutzmaßnahmen mit sich bringen würde", sagt Grijalva. "Und als die Bauarbeiten begannen, dokumentierten sie die Zerstörung in den sozialen Medien, den lokalen Medien und auf jede andere Weise, die ihnen möglich war. Das war der Auslöser für diesen Antrag." {h3 class="wp-block-heading"}Hintergrund{/h3} Im Januar 2017 unterzeichnete Trump einen Erlass, in dem er den Bau von Mauern und anderen Barrieren entlang der Grenze zwischen den USA und Mexiko anordnete, um Migranten daran zu hindern, in die USA zu gelangen. Von Januar 2017 bis Januar 2021 wurden die CBP und das Verteidigungsministerium mit der Leitung des Projekts beauftragt, das zur Errichtung von 458 Meilen Grenzbarrieren führte - mehr als die Hälfte davon in Arizona. Die Bauprojekte ersetzten in erster Linie bestehende Grenzanlagen, während nach Angaben der CBP etwa 87 Meilen neue Sperren dort errichtet wurden, wo zuvor keine existierten. Im ersten Monat seiner Amtszeit stoppte Präsident Joe Biden den Bau der Mauer und erklärte, sie sei Geldverschwendung und "keine ernsthafte politische Lösung", um den Zustrom von Menschen über die Südgrenze zu kontrollieren. Kurz darauf forderte Grijalva, US-Abgeordneter für den 7. Kongressdistrikt in Arizona, den Rechnungshof auf, die Auswirkungen der Grenzsperren zu untersuchen und Maßnahmen zur Behebung von Problemen oder Verstößen vorzuschlagen. Neben Befragungen von Bundesbehörden, Stammesregierungen und Interessenvertretern der Gemeinden untersuchten die GAO-Prüfer auch die Richtlinien und Bewertungen der Behörden.

