American Indian Movement Arizona Chapter

Local Issues

Some 1,300 enrolled members of the Tohono O'ohdam Nation of 24,000 people are caught between two other nations, and it's putting them at risk of arrest or deportation if they travel to their own tribal hospital for medical care.

The people in question are entitled to Indian Health Services benefits, including care at the tribal hospital in Sells--but because their homes are in Mexico, they can't legally come across the border without documents many don't have. The problem dates back to the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, in which the United States bought 29,670 square miles of land from Mexico, including all of Arizona south of the Gila River. The new Southern border left the Tohono O'ohdam homeland in two different countries.

The tribe is trying to get travel visas for its members who live south of the border, but this is a cumbersome process involving several agencies on both sides of the line--and miles of red tape. A simpler solution would be for the U.S. to do what should have been done when the Tohono O'ohdam were recognized as a tribe in the 1930s: grant all of its members American Citizenship. This has already been done with Mexican members of the Texas Kickapoo tribe, and Canadian Indians have long crossed the northern border freely under the treaties that created their reservations.

The Tohono O'ohdam in Mexico, many of whom are elderly and hardly upmarket, ought to be able to get the medical care they need and to which they are entitled without fear of legal hassles. Congress should do the right thing and rectify their situation.

--To find out more information, or to find out how to help, please contact *AIMAZ*, thank you.