Counter-Mapping Quitobaquito

This past Saturday the Hia C’ed O’odham organized a protest against the building of the wall on their sacred land at Quitobaquito. They called on all O’odham and their allies “to rally alongside the people of the Jewed, in defense of the land, water and liberation.” 

I was unable to attend the protest because I am in Detroit. The maps below are my poor attempt to stand in solidarity with the Hia C’ed O’odham.  

In 1890 Quitobaquito was an oasis in the Sonoran Desert. The pond was fed by 10 springs of fresh, natural water. It was home to the Sonoran Desert pupfish, the desert tortoise and numerous other species of birds and animals. Nearby, Burro Spring, Williams Spring and Cipriano Well also provided water for humans and animals traveling through the desert. The Hia C’ed O’odham community at the Springs cultivated orchards of melons, pomegranates and figs and ranched a herd of cattle between Quitobaquito and Pozo Nuevo Well. Both orchards and ranch straddled the US/Mexico border which was marked by a series of boundary stones.

Colonialism had impacted the community as early as 1541 when Conquistador Melchior Diaz rode the trail to Quechan lands at present day Yuma. It had become more entrenched in the late 1600s and early 1700s with the arrival of another Conquistador, Fray Eusebio Kino. In 1890, three US Americans lived at Quitobaquito, Tom Childs Jr., Reuben Daniels and John Merrill, they ranched cattle, prospected for gold, silver and copper, and Childs and Daniels married into Quitobaquito families. In addition, Mexican haciendo, Cipriano Ortega, had built a corral, well and butchers shop a few miles north of the Springs; the first US Border Patrol agent, Jeff Milton, had established a customs house nearby; and Manuel Levy had opened a store, expanding his retail empire which stretched from Sonoyta to Ajo. 

By the 2000s, Quitobaquito had changed dramatically. Due to the heavy water use by expanding cities such as Tucson and Phoenix, reducing the Sonoran Desert water table, all but one of the springs had dried up, as did Burro Spring, Williams Spring and Cipriano Well. Today the only evidence of Williams Spring is slightly marshy ground during a wet winter or a summer monsoon.

The Hia C’ed O’odham community had been forcibly evicted between 1936 and 1957 to make way for the new Organ Pipe National Monument. After removing the community, the National Park Service (NPS) bulldozed the homes and other buildings at the Springs. The orchards were destroyed, and cattle ranching prohibited. They covered the graves in the cemetery with iron gratings to “preserve” them. The only grave to escape grating was that of the lone white man buried at the Springs, Louis Sestier. Sestier was a store clerk at Levy’s store and had been buried by Levy himself on a southeast facing slope under a rectangular headstone topped with a cross.

The border fence and road on Organ Pipe
National Monument in summer 2018

The NPS expanded the pond and built a cement channel for the one remaining spring. They built a new road leading to the spring from Highway 85 just north of Lukeville, cleared and flattened a parking lot, and installed a walking trail around the pond.

In 2006, President G.W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, authorizing the building of 700 miles of new barriers along the US/Mexico border. At Quitobaquito the result of the Act was a post and rail fence and two lane dirt road that was only open to Border Patrol and NPS Law Enforcement traffic. 

In fall 2019 construction began on Trump’s border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Contractors Kaewit and Fisher Industries, (if you have an investment portfolio please take a minute to make sure it does not include these stocks), began building a 30 foot high steel wall from Lukeville east towards the Tohono O’odham Reservation, and west towards Quitobaquito. To hold the steel wall in place Kiewit and Fisher Industries pump approximately 710,000 gallons of ground water per mile of wall, further reducing the water level at Quitobaquito. To facilitate construction, thousands of saguaros, palo verde, ocotillo and other desert plants have been uprooted and crushed to widen the road running along the border so that it can accommodate the hundreds of trucks and heavy construction equipment that drive to the wall daily.  

The border wall and road on the same stretch of
Organ Pipe National Monument in spring 2020

In early 2020 construction was also started west of the Springs on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife refuge. The wall advanced towards the Springs from both sides and has now reached this sacred site for the Hia C’ed O’odham. 

To support the Hia C'ed O'odham and Tohono O'odham land defenders and their allies please CLICK HERE or send a donation to @ / DefendOodhamJewed on Cashapp or Paypal, donations will go directly to support land defenders.