The Border Summit
opposed the border wall and Secure Fence Act passed by
the Senate and urged Indian Nations to unite and defend
their ancestral lands from the planned desecration.
Bill Means said the U.S. government plans to build
the southern border fence in violation of the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, environmental
laws and other federal laws.
“This is a violation of Indigenous Peoples human rights
and a violation of the Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples now being considered by the United
Nations General Assembly,” said Means, member of the
International Indian Treaty Council.”
Indian Nations were urged to take action in defense
of ancestral lands, burial sites and the environment,
during the summit.
“Are we building the Western Hemisphere's Berlin Wall?”
asked Means.
The family of Patricio described their struggle for
justice for 18-year-old Bennett Patricio, Jr., ran over
and killed by the Border Patrol in an isolated area
of the desert, on Tohono O’odham tribal land, on April
9, 2001.
“I’m here to let everyone know about the Border Patrol
and how they killed my son,” Angelita told the summit.
“When we went to the mortuary to see my son. The lady
said, ‘He’s crushed, he’s crushed from his head down
to his feet.’”
Right then, she said, she questioned how this could
happen, that her son was crushed from the top of his
head down to his feet. After that, Border Patrol agents
began driving back and forth in front of their home.
She said the truth of what happened that night has
not been revealed.
“It is always turned around that we are the bad people.”
Angelita pointed out that during the time of her son’s
death, there were other Border Patrol agents arrested
for dealing drugs.
The family filed a lawsuit against the Border Patrol
and US. A federal judge in US District Court in Tucson
ruled in favor of the Border Patrol. However, the family
has appealed the case. It is now slated in the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Ervin said there was a witness, a security guard going
home that night around 3 a.m. The witness saw a Border
Patrol vehicle and another vehicle parked back to back
and involved in a transfer of items.
The witness also saw a pedestrian walking rapidly down
the road. After the security guard told the Border Patrol
to watch out for the pedestrian on the road, the Border
Patrol left at a high rate of speed.
“Border Patrol spun out. We know the Border Patrol
on the reservation drive at a high rate of speed,” Ervin
said.
Ervin questioned what the Border Patrol was involved
in during the transfer between vehicles in the predawn
hours in the isolated area of the reservation. He said
the Border Patrol’s claims that their son was lying
in the road is not true. The witness saw him walking
at a steady pace.
“We know that our son wasn’t lying on the road,” said
Ervin, Patricio’s stepfather, who raised him with his
mother.
Ervin pointed out that the family’s private investigator,
which was doing a good job for the family, was fired
and relocated to New York. Both their witness, the security
guard, and their private investigator were absent when
the case went before a federal judge in US District
Court in Tucson.
“The judge ruled in favor of the United States,” Angelita
said, pointing out that justice would never have been
possible in southern Arizona. The appeal was moved to
the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco.
Struggling to find legal funds, Angelita said the family
needed help last year and the Tohono O’odham Nation Legislative
Council refused.
“They have all this money and they can’t even help
their own people.”
After having several attorneys take the case and leave
the case, Angelita said she discovered most attorneys
do not want to go against the government.
“A lot of people ask us, ‘What’s wrong with your Nation?
Why can’t they help you?’”
“What is the Nation doing for us? Nothing,” Angelita
told the summit.
“It hurt me more that I had to stand alone. The Tohono
O’odham Nation couldn’t do anything but tell me to be
quiet,” she said.
Ervin said one Tucson television station attempted
to come out to tribal land and cover the story, but
was told to turn around and go back to Tucson by the
Tohono O’odham Police Department.
“It hurt so much. It hurt my wife and our family. All
we wanted was the Border Patrol to come and say they
were sorry and we would have accepted it. But that has
not happened,” said Ervin.
Describing the harassment that followed their son’s
death, Ervin said the Tohono O’odham police spiked the
tires of the family’s truck. He said the Police Department
admitted they had done this. The police blamed it on
a “Rookie” cop and were responsible for the damages.
Angelita said that Border Patrol agents threatened
Patricio’s father. They said if he spoke out about what
happened to his son, “the same thing would happen to
him.”
“We’re so happy to be here today and bring it out,
what happened,” Ervin told the summit.
Angelita said that since the death of her son, she
has learned what is happening on the Tohono O’odham
Nation.
While tribal officials speak out against giving water
to migrants, she said, “We are accountable for the people
that die on that Nation.”