INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The SUV appeared to drive straight into the man, and sending him tumbling into the dust.
A tribal nation in Arizona that has been resisting the Trump administration's plans to build a
border wall through its territory says it is investigating "disturbing" video of a U.S
Border Patrol SUV driving away after striking a tribe member.Tohono O'odham member Paulo Remes said he was outside his family's house in
Topawa Thursday, about 20 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, when he spotted the Border Patrol passing through town."I ran into the dirt
road in front of my house" and started recording, Remes told the Arizona Daily Star, "because I know they'll try and hit me."Indeed, the SUV
appeared to drive straight into Remes, filling the camera frame and sending him tumbling into the dust."M87864," Remes said as he sat in the
road, reciting vehicle's license plate to a friend on the phone
"They just ran over me, bro
They just ran me over."Remes, 34, had thought the agent might turn around after turning on his sirens, he told the Daily Star
But it drove away, leaving another tribe member to take him to a hospital for his bruises."This is what we have to deal with constantly,"
Remes' neighbor Amy Marie said when she posted his video, which has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and stirred yet more
anger within the tribe at Border Patrol in the Trump era.Straddling the border on nearly 3 million acres of ancestral land, Tohono O'odham
members commute freely between the United States and Mexico
"A tribal ID serves as a passport of sorts," the Arizona Republic wrote.But heavy-handed immigration agents have long infuriated the
community, tribe members say.Residents have accused agents of walking into their homes unannounced to ask if they're Mexicans, holding them
at gunpoint and commandeering their yards for armed stakeouts, John Pomfret wrote for The Washington Post in 2006.A Border Patrol agent once
ran over and killed an intoxicated 19-year-old lying in the road at night, angering many when a judge set him free.The tribe has
nevertheless allowed Border Patrol to build bases on its land, Pomfret wrote
It has worked with the agency to patrol and barricade its 75-mile-long border with Mexico - which drug smugglers, human traffickers and
migrants crossed so often during the George W
Bush presidency that part of it was dubbed "Million Backpack Hill."That uneasy relationship between the U.S
government and its second largest tribe fractured even further after President Donald Trump announced plans to wall off the entire
U.S.-Mexico border - a project now underway despite many logistical problems."I say, in the spirit of my elders, over my dead body," tribe
vice chairman Verlon Jose told the Telegraph in January
"This could be the last of the Indian Wars." Even after installing vehicle-blocking barricades across the border at the government's request
in the 2000s, tribe members can still base in and out of Mexico relatively easily to visit each other or take part in ancestral
ceremonies."The wall would make traveling across the border seem impossible," Jose told the Republic, worrying that hundreds of Tohono
O'odham members now living in Mexico would be effectively cut off from the bulk of the tribe.Still, he said, leaders of the impoverished
tribe were worried about provoking the U.S
government and risking federal funds.After Remes's video went viral, tribe chairman Edward D
Manuel released a terse statement, saying his police would work with the FBI to investigate."The Nation is aware of disturbing video footage
of the incident that has been posted online," it reads
"As this is an active investigation matter, no further comments are available at this time."Border Patrol officials did not immediately
respond to The Washington Post, but a spokesman for the Arizona office told the New York Times it was cooperating with the investigation."We
do not tolerate misconduct on or off duty," the spokesman said, without naming the agent accused of striking Remes.Remes could not be
immediately contacted, but his family released a statement through the group Indivisible Tohono."Paulo's incident is not the first that the
O'odham community has experienced," it reads
"Tohono O'odham have been feeling the increasing struggle of maintaining our Himdag (Way of Life) and Sovereignty in the face of the greater
Border policies."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated
