Nationality of American Indians:
the Tohono O'odham Nation case

Note: the press articles reproduced here are - except for the Washington Post's - no longer available on the local papers sites, I scrupulously mentioned the sources and the internet sites of the related papers in order to respect the copyrights while making the articles available for scholars, students and activists

Albuquerque Journal Sunday, May 27, 2001

Tribe Wants U.S. Citizenship for Members in Mexico

By Guillermo Contreras
Journal Staff Writer
Members of the Tohono O'odham tribe say they are tired of being treated as noncitizens.
A tribal delegation stopped in Albuquerque on Friday, en route to Washington, D.C., to petition Congress to change immigration law so that all members of the tribe are recognized as U.S. citizens.
Tribal members say they are falling victim to consequences of immigration policy because their traditional lands span the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and Sonora. Many say they are treated as illegal immigrants by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and Border Patrol, detained and deported.
At a news conference hosted by First Nations North to South, an Albuquerque nonprofit group that works to unite native people regardless of borders, the tribe said it plans to ask Congress to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act so that tribal credentials are treated as the equivalent of federally issued certificates of citizenship or state-issued birth certificates. Their crusade is known as the "Make it Right" campaign.
Rene Noriega, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which encompasses the Tohono O'odham Nation, said a packet of administrative proposals was drafted earlier this year in conjunction with the tribe and sent to INS headquarters in Washington.
Part of the packet contains a proposal to grant citizenship to members of the nation on either side of the border "by birth," Noriega said. But the tribe seeks a permanent resolution, not just an administrative fix.
The Tohono O'odham, once known as the Papago tribe, have lived along what is now the U.S.-Mexico border since long before the United States and Mexico existed as nations, the tribe said.
With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War and with the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, O'odham land was divided between the United States and Mexico.
The majority of Tohono O'odham remained in the United States, but a significant number remain in Sonora, along with important villages, planting fields, ceremonial centers and sacred sites.
Of the 24,000 registered members of the Tohono O'odham tribe, 7,000 have no birth certificates. About 1,400 live south of the border and are not recognized as U.S. citizens, the Tohono O'odham said.
"We Tohono O'odham are no longer able to move freely on our own lands," said a news release read at the news conference by Christine Zuni Cruz of Isleta Pueblo, whose husband is Tohono O'odham and part of the delegation.
For fear of arrest, prosecution and deportation, members in the United States don't visit relatives on the Mexican side and those in Sonora are prevented by the Border Patrol from entering the United States or are deported, according to Tohono O'odham vice chairman Henry Ramon, who made the statements on a video played at the news conference.
The delegation is scheduled to arrive in Washington on June 2.

The Arizona Daily Star Wednesday May 30, 2001

Tohono O'odham: Nation divided

By Carmen Duarte, Arizona Daily Star

A delegation of Tohono O'odham is leaving Saturday for Washington, D.C., to seek U.S. citizenship for 8,400 tribal members.

Tribal officials want the U.S. government to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to make all enrolled tribal members U.S. citizens. Under the amended act, the tribal membership card would serve as proof of citizenship or a birth certificate.

"The federal government needs to right a wrong committed in 1853, when our traditional lands were divided between Mexico and the United States," Tribal Vice Chairman Henry Ramon said.

American Indians who live along the U.S.-Canadian border were given dual citizenship through treaties hundreds of years ago and have not faced separation from their people. They travel freely between both countries.

This was not done for the Tohono O'odham, Ramon said. "I am very confident that the politicians will listen to us and make it right."

The border, tribal officials say, is causing hardship for 8,400 members on both sides of it - most of them with no birth certificates to prove citizenship. The tribe has 24,000 enrolled members.

It's an ongoing problem that began intensifying in 1986 with changes in U.S. immigration laws and with beefed-up drug enforcement along 75 miles of Tohono O'odham land that abuts the border in remote desert.

For decades, with the blessing of the U.S. government, Tohono O'odham members in both countries were allowed to cross the border freely to work, participate in religious ceremonies, keep medical appointments in Sells and visit relatives.

As the border crossings became more difficult, families stopped making their routine trips. For some, health or family emergencies were worth the risk of dealing with U.S. Border Patrol agents, jail time and the confiscation of their vehicles.

In 1999, a pilot program between Mexico and U.S. immigration officials led to Mexican passports and U.S. border-crossing cards for 100 enrolled tribal members in Mexico.

