Fear and Immigration

Tohono O'odham open air market outside the San Xavier Mission.

“Be afraid of immigrants.They’re out to get your job. They’ll take over.”

Maybe you’ve heard some version of that refrain from a politician, a news reporter, or a neighbor. 

What if I told you that’s a fair fear!* Read on...

This week I’m spending a few days at the Santa Cruz Valley Border FairIssues and Common Ground on the Border Music Festival in Green Valley Arizona, just north of Nogales, Mexico. On the drive from the Tucson airport to Green Valley earlier this week, I stopped by the San Xavier Mission on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation reservation. The Tohono Oʼodham people have lived, loved, laughed, died, and claimed the wonder of life in that life for as long as memory reaches back. Jesuit missionaries (immigrants?) from Europe showed up in 1692. 

The Tohono Oʼodham Nation is one of the focal points for our current immigration concerns. Migrants from South America cross the border onto Tohono Oʼodham land — land that has been divided, chopped up, claimed by other groups. 

Imaginary have been drawn on the land, with gun-wielding people saying that the invisible lines can’t be crossed. Surveillance towers have been plopped down the land. Companies claiming to own the land have dug up minerals and made giant profits. The US government has built giant fences all across the land, using part of the land to test weapons that kill people in giant numbers. All the while, Tohono Oʼodham people have been ignored, rounded up, kidnapped and sent to boarding schools, taught their culture and language and religion is inferior, prohibited from taking part in their scared rituals, lied to, “whitewashed” from history books, and largely left in poverty. 

So, yeah, on some level, it makes sense to say, “Be afraid of immigrants. They’ll take over.” When modern-day politicians and commentators say that, they are reflecting the dark side of European, mostly white immigrants who have spent the last 400 years taking over and even wiping out native and indigenous lives. Our present-day immigration matters are complicated, in humane, and in need of much wisdom and grace. To address them, requires more than policy tweaks and changes (though those are vital). To fully address our immigration views, we must address our national origins based in white supremacy, euro-centrism, and Christian domination. Our current immigration policies and practices and roots that reach down into centuries of oppression, ignorance, and militarism. 

Two stories...

When European migrants in the 1600s wandered across native lands in this part of Arizona, they met the people who lived there. “Who are you,” the Europeans asked. 

“Pimach,” the indigenous folx replied. 

“Ah, you’re Pimach people,” the Europeans said. 

And the name stuck and was shortened to “Pima.” For centuries the tribe was referred to as Pima, a county was named Pima, and a college bears the name. 

Except that’s all wrong. Pima or Pimach is not, was not, never had been the name of the indigenous people. “Pimach” means, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” or “I don’t understand.” 

When the European invaders asked (in Spanish), “Who are you,” the native people said (in their language), “We don’t understand you’re funny language...We don’t know what you’re asking.” And the Europeans, in their ignorance, assumed Pimach was their name. They shortened it to Pima. The name stuck for three hundred years, until Tohono Oʼodham people reclaimed their name. 

A second story...

One of the sacred rituals of the Tohono Oʼodham people is the salt run. Young men — as part of their ritual passage to adulthood — ran from their homeland to the sea, collected salt and brought it back to their people. 

This practical ritual became part of the deep cultural expression of the indigenous tribes. Along came Euro-centric, white Americans with their need for order and control to draw uncrossable lines (the Gadsden Treaty of 1854). Over the years, the invisible line became more and more visible with barbed wire, military patrols, metal walls, and jail sentences for those who cross the lines. The Tohono Oʼodham religious ritual of the salt run is now impossible. 

So, back to my original idea... Beware immigrants? Sure. They’ll take over? Yep. White, euro-centric immigrants have proved that to be true.* 

(*Please note: I’m not suggesting that we fear migrants from around the world who are seeking better, more peaceful lives in the United States. I’m writing hyperbolically to get your attention and to remind us that white, Christian-affirming, Euro-centric migrants have built a nation by invading and ignoring the people who were already here. Again: Our current immigration woes are complicated. To fully address them, we must reckon with 400 years of white supremacy and oppression that has been supported by the militarized eradication of Native people.)

This blog is one of a series of reflections that I am writing while taking part in the Santa Cruz Valley Border Issues Fair and Common Ground on the Border. The Border Issues Fair is one the causes supported by the Briggs Center for Faith and Action, where I serve as the Executive Director.

Want to know more about the Tohono O'odham people and their efforts to maintain their traditional practices? Take a look at the Anti-Borders Collective.