Mexico drug gangs muscle border tribe out of homes

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

The tribe, whose name means "Desert People," numbers around 24,000 people. Their lands extend from Casa Grande, south of Phoenix, to an area of remote desert north of Hermosillo, the capital of Mexico's Sonora state, and members cross back and forth through informal "gates" in the border.

In recent years, members in Arizona have increasingly been caught up in the fallout from drug and human trafficking through the sovereign Tohono O'odham nation, which lies on one of the most active smuggling corridors on the U.S.-Mexico border.

South of the line, in Mexico, tribe members have long been squeezed by a lack of jobs and services, and the number of villages has dropped to nine from 45 in the mid 19th century. Remaining residents complain they are now being harassed by heavily armed Mexican smugglers who have muscled into the area.

The shooting incident, in October last year, together with threats from the armed Mexican newcomers, they say, is forcing already dirt poor residents of the isolated villages to abandon their traditional lands and way of life and flee north of the border.

"The drug trafficking and the violence that comes with it is the last straw for us," said Rivas, the community leader of Cu:wi I-gersk, a village in Mexico, who now lives in Tucson, Ariz. "It is what might finally kill off the communities on the south.

Entire article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071203/lf_nm/usa_mexico_indians_dc_1