I normally try not to get political, but lately there has been so much
going on I just want to redo our whole government. Trump’s (or Lord Dampnut if
you prefer) boarder wall has been controversial. It just got taken to a whole
new level. In Arizona the contractor for Lord Dampnut’s wall has destroyed part
of a native site by blasting it (Carranza). Even a historic preservation
officer pointed out the significance of this site before the blasting started
to a U.S. Representative, Raúl Manuel Grijalva (Carranza).
Grijalva is a member of the Democratic Party and with the current leadership,
even if he had tried to address these issues they would have been dismissed. This
is also a great example of how the current administration entirely dismisses
experts in any field and just does whatever it wants to. They could have gone
around the site, but decided it was better to blast through it. Lord Dampnut
has also threatened to destroy historical sites in Iran, so no one should be surprised
that he is willing to have it done in his own country.
Not many people may have heard of the Tohono O’odham people that the
site belongs to even though the traditional area that their people lived in
covered a huge area of the American southwest and parts of Mexico (“History
& Culture”). These people were first repressed by the Spanish and then by
America when we took over their land. This repression continues today with the
government’s current action against them.
So what does this mean to Colorado? Colorado is full of historical/cultural
sites and by the current administration setting a precedence that historical
sites do not matter, any site could now be destroyed with no repercussions by
the government. It is up to American citizens to protect our history when the
government will not. I believe that everyone should educate themselves on the
history of the area they live in and do all they can to protect that history.
This also means using your vote to stop people who would destroy that history.
Even Jason Momoa has worked to use his power as a celebrity to bring awareness
to a historical site threatened in Hawaii. Right now space science is very
popular and I love things related to space, but do we need to build another telescope
on a sacred mountain. We could just address other issues like light pollution so
that other mountains could be used. These are choices that we make, and I
believe that people are just not thinking about all the options or what this
destruction will mean to future generations. When we destroy something, we can’t
get it back.

Now to get really political. The Islamic State and ISIS have been known
to destroy historical sites and artefacts. The world views these as acts of
terrorism. Trump’s threat against Iran could be seen as a war crime (Beltrán-García) and the destruction of the
Tohono site could be seen as a form of local terrorism. This issues needs to be
addressed and with Republicans in power this will not happen. These terrorism
charges will either have to wait until he is no longer President and hopefully
the normal courts will be able to do with this, or the next round of
impeachment happens and these charges could be placed. At the same time the
President is just one person and it is also his supporters in Washington that
need to be held accountable for their crimes. The people need to file suit
against the contractor for carrying out terrorist actions. But no one will.
This is the sad part. As history screams in pain from its destruction, no one
will take the actions needed to stop it.
Works Cited:
“History & Culture.” Tohono O'odham
Nation. Accessed February 11, 2020. http://www.tonation-nsn.gov/history-culture/.
Beltrán-García, Sergio. “Trump's Threat
to Destroy Iranian Heritage Would Be a War Crime | Sergio Beltrán-García.” The
Guardian. Guardian News and Media, January 6, 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/06/trump-threat-destruction-iran-heritage-war-crime.
Carranza, Rafael. “Sacred Native
American Site in Arizona Blasted for Border Wall Construction.” Yahoo! News.
Yahoo!, February 9, 2020.
https://news.yahoo.com/sacred-native-american-arizona-blasted-043614389.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca.
Top Photo From: https://www.facebook.com/hewelniok/photos/a.766500003480802/1793264930804299/?type=3&theater
More on where Lord Dampnut comes from:
More on Raúl Manuel Grijalva:
For more on these topics:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51449739?ocid=socialflow_twitter&fbclid=IwAR1SOc48IatBbE_44we-3KUESiYuevbDJ6sysMxriY7brHgAWeSozjgzxPU
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ancient-native-american-burial-site-blasted-trump-border-wall-construction-n1135906?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR0iIlh-INytWIhXLvtZDVdFYwEOc5UajBqPonL52wRGPjgoPG57z7uOaGY
https://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/laws/nagpra.htm
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51449739?ocid=socialflow_twitter&fbclid=IwAR1SOc48IatBbE_44we-3KUESiYuevbDJ6sysMxriY7brHgAWeSozjgzxPU
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ancient-native-american-burial-site-blasted-trump-border-wall-construction-n1135906?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR0iIlh-INytWIhXLvtZDVdFYwEOc5UajBqPonL52wRGPjgoPG57z7uOaGY
https://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/laws/nagpra.htm
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