Borders

by Felix Hedberg

The scene on the homelands of the Tohono O’odham was brutal. Cacti, severed from their roots in the ground, lay scattered across the desert. They stayed there, rotting. Within O’odham culture, cacti are not simply plants, but ancestors. Many are ancient and have supported the O’odham people for centuries. The Saguaro Cacti of the O’odham lands only thrive in a very delicate ecosystem, and if removed from their homelands they are unable to flourish. All of this destruction was in service of the border. The O’odham people have their homelands around the area of the Southern U.S. border with Mexico, which means that in the name of security, their lands are being used to implement various security measures. The cacti were massacred at the behest of the Trump administration in order to construct the border wall as well as various security towers located throughout the desert. The measures taken by the government aim to protect the people on the United States side of the border from those across it. The “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists,” that are allegedly proliferating across the border are made to be threats that necessitate the destruction of Indigenous lands. In reality, the individuals crossing the so-called border are mostly poor, marginalized people fleeing violence often orchestrated/supported by the people trying to keep them out. Many of them are even Indigenous peoples, making a journey that would have been commonplace pre-colonization. To the O’odham people and the many Native people who attempt to cross the border, it means nothing but violence. For my Maya diaspora community, the border is at the center of much of our daily lives, remembering the people we left behind and how the border defines our status. Even if the concept of a border is alien to us, the impact it has makes it an unfortunate reality. Borders are understood by many Indigenous communities as insignificant and oftentimes destructive. However, in some cases, there may be a need for a defined border in order to reassert Indigenous sovereignty, and they can be used as tools to survive in a violent colonial world. For the purposes of this discussion, a border is defined as “ an exercise that transforms the mobility of people into politics to decide how and who can effectively cross them” (Rivera et al. 7). In many situations, the border is realized as a physical barrier, which this essay will largely focus on. The physical may manifest in other phenomena, however, it is the physical manifestation of the exercise of “bordering” that so often affects Indigenous communities. Borders have created conflict for Indigenous communities since colonization, with conflicts such as Bacon’s Rebellion and modern-day disputes like that between the Trump administration and the Tohono O’odham Nation. This keyword will explore the effect borders have had on Indigenous nations across the globe, and how necessary they are to securing Indigenous sovereignty.

It is necessary to explore at some length the violence that borders have brought upon Native peoples. However, to do so at any measurable level of justice would be an undertaking for a lifetime. This keyword does not claim to be at any level a comprehensible account of the many violent injustices borders have created for Native peoples. But, it is going to highlight two examples of just how powerful these imaginary boundaries can be. Firstly, looking at history, Bacon’s Rebellion can be understood as a consequence not of a hyper-defined border but one adhering to the established definition of a border, the exercise transforming mobility of people. Bacon’s Rebellion, occurred after settlers became provoked that they could not expand their territory into that of the Native peoples. While these divides were not physically articulated by establishing a firm boundary of Native land and settler land, perceived mobility by a party across the divide was enough to cause bloodshed. Tensions flared as Native peoples became justifiably agitated by European expansion and took measures to secure their lands. Frustrated by the colonial government's lack of willingness to completely expel Natives from Virginia in order to increase settler mobility, the settlers led a violent, armed revolt against the colonial government. It is important that while this rebellion constituted an act of extreme prejudice against Native peoples, it also was a result of unprecedented solidarity. The rebellion was not only orchestrated on the part of the white settlers but with the collaboration of the enslaved people who resided alongside them. This act of collaboration demonstrates the extent to which the border held power over everyone who resided on the land. Even though the line between Native land and other land was not as hyper-defined as it is today (with exact maps), it still had extreme consequences for those living along its margins. A modern-day example of the violence a border exacts is that of our Southern United States border with Mexico. As mentioned beforehand, one of the tribal nations affected by the divide is the Tohono O’odham Nation. The Tohono O’odham people's traditional lands encompass the area of what is now known as the Sonoran Desert around Arizona and Northern Mexico. The establishment of a firm U.S.-Mexico border has effectively split their homelands in two. Furthermore, with President Trump’s construction of a physical border wall, the O’odham lands have been further violated as a result. It is important to note that violence does not always occur physically. The Trump administration’s blasting of O’odham burial grounds and severing of Saguaro cacti resulted in the deaths of nobody. But it destroyed the traditions the O’odham have fostered since time immemorial. As noted in Unsettled Borders, the O’odham live in constant ceremony with the Saguaro cacti, following their growth cycles.

“The border destroys the ceremonial communing between the O’odham and saguaros, a form of sacred science that not only sets the tempo of the O’odham movements but also gives the community the ability to assess the past and future health of the land, such as by assessing the abundance or extinction of bats and other pollinators that are critical to the food chain of many others” (Schaeffer 150). In this way there is not only violence done to the people, but to the land. By looking at both history and the present, we can see just how violent borders are despite the supposed security and benefits they provide.

