Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris, Jr. has expressed his firm commitment to support the NAISA meeting and to warmly welcome NAISA participants at the Official Welcoming Reception scheduled for 6:30 pm on Thursday, May 20. Chairman Norris has joined all the tribal leaders of Arizona in condemning SB 1070. The Intertribal Council of Arizona (ITCA) will be issuing a resolution later this week.

NAISA Members at large:

As you may or may not know, Tohono O'odham homelands/reservation are adjacent to the Mexican border across which many, many Indigenous-descent people cross into Arizona and into the U.S.. And as you may know or not know, the O'odham are overwhelmed by the federal police and the militarized state of the border which affects them directly. The tribal government Chairman Norris leads is caught in a bind or pinzer between the feds, Homeland Security, Arizona state law, and local white militia including Minute Men maniacs. And the insidious Border Patrol assumes the overwhelming authority.

These are facts.

As you may or may not know, the Tohono O'odham tribal government has almost no real sovereign authority. They cannot and do not assume sovereignty authority over their own lands to protect and lead the Tohono O'odham people. They can't. Because the U.S. claims that power and jurisdiction and authority. So that means too often the O'odham officially end up refusing to help people crossing through the desert lands of their O'odham homelands as they cross the border. In fact, the tribal government "gives up" its sovereign authority to the feds.

With all due necessary respect to leaders of our people, what kind of welcome would NAISA receive from such a leader as Mr. Ned Norris? If he were to be asked about his sovereignty authority as a tribal leader assuming an inferior place and position because of U.S. federal governmental insistence and assumption, what would his answer be? Does NAISA want to be welcomed by an inferiozed Indigenous leader? We, as NAISA, cannot afford examples and role models like Mr. Norris. The stakes, our lives, are too high.

Or perhaps this is the role model current NAISA leadership and Council are taking?

At the rate we are going as per behavior of NAISA direction, do not be surprised if this is brought up to us as typical of NAISA leadership. And do not be surprised if there is a protest against such leadership during his welcoming address.

Simon Ortiz