Folgen der Umgehung von Gesetzen

Das GAO stellte verschiedene Fälle fest, in denen die Bauarbeiten kulturell bedeutende Orte beschädigten. Die Grenzsperren hatten auch weitreichende Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt, wie z. B. die Abwanderung von Tieren und die Zerstörung des Lebensraums von Einheimischen. Bei der Prüfung wurde festgestellt, dass es in geschützten Gebieten "erhebliche Erosion" gibt. Ein Beamter des U.S. Forest Service sagte, dass ein Berghang in den Pajarito Mountains im Coronado National Forest aufgrund des Baus der Grenzsperren einzustürzen droht. Staatliche Auftragnehmer errichteten in der Nähe des Gipfels einen massiven Baubereich und "rodeten den Berghang von seiner Vegetation, die den Boden an Ort und Stelle hielt". "Infolgedessen fließt der Schlamm an der Seite des Berges hinunter und beginnt nach Angaben der Forstverwaltung, einen von Menschenhand geschaffenen Teich zu füllen, der als Tränke für Vieh und Wildtiere zu versiegen droht", heißt es in der Prüfung. Die Prüfer des GAO haben auch Bedenken über Überschwemmungen und die Erschöpfung der Wasserressourcen festgestellt. Laut der 72-seitigen Prüfung verließen sich die mit der Durchführung des Projekts beauftragten Behörden, das Verteidigungsministerium, die CBP und das U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, weitgehend auf ihre Befugnis, Gesetze wie den National Historic Preservation Act und den National Environmental Policy Act zu umgehen, um den Bau zu beschleunigen. Aus diesem Grund entsprachen die Prüfungen der Behörden, die die negativen Auswirkungen auf die natürlichen und kulturellen Ressourcen vor den Bauprojekten bewerten und abmildern sollen, nicht den üblichen gesetzlichen Bestimmungen. Außerdem unterschieden sich die Bewertungsmethoden der einzelnen Behörden. Beamte der CBP und des Armeekorps sagten, dass sie ihr Bestes taten, um die gesetzlichen Standards für die Prüfungen zu erfüllen, obwohl dies nicht nötig war. Allerdings wurde das Verfahren aufgrund der Dringlichkeit des Projekts überstürzt, so die Prüfung. Die abrupte Beendigung des Baus von Grenzsperren unter der Regierung Biden verzögerte die Fertigstellung einiger Projekte, die vor Umweltschäden schützen sollten. An einem Standort in Arizona wurden die Bauarbeiten eingestellt, bevor die Behörden in der Lage waren, ein angemessenes Wasserabflusssystem zu installieren. Nach Bidens Anordnung, den Bau zu stoppen, setzte das DHS vier Prioritäten für die Verwendung der verbleibenden Mittel für Grenzsperren: "Beseitigung von Sicherheitsrisiken, Installation fehlender Komponenten wie Beleuchtung, Kameras und Detektionstechnologie für unvollständige Teile des Sperrsystems, Wiederherstellung des Projektgeländes und Abschwächung der Auswirkungen des Baus der Sperranlagen auf die Umwelt und die kulturellen Ressourcen". Die GAO-Prüfung ergab, dass sich die Behördenvertreter in erster Linie auf die Sicherheitsrisiken konzentriert haben. Die Prüfer empfehlen eine behördenübergreifende Zusammenarbeit und Delegation, um die Problembereiche effektiver anzugehen. Im Zuge der Erstellung einer frühen Folgenabschätzung hat das CBP verschiedene Beamte und Interessengruppen um Feedback gebeten. Die Prüfung ergab, dass diese Interessengruppen detailliertere Informationen von den CBP-Beamten und mehr Transparenz darüber wünschten, wie und ob die Behörde auf ihre Beiträge und Bedenken reagiert. Eine Veränderung unter der Regierung Biden, die in der Prüfung festgestellt wurde, könnte ein Zeichen für eine verbesserte Reaktionsfähigkeit sein. Seit Jahren äußern Umwelt- und Naturschutzverbände sowie Beamte von Naturschutzbehörden Bedenken, dass die stadionhelle Grenzbeleuchtung in Gebieten installiert wird, die geschützten Arten und Lebensräumen schaden könnten. Im Mai teilten Beamte des National Park Service Arizona Luminaria mit, dass sie die Zertifizierung als International Dark Sky Park für das Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument anstreben. Nachdem die Interessenvertreter der Gemeinde aufgrund der begrenzten Informationen über die Pläne, die Welle blendender Lichter in der unberührten Wüste zu verhindern oder fortzusetzen, eine Gegenreaktion ausgelöst hatten, erklärte die CBP im Juni gegenüber Arizona Luminaria, dass sich die Behörde auf Bundesstandards beziehen würde, um die Umweltauswirkungen der Lichter zu bewerten. Die Prüfung bestätigt, dass diese Bemühungen nun im Gange sind und dass die Aufsicht versagt hat. Die eigene Bewertung der CBP zu den potenziellen Auswirkungen der Bauarbeiten in Arizona belegt, dass die Behörde "den Projektstandort nicht zur richtigen Jahreszeit untersucht hat, um viele der potenziell betroffenen Arten oder ihre potenziellen Lebensräume zu identifizieren", heißt es in der Prüfung. In Bezug auf die Fertigstellung unvollendeter Grenzsperrenprojekte, einschließlich Beleuchtung, Kameras und Detektionstechnologie, stellt die Prüfung fest, dass die CBP "mit der Umweltplanung begonnen hat" und die Aufträge erst vergeben wird, "wenn diese Planung abgeschlossen ist". Grijalva kritisierte die Republikaner für ihre Bemühungen, den Clean Water Act, den National Environmental Policy Act und andere Umweltschutzbestimmungen zu schwächen. Die konservative Mehrheit des Obersten Gerichtshofs der USA hat sich auf die Seite der Republikaner geschlagen und die Befugnisse des Bundes im Bereich Umwelt- und Naturschutz eingeschränkt, während Eigentums- und Unternehmensrechte gestärkt wurden. "Sie bringen ein Gesetz nach dem anderen auf den Weg, das diese Gesetze aushöhlt, nur damit fossile Brennstoff- und Bergbauunternehmen Umweltprüfungen abkürzen und schneller und einfacher Geld verdienen können", sagt Grijalva. "Aber wie dieser Bericht deutlich macht, haben diese Abkürzungen schwerwiegende Folgen, deren Lasten die Gemeinden und die amerikanischen Steuerzahler tragen müssen."