That led the tribe's Legislative Council last year to allocate $102,310 to pay for the remaining 1,238 Mexican passports and U.S. border-crossing cards for Tohono O'odham in Mexico.

Immigration officials on both sides of the border worked together to make this happen -waiving certain documents, and using tribal rolls to meet requirements.

But this did not solve the problems in three situations: O'odham living in the United States who are Mexican-born; O'odham born in the United States who cannot prove it; and O'odham children who qualify for dual citizenship but don't have it.

"I am very confident that the politicians will listen to us and make it right," Ramon says.

Arizona Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor (news - bio - voting record) welcomes Ramon and the delegation to the Capitol.

"I think something needs to be done, but I think it will be a difficult road," said Pastor, adding that some politicians think U.S. immigration laws are already too lax.

"I will work with them to try to help them achieve their goal," Pastor said.

For centuries, said Ramon, Tohono O'odham, which means "desert people," lived on their traditional lands - lands that stretched from Phoenix south to Hermosillo, Sonora, and west to the Gulf of California.

The Tohono O'odham Nation's capital is Sells, which is about 60 miles west of Tucson. The reservation is about the size of Connecticut and includes 11 districts.

The Tohono O'odham lived there long before it was part of New Spain, and later, Mexico, after its independence was won in 1821.

The Gila River was the boundary between Mexico and the United States in 1848, when Mexico ceded the land north of it.

The river remained the international boundary until Congress ratified the Gadsden Purchase of the southern portions of New Mexico and Arizona in 1854.

Politicians did not take the Tohono O'odham into consideration when lines were drawn in 1853, dividing the tribe's traditional lands, said Ramon, 66, who was born in the Hickiwan District, where he grew up farming. He later became an auto mechanic, served in the Korean War, studied at the University of Utah, worked as an alcoholism counselor and entered politics in 1972.

He said the Tohono O'odham should have been guaranteed U.S. citizenship when their lands were cut in half, such as what happened with American Indians who live along the U.S.-Canadian border.

Ramon said another historical oversight in extending citizenship to members occurred in 1937, when Congress formally recognized the Tohono O'odham Nation as an indigenous sovereign government. It was then the U.S. government took a census on both sides of the border and enrolled members based on O'odham blood, not on country of residency, birth or citizenship. This census was the basis for tribal recognition.

Ramon and 66-year-old Maria Jesus Romo-Robles, an enrolled member who was born in and lives in Sonoyta, Sonora, are among the delegation's members, who will share stories with Capitol Hill politicians.

Romo-Robles and Ramon remember as children an open border with families crossing freely - no visas or birth certificates required.

Ramon remembers as a young boy stories about federal U.S. buses traveling into Mexico and picking up and bringing O'odham children to schools in Arizona.

"My father used to cross and work as a laborer at the mine in Ajo," said Romo-Robles. "He also was a vendor and would bring and sell fruit, cheese and wine to families."

Today, Romo-Robles has seven children - all tribal members - living in Eloy and the Phoenix area, working in construction, agriculture, a clothing factory and a restaurant.

One son works for the tribe in the San Lucy District, where he irrigates cotton, melon and wheat fields.

They are all living in the United States illegally. For years, Romo-Robles could not cross and see her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren because she feared prosecution.

When she was sick with gallbladder and bladder disease, she crossed through an opening in the barbed-wire fence to go to the Sells hospital.

Romo-Robles spent many holidays alone, because her children moved north for a better life.

"They say this land is ours, but they don't treat us like it is ours," she said.

"I want Congress to help my people," said Romo-Robles who left for the federal capital last week - a first in leaving her traditional O'odham lands.

"I'm ready to stand up for my nation and my children. They are my treasures. I love them dearly," she said.

The Arizona Republic May 31, 2001

Tribe pushes for citizenship
Tohono O'odham want amendment to 1952 U.S. act

Associated Press
May 31, 2001

TUCSON - Tohono O'odham representatives are traveling Saturday to Washington, D.C., to seek U.S. citizenship for 8,400 tribal members.

Tribal officials want the U.S. government to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to make all enrolled tribal members U.S. citizens. Under the amended act, the tribal membership card or a birth certificate would serve as proof of citizenship.

"The federal government needs to right a wrong committed in 1853, when our traditional lands were divided between Mexico and the United States," Tribal Vice Chairman Henry Ramon told the Arizona Daily Star.

