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Protest against border wall construction that could desecrate ancient Kumeyaay lands draws hundreds

Bobby Wallace of the Barona Band of Mission Indians holds flag at protest on July 5, 2020.
Bobby Wallace of the Barona Band of Mission Indians held a flag featuring planet Earth as demonstrators protested against explosives being used on Kumeyaay land to build the border wall in east San Diego County on Sunday.
(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Organizers said leaders must do more to safeguard the history of local tribes

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Members of the Kumeyaay Nation were joined by hundreds of people at the Hall of Justice on Sunday to protest construction of a segment of the border wall that they say would be built atop ancestral lands.

The construction was momentarily postponed last week after Kumeyaay tribal members stood in front of a portion of the existing wall that is going to be blown up to make way for a new section.

The Kumeyaay are native to both San Diego County and northern Baja California, an area that includes the stretch of wall being worked on about 75 miles east of the city of San Diego.

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“No more desecration. No more destruction of bones. No more destruction of history,” Cynthia Parada, a La Posta Band of Mission Indians council woman, said at Sunday’s protest. “We want to protect our ancestors. We want to protect that history so we have something to show to our children.”

Jeff Stephenson, the supervisory agent for the U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, said in a statement last week that “no biological, cultural, or historical sites were identified within the blasting area located within the Roosevelt Reservation.” He also said that a cultural monitor is on site to ensure construction is halted if any artifacts are uncovered.

Parada was one of the individuals who went out to the border wall last week. She said experts who were with her found evidence of a Kumeyaay civilization in the area. That evidence included flakes, which are pieces of rock left behind when Native Americans made chipped-stone tools.

They also found a bone of unknown origins, Parada said.

“Digging up the ground like that, it’s disrespectful,” said Bobby Wallace, a member of the Barona Band of Mission Indians. “It’s about the sanctity of our graveyards. No one would want someone to go through their graveyards and start blasting. No other people. Why is it OK for them to blast ours? Our ancestors?”

Sunday’s demonstration began with speeches by organizers followed by traditional songs and dances. Many protesters carried signs with phrases like “Hands off Kumeyaay land,” “No wall on tribal land” and “Respect indigenous people.”

Volunteers could be seen offering face masks, hand sanitizer and taking people’s temperatures as precautions against COVID-19.

Later, during a brief march, protesters chanted phrases like “We didn’t cross the border. The border crossed us.”

Parada explained the demonstration was meant to draw attention to the scheduled construction, which she said is just one example of a project that did not do enough to safeguard the ancestral lands of local tribes.

“We’re sick and tired of taking the back seat to our own issues,” said Blue Eagle Vigil, a member of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. “We’re sick and tired of not being at the table when our ancestors are being dug up.”

Although laws are already in place to ensure Native American tribes are involved in construction projects that involve historical resources, too often federal agencies are able to obtain waivers or otherwise supersede those protections, Parada said.

She and other members of the Kumeyaay Nation would like to see stricter regulations. They also want to see soil testing requirements, which could be used to more accurately identify the presence of indigenous burial grounds.

“Our ancestors fought for us and died for us,” Parada said. “It’s time for us to start saving that history and passing it on to our children instead of just watching it get desecrated.”

U.S. Border Patrol officials said they are working to reschedule the blasting.

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