Lösungen

Die GAO-Prüfung empfahl der CBP eine engere Zusammenarbeit mit dem Innenministerium, um unmittelbare und langfristige Probleme im Zusammenhang mit dem Grenzzaun anzugehen. Die Behörden stimmten dieser Empfehlung zu. Die Prüfung empfiehlt der CBP außerdem, Input zu sammeln und aus den Erfahrungen zu lernen, um ihre Methoden zur Bewertung der Auswirkungen zukünftiger Projekte zu verbessern. Grijalva wies auf den Sumpf hin, der entsteht, wenn Bundesbehörden unterschiedliche Prioritäten setzen. "Der Bericht macht deutlich, dass die Bundesbehörden für Landmanagement, wie das Innenministerium und der U.S. Forest Service, eine wichtige Rolle bei der Umweltsanierung spielen müssen", sagt er. "Der größte Teil von Trumps Grenzmauer wurde auf öffentlichem Land gebaut, und diese Behörden verfügen über das wissenschaftliche Wissen und die Erfahrung, um dieses Land so effektiv wie möglich wiederherzustellen. Der Kongressabgeordnete aus dem Süden Arizonas sagt, dass er sich dafür einsetzt, dass im Haushalt für das Jahr 2024 225 Millionen Dollar vom DHS an das Innenministerium und den Forstdienst überwiesen werden, um die Wiederherstellung der Umwelt zu unterstützen. "Es ist schon so viel Schaden entstanden, aber wir haben immer noch die Möglichkeit, Schlimmeres zu verhindern. Die Arbeiten zur Umweltsanierung und Schadensbegrenzung sind bereits im Gange, aber wir müssen sicherstellen, dass diese Bemühungen von der Wissenschaft und den richtigen Interessengruppen, einschließlich der Stämme und Gemeinden entlang der Grenze, geleitet werden", sagt Grijalva. "Beim Bau der Mauer wurde an so vielen Ecken und Enden gespart - wir sollten die Geschichte nicht wiederholen, indem wir bei der Sanierung sparen. Originalartikel

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[fartdust]

Desert sunsets 🏜 🌵

[emmagoldman42]

"show of complete disregard to the voices of the southern border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) invited members of the media to witness the blasting of Monument Hill (see min 8:25), a sacred site for the Tohono O’odham Nation located in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a UNESCO reserve.

This spectacle of the destruction of sacred lands comes on the same day that Chairman Ned Norris of the Tohono O’odham nation spoke at a congressional hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States titled “Destroying Sacred Sites and Erasing Tribal Culture: The Trump Administration’s Construction of the Border Wall.” 

For the Tohono O’odham people, Monument Hill is a sacred site, and the demolitions and building of the border wall desecrate the site"

[fatehbaz]

A peaceful, Indigenous demonstration against the border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument ended with demonstrators in a stand off and physical altercation with U.S. Border Patrol agents and National Park Service officers Monday [21 September 2020] afternoon.

Construction was brought to a halt for most of the day. [...] The action was put by together the O'odham Anti Border Collective and Defend O'odham Jewed, a network of Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham and Hia-Ced O'odham organizers — not all of which are federally recognized tribes.

Ancestral O'odham land spans the Phoenix area and Tucson and continues across the border into neighboring Sonora. Speaking in front of a huge canvas panel reading "Borders = Genocide, no wall on O'odham land," one Akimel O'odham demonstrator said they'll keep returning to protect it. 

Before it became a part of Organ Pipe in the 1950s, Quitobaquito and the man-made pond it drains into was home to generations of Hia-Ced O'odham communities. Trenching for the border wall could be seen in the area in front on the thicket of trees surrounding Quitobaquito. Bollard panels lay flat nearby. [...]

Demonstrators spent more than five hours at the site praying, singing and chanting over the hum of stalled machinery. Private security personnel and National Park Service were on scene.

Two National Park Service officers approached the group twice throughout the morning and asked them to move to the side, citing safety concerns.

The demonstration continued without incident until around 1pm, when more than a dozen U.S. Border Patrol agents, some armed with paint ball guns and rifles, arrived on ATVs and in SUVs. Two National Park Service officers charged the line of demonstrators, breaking into a brief scuffle trying to forcibly break through the human chain before pulling back. [...]

The protesters faced off against a line of Border Patrol agents and Park Service officers for almost an hour as O'odham organizers continued to speak and sing. One Tohono O'odham speaker described how living along the border has shaped her community.

"We cannot move without you all over us, we cannot walk through our desert without these cameras filming everything we do, you don't have that in your community," a Tonono O'odham speaker said. "But then you come here, thinking you can take whatever you want." [...]

Another scuffle broke out when park service officers backed by Border Patrol agents moved in on the line again. For several minutes, officers and agents shoved protesters and attempted to pull them away from each other as they crumpled to the ground.

