Tohono by Meena Venkataramanan
As a freelance immigration and border journalist from Southern Arizona, I spent last summer exploring the U.S.-Mexico border and the hands that shape it. In June, I visited the Tohono O’odham Reservation, which neighbors my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to speak to O’odham activists about their struggle against the proposed border wall and increased border militarization on tribal lands. I have been interested in indigenous issues for some time now, especially given the unique, shared history between American Indians like the O’odham people and Indian Americans like myself that has largely resulted from both the events of 1492 and the scars of colonization and genocide in America that continue to shape today’s political and social climate. This piece strives to explore this complicated, shared history through the lens of my personal experiences visiting the Tohono O’odham reservation in June and as an Indian American woman growing up on stolen land that is, has always been, and will forever be shaped by indigenous cultures and perspectives.
You are almost there when you get to the Border Patrol checkpoint. “Checkpoint Trauma,” as it is called by the Tohono O’odham people who are regularly pulled over, sniffed by hounds, strip-searched by chalky, uncertain hands under the glaring beam of their own headlights. 34
