We stand in solidarity with the Tohono O’odham Nation. The lands of the O’odham stretch uninterrupted from the upper Gulf of California to the Gila River, a landscape where the desert, its watersheds, and its people do not follow political boundaries. The great sacred sister peaks of El Pinacate and Baboquivari reach high above the desert lands on either side of the current U.S.-Mexico border. They anchor those who live in the borderlands to their home. The region’s two most important freshwater spring sites, Quitovac and Quitobaquito, are located on either side of the border. Once the gravitational centers of lifeways and survival in this arid region, both face continued depletion of their water and erosion of the culture that has thrived there for millennia. These pillars of the O’odham lands are emblematic of the myriad species, pathways, linkages, families, and worldviews anchored in a desert that is divided by geopolitical borders.

Today, the development and expansion of the border wall is eroding Tohono O’odham sovereignty, permanently alterIng the landscape, and irrevocably harming sacred species, cultural sites, and landscapes. The current actions of destruction, barriers, and division further a long-running campaign of erosion and erasure.

In a time of great change, we need to honor and protect the places and knowledge of the desert – not further decouple the underlying connections and threads that are the foundation of this region.

As a community of individuals who devote our energies to understanding and conserving the greater Sonoran Desert across the U.S. and Mexico, we, the undersigned, recognize the singular nature of the desert, the continuity of the O’odham across these lands, and their right to maintain that land wall free.