---

Headline,  photo, captions, and text from: Alisa Reznick. “Stand off ...” Arizona Public Media. 22 September 2020.

[horsesarecreatures]

Book review - A Beautiful, Cruel Country by Eva Antonia Wilbur-Cruce

So this is one of my favorite books of all time, and it’s not the first time I’ve read it. I believe that it is one that most people who follow this blog would thoroughly enjoy, especially if they are into horses, ranching, or vaquero traditions. It is a memoir that takes place on the author’s family homestead in Arizona and details her “rawhide tough and lonely life” from when she was 3-5 years old. The book ends when she was five because that was when the removal of the  Tohono O'odham Indians to a reservation occurred, and Eva describes the event as the end of the traditional frontier way of life as she knew it. The culture described in the book is very unique, as Eva’s mother was Mexican and her father was an American descended from conquistadors. Indians  frequented and lived on the ranch, and some were family. Eva’s parents were not religious unlike many other people in the area. As a child that young, she not only helped around the ranch but helped run it, participating in brandings, castrations, horse breaking, doctoring, and roundups while holding her own. She was mature for her age, but often placed in perilous situations by her father, although he did believe in her and she took control of the ranch over her brothers and sisters when he died in a horse-riding accident. 

As a quick note, the horses in this book are the Wilbur-Cruce Mission Horses, the purest strain of Spanish Barbs. They owe their existence today to Eva as she donated part of the ranch (now called Rancho Del Sueño) and the remaining herd to the nature conservancy, which was then sold to the government, and the Livestock Conservancy now manages the horses. 

The prose and imagery in the book are vivid and beautiful, and I think the book’s essence will be better captured if I just include a few random passages, so here are some:

“Grandmother’s departure was one more reminder that we were being left in a great space in a harsh land, now emptier than ever before of the Indian humanity that had peopled it for so long. There was a lonely, long winter ahead of us, and our whole ranchito began to seem more and more like an empty house. All that winter, we would find ourselves standing, looking up at the slopes of the neighboring hills, seeing Indians where there were none. As they had used to stand, staring westward towards the Boboquivari, home of their god I’itoi, now we stood, looking in the same direction for them.

The flow of news we were so accustomed to suddenly stopped, as if it’s very source had dried, instead of its conduits, now lost to us….We were alone with the animals. By late night after the exodus, the wind had died, and a heavy snow had begun to fall, so that the following morning the strangeness intensified, as we woke up to a weird, lonely, white world.”

…

“Dormadita was one of our good milk cows, and Father had been looking for her since the beginning of spring. I soon heard the calf bawling and knew that father had roped him. I built the fire, setting the branding irons around it, then I stood on a rock and reached into the saddle bag for a bottle of black-walnut liquid. Whenever we ran out of creosote, we substituted the black extract of the walnut shells. It was slower than creosote in killing worms, but it finally brought them out where they would slowly die.

Father flanked the calf and tied it, and from there on, he and I worked as a team. He sharpened the knife while I cleaned the maggots out of the calf’s wound. Gobs of them came out, and when the wound finally appeared to be clean, I poked it full of horse manure to suffocate whatever worms may have been left.

‘A good job, Eva, I couldn’t have done it better myself.’

I got a rag out of the saddlebag so I could hold the irons, then I picked up the running iron and branded the calf on one side. Father turned him over, and I quickly branded him on the other side. Then father castrated and earmarked him… By now castrating the baby goats was fairly easy for me, but cutting through the tough hide of a calf was quite another thing. Father didn’t think there was much difference; nevertheless he continued castrating the calves himself this time, always reminding me, ‘Next year you will have to do it yourself.”

My only complaint about this book is that it covered such a short period of the author’s colorful life. She wrote the book when she was in her eighties, and had other writings, but sadly they didn’t get published before she died. Looking her up, I discovered that when she inherited the ranch she also inherited a war over the land that lasted 10 years. Her horses and cattle were slaughtered en-masse during the conflict, and she herself shot at trespassers, earning the nickname ‘La Pistolera.’”

[note-a-bear]

So I was looking at the notes of the post about the border patrol's destruction in Tohono O'odham lands

And I just....

