TECATE, Mexico (AP) 鈥� White sage burning, Norma Meza Calles gathers guests at a Mexican wellness resort into a semicircle facing Kuuchamaa Mountain and asks everyone to close their eyes and feel its presence.
鈥淭his is sacred to us like a church for you all. The mountain is our healer, our psychologist,鈥� said Meza Calles, a Kumeyaay Nation tribal leader who explains that in its creation story a shaman transformed into the mountain. “Here is where we gather strength to live in this difficult world.鈥�
Then she calls for a moment of reflection. But the silence is pierced by the crushing of rock. U.S. federal contractors have been blasting and bulldozing Kuuchamaa, which straddles both countries, to make way for new sections of along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Indigenous leaders say that in the Trump administration’s rush to build border walls, contractors are desecrating and cultural sites at an unprecedented pace, more than 170 years after the international boundary split the territories of dozens of tribes.
Federal crews set off blasts on sacred mountain
Barrier construction has ramped up along the 1,954-mile (3,145-kilometer) border to historic lows. Much of it began this year after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
In California, explosions on Kuuchamaa send rocks hurtling down its Mexico side.
鈥淲e feel that in our DNA,鈥� said Emily Burgueno, a California member of the Kumeyaay Nation, adding that 鈥渂ody鈥� and 鈥渓and鈥� are the same word in the Kumeyaay language. Some tribal leaders met with DHS officials to urge them to protect Kuuchamaa and are looking into legal action.
鈥淣o one ever consented or supported the use of dynamite on the mountain,鈥� Burgueno said.
The nation consists of more than a dozen tribes in California and Mexico鈥檚 Baja California.
In Arizona, DHS contractors last month carved through a massive 1,000-year-old fish-shaped geoglyph called 鈥淟as Playas Intaglio.” The rare drawing, etched into the desert floor much like Peru鈥檚 Nazca Lines, was created on a lava field in what is now the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
The Tohono O鈥檕dham Nation said it had pointed out the site on its ancestral land for contractors to avoid.
鈥淭his was a devastating and entirely avoidable loss,鈥� Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose said in an April 30 statement. 鈥淭here is nothing more important than our history, which is what makes us who we are as O鈥檕dham. The site was also an irreplaceable piece of the United States鈥� history, one none of us can ever get back.鈥�
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that a contractor 鈥渋nadvertently disturbed鈥� the site west of Ajo, Arizona, on April 23, but it vowed to protect the remaining portion. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott is talking to tribal leaders to determine next steps.
Members of the Inter-Tribal Association of Arizona, which represents 21 tribes, traveled to Washington last month to lobby against a 20-foot (6-meter) secondary wall being built along that section of the border, as well as a primary 30-foot (9-meter) bollard wall planned on Tohono O鈥檕dham tribal lands. They met with Homeland Security Secretary , a Cherokee Nation member, who listened but made clear his intent is to build more border walls as fast as possible, the Tohono O鈥檕dham Nation said in a statement.
Hundreds of miles are under contract
The Trump administration says the barriers are necessary to keep people and drugs from entering the U.S. illegally. It wants walls to cover at least 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) of the border.
Trump鈥檚 鈥� 鈥� devoted over $46 billion to the effort.
CBP has awarded contracts or begun construction on over 600 miles (966 kilometers) of new border wall, with companion surveillance technology. A double wall is planned or under construction along another 370 miles (596 kilometers).
In Arizona, where the Patagonia Mountains descend to the border, heavy machinery crawls along freshly graded roads to extend a double wall that could block a wildlife corridor for endangered ocelots and jaguars. Jaguars have long coexisted with the Tohono O’odham, who consider the species 鈥渟piritual guardians,” Austin Nunez, a tribal leader, said in a 2025 lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the DHS waivers.
In Sunland Park, on New Mexico’s border with Mexico, crews this year set off blasts on Mount Cristo Rey, a pilgrimage site topped with a limestone crucifix.
CBP is seeking to seize a strip of the mountain owned by the Roman Catholic Church for wall construction. The Diocese of Las Cruces asked a judge this month to deny the land transfer as an affront to religious liberties and the 鈥渇aithful who seek to commune with God on Mount Cristo Rey.”
In western Texas, the federal government in February notified ranchers on the Rio Grande east of Big Bend National Park of its interest in their land that contains canyonland pictographs and petroglyphs, said Raymond Skiles, a retired Big Bend National Park ranger.
鈥淭here are pictographs, paintings of shaman figures and various things that we don鈥檛 know how to interpret,鈥� said Skiles, describing the drawings on his family’s ranchlands.
After community backlash, CBP’s online planning map showed the 30-foot-wall plans were scrapped for surveillance technology, patrols and some vehicle barriers. A segment in the national park and neighboring Big Bend Ranch State Park would rely on technology alone.
CBP says it recognizes the importance of natural and cultural resources and is working to minimize the construction鈥檚 impact, including leaving drainage gates open in wildlife corridors for animal passage. Illegal border crossings have littered, polluted and trampled sensitive habitat, the agency says.
CBP also says 535 miles (860 kilometers) of remote, rugged border terrain will solely rely on detection technology.
Many tribes would prefer that to walls.
Desecrating Native American sites is a felony
Tribes along the border 鈥渁re all experiencing the same tragic desecration of our cultural and sacred sites,鈥� said Burgueno, chair of the Kumeyaay Diegue帽o Land Conservancy, a nonprofit organization in California that works to protect Kumeyaay lands. 鈥淭his is a great example of the federal government not following federal laws.鈥�
Desecrating a sacred Native American site on U.S. federal or tribal land is a felony, punishable by imprisonment and fines. In 1992, the National Park Service listed Kuuchamaa Mountain, also called Tecate Peak, in the National Register of Historic Places, giving it limited protection. It noted that 鈥渄iscarding or disturbing the mountain鈥檚 natural state would be sacrilegious.鈥�
Rising 3,885 feet (1,184 meters) above sea level, Kuuchamaa has also captivated non-Native people.
Sarah Livia Brightwood Szekely said her father, Edmond Szekely, felt the mountain’s healing energy when he arrived in Tecate, Mexico, as a Hungarian Jewish refugee during World War II, and started the renowned wellness resort, Rancho La Puerta, which she now runs.
鈥淭here are all of these people that have a deep relationship with the mountain,鈥� she said.
Meza Calles leads walks at Rancho La Puerta to teach guests about Kuuchamaa.
Traditionally, young men would spend 40 days at its base in a coming-of-age ceremony before becoming warriors or shamans, she said. Today’s rituals are shorter. People suffering from a death, debt, divorce or other difficulty seek Kuuchamaa’s healing, she said.
鈥淚t’s sad they are ruining the mountain,” she said. 鈥淲e’ll see how far they go. Destiny is destiny. But the fight is not over.鈥�
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Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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