In Arizona lies the U.S.'s third largest Native American reservation—and one of the continent's busiest smuggling corridors. Now tribal members find themselves on the front lines of this illicit trade and efforts to stop it. An ABC News investigation:
From a distance, the border looks peaceful. Just some rusted pylons surrounded by a cactus-covered desert that stretches for miles in every direction.
“We’re killing our own people,” David Garcia, a tribal elder, told ABC News, “We have to do something. And if we don’t do anything, then we’re just as much the problem as well.” Standing on Baboquivari Peak — one of the most sacred places to the Tohono O’odham — tribal elder Garcia revealed a harsh truth about the people he was chosen to lead.
Matthias would be a prized collaborator, because his tribal status allows him to cross the border freely, but he refused the cartel’s latest offer. Juan knows how “the enticement of easy money” can lead to trouble. He used to run drugs on the reservation himself, and he fears that his children and grandchildren, in the absence of other opportunities, could stray down that path as well.
That balance is, to say the least, delicate, and the significant federal presence on the reservation feels to some like an occupation, creating deep resentment among tribal members.
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