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1,000-Year-Old Archaeological Site Damaged by Construction of Trump’s Border Wall

HeadlineMay 04, 2026
Image Credit: Planet Labs PBC, USDA via The Washington Post

In Arizona, construction crews building President Trump’s expanded border wall have razed a portion of a Native American archeological site in the Sonoran Desert estimated to be at least a thousand years old. The Washington Post reports bulldozers caused extensive damage to the 280-by-50-foot etching in the desert sand known as an intaglio, which holds special significance for the Hia-Ced O’odham people. In a statement, Arizona Congressmember Adelita Grijalva said, “Unfortunately, this is not the first time a sacred site has been desecrated by border wall construction — and it will not be the last until the federal government takes its legal obligation to tribal consultation and following environmental laws seriously.”

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