A sacred site for the Tohono O'odham was reportedly destroyed by border wall construction, according to a news release from the Tohono O'odham Nation Office of the Chairman and Vice Chairwoman.
This was despite it being previously identified by a cultural protection monitor as a site for the contractor building the wall to avoid, the release said.
According to the news release, the Tohono O'odham Nation was notified on April 28 by the Department of Homeland Security that a contractor building the secondary federal border wall in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge destroyed the site.
Chairman Verlon Jose and other Nation leaders are visiting the site to assess the damage, the news release said.
Chairman Jose said in the news release that the destruction was "a devastating and entirely avoidable loss."
“There is nothing more important than our history, which is what makes us who we are as O’odham," the statement continued. "The site was also an irreplaceable piece of the United States’ history, one none of us can ever get back.
"The Nation’s leaders have and will continue to meet with senior Department of Homeland Security Officials to obtain more information and to communicate the Nation’s absolute insistence that this cannot happen again.”
The news release said, because there are other sacred sites along the border with Mexico, both on and off the Nation's reservation lands, "the Nation’s leadership has communicated to the Department of Homeland Security in the strongest possible terms that better protections absolutely must be put into place to protect remaining sacred sites."
