# data[].attributes.body
Using a national team to reconnect with and assert their cultural identity as tibetan rather than Indian, or Chinese. Reconnect with a culture they have been forced out of.

https://www.conifa.org/en/members/tibet/

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Piece I made judging the white phosphorus shelling in Lebanon 

# data[].attributes.body
https://youtu.be/43wKgnOBEtY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Palestinian art by Sliman Mansour - Palestinian art prints and posters by Sliman Mansour

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sliman Mansour - Palestinian Art Posters and prints

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bring Palestine art into your home or office. Check out our collection of colorful and symbolic Palestinian art posters and prints by Sliman Mansour.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/10/12/organ_pipe_national_monument_border_wall

# data[].attributes.headline
Ukrainian artist using art to represent war.

# data[].attributes.subject
Ukrainian artist using art to represent war.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Video. This Ukrainian street artist made a war artwork every day for a year

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Video. In a gallery in Ukraine’s heavily bombarded northeastern city of Kharkiv, soldiers and students are among those viewing 364 paintings by Gamlet Zinkivskyi, a street artist who documented his daily experiences throughout a year of war.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/03/cbp-expanding-its-surveillance-tower-program-us-mexico-border-and-were-mapping-it

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
CBP Is Expanding Its Surveillance Tower Program at the U.S.-Mexico Border–And We’re Mapping It

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To provide researchers with the tools they need to analyze the impact of U.S. border security policy, EFF is releasing a new map and dataset of more than 340 surveillance towers installed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along the border with Mexico.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Border Issues, Alisa Reznick * Culture, Image Politics Native Americans, Tohono O'odham, Women's March Posted on

Indivisible Tohono led a group of Native women in the Tucson Women's March in January. The group's actions elevate Native issues and representation beyond what the country's founders envisioned, as evident in the Declaration of Independence's description of Native people as "merciless Indian savages." | Photo by Alisa Reznick

The morning after the 2016 election, April Ignacio was shaken awake by her fifth-grader. Ignacio is a member of southern Arizona's Tohono O'odham tribe, whose ancestral homeland stretches from Arizona into the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Today's Tohono O'odham Nation sits on some 60 miles of U.S.-Mexico border, and the newly elected president, Donald Trump, had promised a wall that could cut off access to burial sites, pilgrimage trails, sacred lands and some 2,000 tribal members on the other side.

Ignacio's son wanted to know: What did it all mean?

"It was just that fear already being instilled in him, even as a young child - that's what I remember," Ignacio, 36, said. "How was I going to break that down for him?"

Everyone had questions. So Ignacio and a circle of friends started calling up tribal leaders and legal experts to find the answers. In February 2017, a packed community forum about the wall marked the birth of their grassroots organization, Indivisible Tohono.

"It all started as a group of four women," Ignacio said. "We are all mothers, and our ideology was just to make sure everyone was okay."

What began as a reaction to the Trump presidency has expanded to advocacy for voting access, community support, and justice for murdered and missing indigenous women. The tribe's opposition to Trump's proposed wall has garnered headlines, but that exposure has been one-dimensional. To broaden understanding of their causes, and the tribe itself, the group coordinated an indigenous gathering at the Tucson Women's March on January 20.

Ignacio stands in front of a group of Native women at the Tucson Women's March on Sunday, January 20. "We are committed to making Indigenous people more visible, as we have often been ignored, forgotten or even erased from the public eye," Indivisible Tohono co-founder Gabriella Cazares-Kelly wrote ahead of the event last month. "We're still here, and we're leading the way." Indeed, the indigenous cohort was at the front of the march, which took place on traditional Tohono O'odham land.

All told, Ignacio estimates some 500 Native Americans took part in the event. Indivisible Tohono invited over 30 toka teams from across the Tohono O'odham Nation to lead the Tucson march. Toka is a game traditionally played by women and uses sticks and balls made of mesquite trees from the Sonoran Desert. In a march where myriad communities championed a host of issues, Ignacio said toka was a uniting thread. "We have one area that is dedicated to the woman on our reservation, and that is the toka field," she said.

Cathy Wilson, 64, attended the march as a show of solidarity for fellow Tohono O'odham tribal members. "This is a chance to feel empowered and to empower others," she said. "We're asking that people realize we are still here; we are not invisible."

Demonstrators used the event to spotlight the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women in U.S. cities and tribal lands, including the Tohono O'odham Nation. "My grandmother was killed, and her murder was never solved," 15-year-old Diavian Zazueta (right) said. "It means a lot for us to be here."

Tohono O'odham elders and youth leaders alike joined the march. "We're out here to support Native American issues that we've always known about but are only now getting brought up [because of the wall]," Jasmine Johnson, 15, said. "We are marching for our ancestors and our youth."