Borders must also be understood within the context of Indigenous worldviews. Many cultures do not have such a rigid understanding of boundaries. For example, the Maya Mam follow a much more fluid philosophy of existence. This way of living is known as Tx’otx, which focuses on what land/territory means, not necessarily where exactly it rests. “Tx’ot’ signifies an interdependence among mountains, volcanoes, trees, plants, rivers, and even air; it encompasses living and non-living beings, including humans and animals. Tx’otx’ is ontologically distinct from understandings of territory that merely signify a demarcation of land designating state limits to sovereignty, power, or jurisdiction” (Gardner 31). Gardner discusses Tx’otx’ in their work Tx’otx’ and La Defensa del Territori: articulating Mam territory as an Indigenous cross-border nation, according to Gardner’s research the Maya people do not view borders as static or necessarily even as a concept, but instead land is viewed through the lens of relationships. Mam people constitute a large portion of Guatemalan land but also hold a community in Southern Mexico along the Mexico-Guatemala border. Much like their O’odham relatives, the ability of the community to carry out traditional practices and share medicine has been hampered by the need for “security.” Likewise, the Mapuche people of modern-day Chile have also been similarly impacted. They traditionally carry sacred medicines across the Argentia-Chilean border. However, their ability to transport these medicines has been largely impacted by harsh security measures involving intensive search and often confiscation of the medicines, the process of the search impacts the ability of the medicine to be used. Specifically, the coca leaf is transported across the border. More recent developments, specifically the implementation of harsh COVID-19 policies regarding border crossings have impacted the way in which these medicines reach the Mapuche, “those bringing in coca leaves are obliged to use unauthorized routes thus exposing people to having to explain themselves to the military, who do not possess such an understanding of the customs specific to the territory” (Rivera et al. 10). The practices of carrying medicines and knowledge predates the existence of these so-called borders across Abya Yala (Latin America). It calls into question why Indigenous peoples are forced to be harmed and impacted by the existence of these borders if their own cultures do not acknowledge such divides.

While borders might not be an intentional component of Indigenous cultures, it is important to recognize that their existence is intentional. There are powers that benefit from the existence of a boundary. Most notably, capitalism itself benefits from the existence of borders. According to Shiri Pasternak in their piece Assimilation and Partition: How Settler Colonialism and Racial Capitalism Co-produce the Borders of Indigenous Economies, “jurisdiction is a key means of organizing authority in settler states” (Pasternak 303). Jurisdiction is typically organized around a “border(s)” making this statement applicable to the discussion of borders. Additionally, there are capital gains to be made on the existence of borders. Securitization and militarization compromise multi-billion dollar industries, which all have a vested interest in the permanent existence of divisions. Schaffer in Unsettled Borders discusses the existence of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a group that develops technology for border security. “With a budget of over $3 billion a year to produce the most “innovative” strategies and technologies in national security, DARPA is one of the world’s most influential and powerful military science agencies” (Schaeffer 109). The security industry profits off of the exploitation of Indigenous concepts of land like Tx’otx’, “Border technologies see through secular binaries such as life/death, self/other, secular/sacred, human/nature, and so forth. These divisions prevent settlers from understanding sacred/scientific relational knowledge practices with the more-than-human that are misappropriated for use in securitizing the border, including surveillance technologies from Native eyes, to drone vision, to automated sensors, bees, and saguaros” (Schaeffer 109). Both authors point out that borders serve some forces but not others. Their mere existence benefits entities like DARPA at the expense of Native peoples like the Tohono O’odham and the Maya.

Survival in a colonial society is complicated and often involves making strategic decisions. Will the colonizer ever truly relinquish power? Is it better to make sacrifices in hopes of retaining any sense of sovereignty? These are very real questions that have to be answered by Indigenous peoples worldwide including tribal governments, agencies, and other authoritative bodies. One such body facing the challenge of borders is the Sami parliaments across Northern Europe. The Sami people are recognized by their various governments as an Indigenous group of people, who are primarily reindeer hunters. They reside on the lands currently known as Russia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. While they still are under the jurisdiction of these nation-states, each nation also has a “Sami parliament” a body of lawmakers who make decisions for the Sami community of their nation. Sports are particularly important within any culture across the globe, as they are for Sami people. Many individuals play recreationally, and oftentimes the Sami community organizes their leagues around their Sami identity. Rather than play with “outsiders” Sami sporting typically is done within the community. However, organizing any nationally recognized league or organization is complicated by the fact that the Sami people reside in multiple nation-states. The authors of the piece The Politics of Organizing Indigenous Sport discuss the conflict a lack of borders for the Sami brings about in the world of Sami sports after a dispute within the reindeer racing community demonstrated a need for a unified Sami sporting group. “SHL had members from Norway, Finland, and Sweden and by that took on a united Sapmi profile, not limited to any of the nation-states” (Skille et al. 533). The establishment of a Sami organization that crosses nation-state borders points to an Indigenous future where the borders of the nation-states are increasingly irrelevant. Conversely, the Haudenosaunee people demonstrate a case in which a border marks an important display of sovereignty in the face of colonial authority. The Haudenosaunee people (oftentimes referred to as the Iroquois people) are one of the Native nations that reside on land that crosses the U.S. and Canada border. After various transgressions by both the United States and Canada, the Haudenosaunee Nation continues to assert the borders of their nation. Based on treaty law, they have the right to free passage between the nation-states of Canada and the U.S, as well as other rights outlined in various treaties. In this case, a firm border for the Haudenosaunee allows them protect their rights.

Borders mean many different things to Indigenous communities worldwide. To be Indigenous often is defined by settler borders, even if Indigenous practices precede these notions. As seen with the Maya and Mapuche people, their traditional ceremonial practices and beliefs do not acknowledge borders. However they are perceived, they have consequences for every Indigenous community, and the consequences are often violent. As seen throughout history from the so-called “Indian Wars” to Standing Rock, borders bring violence both physical and mental. But some communities such as the Haudenosaunee remind us that living within them and establishing our own borders is often important for survival. We may never understand the true impact of these lines on our communities, but analyzing them brings us closer to healing from their violence and moving towards our future.