Sacred Native American burial ground destroyed to make way for Trump's border wall

The border fence construction continues up a mountain in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
The border fence construction continues up a mountain in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Photo credit: Getty

A sacred Native American Indian burial ground is being destroyed to make way for Donald Trump's border wall.

"Controlled blasting" began this week in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, in Arizona, despite no consultation taking place with local Native American residents, CBS News reported.

Blasting in the area was in preparation for "new border wall system construction, within the Roosevelt Reservation at Monument Mountain in US Border Patrol's Tuscan Sector'', Customs and Border Protection confirmed to CBS.

Trump's controversial border wall was a key part of his election campaign in 2016. Although he initially promised that not only would he build the wall - which he deemed necessary to stop illegal immigration - but that neighbouring Mexico would foot the bill for it.

Debate over the construction of the wall, and who would pay for it, led to the US federal government being partly shut down in 2017, and last year Trump declared a national emergency in an effort to force it to be built.

Although Trump has boasted the wall is "going up at record speed" progress has been slow and his administration has faced a multitude of hurdles. 

Last month, a new section of the wall in California blew over due to strong winds.

The latest construction site in Arizona has sparked fury from the Native American population whose land is being destroyed to make room for it.

"There has been no consultation with the [Native American] nation," Congressman Raúl Grijalva told CBS. 

 "This administration is basically trampling on the tribe's history - and to put it poignantly, it's ancestry."

Grijalva said he sent a letter expressing "serious concerns" to Homeland Security in early January but never received a reply. 

"There's been stonewalling, no response for any request."

The reservation is said to contain burial sites with bone fragments dating back thousands of years, with one site having artifacts going back 10,000 years, CBS reported.

According to The Intercept, the blasting is set to continue until the end of the month. 

US Customs and Border Protection told The Intercept that it "will continue to have an environmental monitor present during these activities as well as on-going clearing activities."

However, Grijalva said he is highly doubtful the agency will "do anything to avoid, mitigate, or even point out some of the sacrilegious things that are occurring".

As well as housing the Native American reservation, the land is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that attracts scientists from all over the world.