our fight

It is of great importance to us that we care for pieces of land near the border regions, as these lands face the harshest realities and effects of the border wall and the violence reaped from militarization and fear. The most fragmentation occurs in these spaces, where separation of land, water, and all beings is at the core of their violent tactics against the elements and all beings who call these places home. In our lands where the border wall is enforced with constant surveillance and border personnel, it is our responsibility to tend to the thorned refuge as a place of rest for all those who, despite all efforts to prevent migration, traverse the river, the fragmented thornbrush, and the wall. Without a doubt, relatives, humans and non-humans, will continue to cross these militarized spaces, and they need the existing thornbrush to remain in order to survive.

Since the beginning of creation, our lands have always kept the oppressed safe from the violent enactors of colonization and persecution. The thorned forest keeps us hidden and provides us with the resources necessary to survive. It is important to know this as truth and to provide our own communities with the relation and knowledge needed to survive. To act as though we are safe in these walled lands is to set our own death trap within the already existing trap. As the wall encroaches the land and river more fiercely than ever, we are more aware of the deliberate intention of aggression and death within these structures. Every single decision along the border is one that has been determined to end with the cessation of being. Even the seemingly inoffensive act of trimming back tufts of grass growing within the spaces of the border walls is meant to leave no room for survival, a place to hide or rest, for animals or humans. In these lands which have been made violent, even a tuft of invasive grass can be the difference between life and death. We have witnessed the smallest of beings run into these small but safe places to hide from predators. We are no less persecuted than they are by border patrol, and we are no less inclined to search for nature to survive. We need every single tree and every single blade of grass in order to survive, and by doing our part in restoring these lands in the border region, we hope that many can be saved and continue their generations. Beyond survival, we need these lands to continue our relation and responsibility to the Grand Mystery. To keep us grounded in our fight against the oppressors and to let the land know that we have not forgotten our commitment to her.

As border people, we know what it means to blur ourselves into what is around us – to these places we have either willingly or forcefully migrated to. Even while we are physically away from our homelands, we have found a way to extend the roots from our place of origin into these new spaces. Our lands and histories are etched beyond the physical realm into who we are. We bring our laughter wherever we roam. We bring our pain on our backs wherever we labor. We bring the memories of what was and what can be in everything that we do.

We know what it feels like to be the animal preyed upon. The animal that has been caged behind barbed wire and taught to stay still, and yet, deep within us, the sacred fire lives. We come from people of intense deer fires, who fought back against their oppressions and at the same time, whispered sacred prayers, knowing that the divide between humans, non-humans, and the elements was created out of fear, not truth. One of our strongest ways of fighting back is placing the energy and life created from our sacred internal fire into our lands, waters, animals, into reindigenizing and stewarding what is left. Every tree we plant, every animal we shelter, every insect allowed to roam freely is a victory over the oppressor who seeks to diminish our ability to create, to hope, to tend to others. When our lands and relatives surround us, we are no longer alone; we become stronger in numbers and spirit.

When we center our water, our land, our animals, they remember and rise with us.