Over the last two years, Indivisible Tohono has grown to a 9-member team. Its actions elevate Native issues and representation beyond what the country's founders envisioned, as evident in the Declaration of Independence's description of Native people as "merciless Indian savages." Indivisible Tohono leads voter registration events, and their candidate forum ahead of the 2018 midterms was the first event of its kind held in the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Ignacio says many Tohono O'odham community members feel disconnected from tribal leadership and Arizona representatives. Activists are working to form a Native caucus, with the goal of one day getting a Tohono O'odham representative elected to the state legislature. But pushing for more recognition hasn't been easy. "These spaces make us uncomfortable because we've never been in them before," Ignacio said. "We have to put ourselves in these spaces in order to create opportunities for our own people."

This story originally appeared in the Bitterroot newsletter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
O'odham Women Resist More Than a Wall - Bitterroot

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The morning after the 2016 election, April Ignacio was shaken awake by her fifth-grader. Ignacio is a member of southern Arizona's Tohono O'odham tribe, whose ancestral homeland stretches from Arizona into the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Today's Tohono O'odham Nation sits on some 60 miles of U.S.-Mexico border, and the newly elected president, Donald ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories. We endeavor to stimulate public debat…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Tohono O'odham runners are one with Mother Earth as their feet pound over desert trails, dirt roads or pavement. Running is a tradition that dates back centuries to their ancestors, the Hohokam. Runners would carry messages from village to village spreading news over expansive lands.

Running for the Tohono O'odham is tradition. Running is cultural. Running is spiritual.

Most recent, four runners led first lady Jill Biden's motorcade on the San Xavier District, south of Tucson. It is one of 11 districts that make up the Tohono O'odham Nation, which is about the size of Connecticut. Sells is the capital of the nation and is located 60 miles southwest of Tucson.

During the first lady's visit last month as part of a national effort to reduce cancer deaths and reach underserved communities, the runners carried staffs adorned with eagle feathers and ribbons, and blessed and cleared the path for Biden, the nation's distinguished guest.

One of those runners was Eric Havier Jr., 14, a freshman and football player at Desert View High School.

"It was nice welcoming her, and it was really a nice run. It was a short run on a sunny afternoon," said the teen who began running at age 5. "My parents encouraged me to go down the traditional path of running. I like running. It feels good and it cleanses your mind," said the teen, explaining that he prays for family and members of the community while he runs throughout the district and other parts of the reservation.

Havier said running is personal and a decision for each individual to make. He said he is encouraging his 8-year-old brother to become a runner. The longest event the teen has participated in is the annual Unity Run, a weeklong run that has different routes. It can start in Mexico and head north across the international border on nation land and runners continue toward Red Rock. Participants camp out in tents and the district communities provide food and at times shelter, including a school gymnasium. Support vehicles follow the runners and hand out water, Gatorade, snacks and fruit.

Brandon Havier is Eric's uncle, and Brandon is the run leader on the San Xavier District and organizes up to 40 running events a year, something he has done over two decades. The events include burial escort runs for funeral processions of veterans and also Memorial Day runs that are open to O'odham veterans. Runners also participate in an annual June camp, "Preparing the Eaglet to Fly", a young man's gathering to teach tribal culture and values. In addition to running and camping, the youth learn how to build a fire for a sweat lodge and how to hunt with a bow and arrow.

Brandon, 44, no longer runs because of complications in his legs from diabetes, but he works with the runners and recruits youth, emphasizing the need for young people to be physically active and lead healthy lifestyles to prevent diabetes, which is an epidemic on the nation. He said he enjoys seeing runners exercising and staying in shape. "Some train every evening to run marathons. Traditional running is not a dying art for us, not in this district," said Brandon, of participants ages 5 to over 60.

"I walk and continue exercising to stay healthy. There are days I jog, and maybe there will come a day that I can run again," Brandon said. He said he leans on his wife, Jenifer Havier, who drives Brandon to all the events and also drops off runners at the starting points for their runs.

Challenge the body

Marathon runner Marlinda Francisco works to show others what their body is capable of doing as a member of the nation's Healthy O'odham Promotion Program, a program that teaches the risks of diabetes and the importance of nutrition and physical activity to keep it under control and lead to healthy lives.

The Navajo and Tohono O'odham woman, who was born in Tuba City and grew up in Tucson, works in Sells and coordinates running events virtually since the pandemic, but is eager to bring back in-person community events in the near future as the nation begins to slowly reopen.

Francisco began running seven years ago in Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation. The run was in memory of her uncle Rick Begay. "It was my first half-marathon (13.1 miles), and I dedicated it to him," she said of the healing run, covering a few hills and gradual inclines on desert land, in which she prayed for strength. She continued participating in runs in the Tucson area, praying for herself and her family. In 2018, Francisco competed in her first marathon in Shiprock on her uncle's anniversary of his death.