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Construction Begins on the NOIRLab Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy What was once the largest solar observatory in the world is now undergoing a transformation to become a one-of-a-kind facility for sharing the wonders of astronomy with people around the globe. Construction work has started to recast the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope facility at Kitt Peak National Observatory into the NOIRLab Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach. Dedicated in 1962 and retired in 2017, the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, in southern Arizona was used to make numerous scientific discoveries about the Sun, the Moon, and the planets, including detecting water vapor on the Sun. In 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $4.5 million grant to convert the facility into a unique outreach center that will provide the public with new ways to experience the cutting-edge research being carried out at KPNO and NSF’s other astronomy facilities around the globe. “Instead of getting the wrecking ball, the McMath-Pierce is going to be transformed,” said Bill Buckingham, Project Director for Windows on the Universe. “It’s being given a new mission, which is just as important as research, to demonstrate why the public should support astronomy research. I don’t know of any other retired federal telescope being repurposed like this before in the US.” Visitors to the center will explore the wide variety of research carried out at NSF’s astronomy facilities, including KPNO, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the international Gemini Observatory, Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope — all managed by AURA — as well as the Very Large Array (VLA), Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), South Pole Telescope, IceCube Neutrino Observatory, and Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). The center will ultimately feature a digital planetarium, interactive exhibits, and a Science On a Sphere display. Part of the center’s mission is to convert data, images, and video from NSF observatories into formats that can be shared and displayed in planetariums and Science On a Sphere exhibits around the world, expanding the center’s reach globally. The center will also preserve three solar telescopes (called heliostats) and a control room from the McMath-Pierce observatory, to give visitors the experience of being at a telescope and participating in research carried out at NSF facilities. “This is a unique and distinctive 10-story structure that extends deep underground, and it was also used by Apollo astronauts to examine the Moon’s surface,” said Buckingham [1]. “There is no other outreach facility with this kind of history and architecture.” Much work is needed to turn the research observatory into a public museum that can host exhibits and also be comfortable, safe, attractive, and functional for guests visiting from around the world. The first step, which has begun, is to identify and safely remove hazardous materials from the building. After that, workers from the W.E. O’Neil Construction Company of Tucson, Arizona, will begin to knock down walls to convert small rooms — once used as offices, workshops, photographic darkrooms, and other science and engineering spaces — into large rooms that will host interactive exhibit galleries and astronomy visualization theaters. Plumbing will be added for public restrooms and water fountains, along with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Internet connections will be installed in addition to new lighting, carpeting, and acoustic upgrades. In all, more than 750 square meters (8000 square feet) of space within the former observatory will be modified. This work is expected to take six to eight months to complete. It will then take an additional 10 to 12 months to install the theaters and exhibits. Windows on the Universe is expected to open to the public in 2023. “We are excited to see the transformation of this iconic building into a new educational facility on Kitt Peak,” said Chris Davis, NSF Program Officer for NOIRLab. “Through the Windows on the Universe Center, NSF’s NOIRLab will be better able to share the awesome results of US astronomy facilities across the globe.” Kitt Peak National Observatory and the McMath-Pierce facility are located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Tucson, Arizona, in the Schuk Toak district on Tohono O'odham Nation land. Windows on the Universe and its exhibits are being developed in consultation with educators and leaders of the Tohono O'odham Nation. We are privileged to conduct research on Ioligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) and acknowledge the Tohono O'odham Nation as the original stewards of these lands. At present, Kitt Peak National Observatory is closed to the public in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Kitt Peak Visitor Center could reopen on-site nighttime programs to the public in November 2021 and daytime programs could return in spring 2022, if conditions allow. Learn more about Windows on the Universe in a recent Live from NOIRLab online presentation by Bill Buckingham called Opening Your Windows On The Universe. Notes [1] As part of their training to explore the Moon, Apollo astronauts visited KPNO and observed the Moon using the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, comparing their observations with photographs of the lunar surface. TOP IMAGE....This photo, taken in 2018, shows the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope building set against the backdrop of the Milky Way and a meteor (or shooting star) streaking across the sky. The McMath-Pierce facility is now embarking on a new mission to become the home of the NOIRLab Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach, expected to open by early 2023. Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/D. Salman LOWER IMAGE....This diagram shows the ultimate floor plan for the NOIRLab Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach, which will be housed in the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope facility at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I hate that every post about the Tohono O'odham is filled with people yelling about voting them out, as if that'll do shit about what's happening right now and as if democrats are any fucking better.

Democrats are just as eager to violate treaties and steal land and destroy sacred sites. They're just usually more subtle about it.