Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/18/native-american-tribe-to-dhs.html
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Trump’s wall is a giant publicity stunt, a more garish example (like everything Trump does) of Republican fear- mongering. It’ll never get built.
It’s great to see these natives pushing back against that shit.
From the linked article:
“A wall built along the border we believe is not the answer to securing America,” Tohono O’odham Nation vice chairman Verlon Jose said in a recent video released by the tribe. “Walls throughout the world have proven to not be 100% effective.”
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A tribe that had their lands split up by the Federal government once isn’t crazy about having it done again.
This area of Arizona is likely one of the most inhabitable in North America, good luck tRump & Friends with trucking everything under the Sun to build a f’ing wall there.
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When I first learned that the US Government had reneged on every single treaty they’d made with native tribes, my first thought was the Native Americans were using the wrong weapons, they should have been using lawyers instead of guns.
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Not that I want to give this administration any ideas but if were one of the assholes involved in this I’d simply build the wall along the tribal land’s northern border. I mean technically that is where the U.S. border ends, right?
Naturally, though, I prefer the idea of these guys being a roadblock to the construction of a border wall.
Only rich, white people get to use lawyers and all levels of government as weapons. That’s the dirty secret.
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The Cherokee did that, and won in the Supreme Court in 1832. (fixed)
Trump’s spirit animal Andrew Jackson ignored that, and the Trail of Tears followed.
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That would be 1832, I’d guess?
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Flipside? I’m sure a wall built illegally on their land would provide an enormous amount of valuable building supplies, almost like a mine of sorts.
Wall goes up, sections go missing, wall gets repaired, social services on the tribe’s land improves.
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They did. As someone else pointed out, sometimes rulings were ignored, but more often than not the courts sided with the government - surprise surprise.
The tribe I belong to is the Potawatomi Tribe, Citizen Band. The Band is so name because they were the first group to take US citizenship, in the hopes that with the rights of citizens they would have more rights in the courts. They still mostly ended up in Oklahoma. 
That is one of the huge cost factors of building such a wall, is so much of the area has zero infrastructure to get the equipment even down there. They would have to build a ton of roads first.
Even if someone was a huge proponent of immigration enforcement, this is a huge waste of money. Hell over half of illegals coming in are on Visa overstays.
The solution is some sort of overhaul of the system. While I feel there must be some official process that meters input (as too many at once is going to strain areas), it also shouldn’t be that hard to immigrate. And if you managed to live here 10 years and keep out of trouble and have a job, etc, that there seems like the exact work ethic America prides itself with and we should have some sort of path to citizenship.
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Or he’ll just use the same argument when the Mashentucket Pequot were getting their federal recognition to build Foxwoods Casino…
“They don’t look like Indians!”
Look it up, kids.
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I had to look down, way down.
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I guess he liked those Navajo code talkers because they did look “Indian.”
“I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people,” Trump said to the group. “You were here long before any of us were here — although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas. But you know what? I like you. Because you are special.”
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We get the federal marshals
We get the covert spies
We get the liars by the fire
And we get the FBIs
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How can something be illegal? Laws. How can people be labeled as illegal? Lazy language. The people aren’t illegal. Their presence is illegal. But we butcher and twist language and meanings all the time. Decimate no longer means what it used to mean. “Literally” literally doesn’t meant what it used to 
This isn’t unique to the US, of course. I can’t go live in the UK or the Czech Republic, or where ever without proper paper work, for example. Hell I know someone married in the UK and she is having a time getting citizenship.
But with the topic of immigration, I am largely for it. If I lived in Mexico and had cartels killing people in the streets and had a hard time finding work, I would hope I had the fortitude to try to make a go of it here.
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I’m sure those guys were just thrilled that Trump decided to “honor” them under the watchful gaze of noted “Indian fighter” and genocidal maniac Andrew Jackson.
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Right??
Funny (in a sick way) how American schoolkids still don’t get taught such things about Jackson as his use of the skin of slaughtered Indians for fucking bridle reins.
Let’s get that bastard off the $20 bill!
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They probably had a few words about that, but no one was quite sure what they said. 
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neithor of those misuses refuses to see a human as a being and instead treats it as a state OF being subject to the speaker. It denies the most basic dignity. - use it and defend it, it saves me the hassle of wondering if your feelings are something I should have a fuck to give about. But don’t treat the choice, your choice, as an accident or not one made personally by you, but instead as natural as gravity.
Bigotry is not as natural as gravity. That language usage is bigoted. You are or you are not. Choose your own adventure, but use that term and it’s not a mistake to think you sound like a bigot choosing to deny someone dignity in conversation.
I went 66mpg in a 65 just a while ago. Am I an illegal? I broke a law, right?
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