"All of this inspired me and I enjoyed coordinating runs on the Tohono O'odham Nation through the Healthy O'odham Promotion Program. We coordinated half-marathons in different communities in the Sells District and the Baboquivari District. The largest event we had was near 300 participants. We have been doing this for more than 11 years," said Francisco.

Runners train themselves and keep fit for endurance, speed and strength. Some run on the road or on desert trails, said Francisco, who runs the Starr Pass Trailhead or on trails in Sells. "I want to help people with their well-being. I come from a family with diabetes and I have lost family members," said Francisco. She quickly counted eight deaths, including aunts, an uncle and a grandmother.

She has three daughters who are runners and all ran cross country at Baboquivari High School. Two have graduated and one is a student and remains on the team. Her two older daughters are training for their first half-marathon in Shiprock next month.

"The physical part of training does take a lot of work, especially on your legs," said Francisco, rattling off injuries to her hamstring, Achilles tendon and the top of her foot that sidelined her training for days on up to weeks. "Once you're healed, you get back out there again. Now that it is hot, I start running usually before 7 in the morning three to four times a week. When I am in training for a marathon, I run 16 miles a day - one day on and one day off to rest," she said.

"When I am running, I focus on myself and listen to my body. Running out on the Tohono O'odham Nation is a blessing because that is our way of connecting to our land. We are testing our strength and testing our body," said Francisco. She wears a hydrovest carrying water, electrolytes, protein bars or salt sticks to prevent cramping. She has encountered hawks, javelinas, coyotes, rabbits, snakes and a Gila monster. She has been warned to be on the lookout for mountain lions.

"I believe our loved ones who have passed are watching over us and will protect us on our runs. They come in the forms of butterflies, cardinals and feathers. I always pray and thank them for running with me and watching over me," she said.

She recently competed in a 50-kilometer race in Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation and the course was on tribal parks land covering trails, hills, sand area and a mesa. "The run started sunny with a light breeze and then over the course it became windy and there was hail and a sandstorm. After I finished running, it snowed," she said. Runners carried extra clothing and shoes and used aid stations to change.

In November, she plans to compete in the TCS New York City Marathon. "I am going to challenge myself a little more," she said. "If I get selected, it will be my second major marathon. Last year, I ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. There were thousands of runners. I did not place but I finished under 5 hours. I pulled a hamstring about three weeks before the event, but I was able to run."

Holistic approach in running

Anthony Francisco started his running journey when he was 8, while a student at the now Indian Oasis Elementary Primary School in Sells. He participated in running events organized during holidays in the Baboquivari Unified School District. "When I first started running, it was purely recreational. I really enjoyed it and it made me feel good," said Francisco, 42, a state champion and an All-American runner when he attended Sunnyside High School in the 1990s.

As Francisco grew older, he learned more about the cultural connection to running for the O'odham and he connected with a spiritual feeling that flowed from within and grounded him. "Our culture and spirituality is all intertwined. Runners bless the path and clear the way. It took me until I became an adult to get more in tune with that aspect of running. It is the way we pray and honor the land and others," he said, explaining he was not involved in cultural or spiritual runs when he was young because he was busy competing to be a top distance runner at state track meets.

"Spiritual runs have helped young people in our community. It is a holistic approach that makes runners understand who they are as an O'odham," said Francisco, cross country head coach for the Tohono O'odham Community College in Sells. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the head coach worked with youth and hosted races at the college for runners to give back to the community.

"We do want to host running events again, and it will happen in time. People have gone through so much during these times of COVID. Our college and our dorms closed. A lot of runners had to find places to stay in Tucson, but we do expect our dorms to open this fall semester," said Francisco, explaining that some of the college runners are students from tribes across the United States. Once the nation opens up, Francisco plans to host community runs and marathons.

"Running has always been a balance for me," said Francisco, who runs on desert trails or dirt roads throughout the nation and competes in running events across the state. Running saved his inner self and brought him peace after the suicides of his best friend and then his uncle more than two decades ago. He ran away the anxiety and stress over dirt trails near his grandmother's house in Comobabi, 20 miles north of Sells.

Feeling sweat and a breeze on his face under a sunny sky makes him feel good. He said running nourishes his spirit and he will continue running until the day he dies.

Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at cduarte@tucson.com or on Twitter: @cduartestar

Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
For Tohono O'odham, running takes them on a spiritual path

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Tohono O'odham runners are one with Mother Earth as their feet pound over desert trails, dirt roads or pavement. Running is a tradition that dates back centuries to their ancestors, the Hohokam. Runners would carry messages from village to village spreading news over expansive lands. Running for the Tohono O'odham is tradition.