Indians who live along the U.S.-Canada border were given dual citizenship through treaties hundreds of years ago and have not faced separation from their people. They travel freely between both countries.

This was not done for the Tohono O'odham.

But increased border enforcement, tribal officials say, is causing hardship for 8,400 members on both sides of it - most of them with no birth certificates to prove citizenship. The tribe has 24,000 enrolled members.

In 1999, a pilot program between Mexico and U.S. immigration officials led to Mexican passports and U.S. border-crossing cards for 100 enrolled tribal members in Mexico.

Last year the tribe's Legislative Council bought the remaining 1,238 Mexican passports and U.S. border-crossing cards for Tohono O'odham in Mexico.

Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., welcomes Ramon and the delegation to the Capitol.

"I think something needs to be done, but I think it will be a difficult road," said Pastor, adding that some politicians think U.S. immigration laws are already too lax.

A Nation Divided, Indians Want to Traverse Freely

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Washington Post, Sunday, June 3, 2001; Page A03

SAN MIGUEL GATE,on the U.S.-Mexico border - Mary Narcho stopped her white minivan just shy of the barbed-wire fence several days ago. For thousands of years, her ancestors, members of the Tohono O'odham Indian nation, traversed this very spot.

But in recent years, the U.S. Border Patrol has stepped up its presence, and on this day, Narcho, 58, was edgy. Though she considers herself a U.S. citizen, lives on the O'odham reservation and is retired from the federal government after 31 years, she was born at home and has no proof of her citizenship.

"I'm scared to go across," she said, unwilling to move forward at this traditional Indian crossing among the mesquite and saguaro cactus of the Sonoran Desert.

The imposition of the U.S.-Mexico border in 1853 cleaved the O'odham nation in two. But it was only in the past five years, with the doubling of patrols along the Arizona frontier to crack down on illegal immigration and drug-smuggling, that the once-irrelevant border has confronted the 24,000-member O'odham nation with a series of challenges and anomalies -- none of their own making.

For generations, they trekked back and forth across the border, which seemed little more than the whim of government cartographers. They visited relatives and made religious pilgrimages to Magdalena, Mexico, for the feast of Saint Francis Xavier.

About 7,000 O'odham who live north of the border but were Mexican-born, or born in the United States but cannot prove it, find themselves aliens on their own land. They are unable to visit family and make pilgrimages to the south and return freely. Some cannot obtain Social Security or veterans' benefits or apply for jobs as teachers or police officers. They live in fear that they might be deported.

An additional 1,400 O'odham who live in Mexico find it difficult to come north to the reservation to receive health benefits to which they're entitled, a prime concern to a people who suffer one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world.

"We have lived here from time immemorial," said Edward D. Manuel, 54, chairman of the Tohono O'odham (pronounced Toh-noh-AH-thum), sitting at a conference table in the nation's Sells, Ariz., headquarters. "And now we have to prove that we're from one side or the other. Why should we do that? This is our land, regardless which side it is. Why prove that we're visitors of our own land?"

In an effort to make it easier to cross at official entry points, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Mexican government allowed more than 1,300 tribal members in Mexico who are not U.S. citizens to receive border-crossing cards and Mexican passports. But that is good for only 10 years, the Indians say. And it does not help those living in the United States without documentation.

On Monday, the O'odham will take their case to Washington, where they will hold a demonstration on the Capitol steps and then begin lobbying lawmakers. They want Congress to pass a law that will give them the right to pass freely across the border by making their tribal identification card the equivalent of a federally issued citizenship certificate.

"We want a permanent solution," Manuel said. "Our intention is to allow them to stay as long as they want to stay and to go back when they're ready to go back."

Mark S. Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, nonprofit research organization, said such a law would be dangerous. "People who don't have American citizenship will be able to claim it because the tribal ID card will now become evidence of American citizenship, which it manifestly is not," he said.

In 1983, the Kickapoo, whose members live in Texas and Mexico, won U.S. citizenship and border-crossing rights for all members for five years, but the initiative was time-limited, and the tribal roll was prepared by the interior secretary, not the tribe. The Jay Treaty of 1794 granted the Indians on the Canadian border the right to cross freely.

The O'odham are unique among Indians in the Southwest. In 1937, when Congress recognized them as a sovereign government, they became the only nation to enroll members on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and to have land contiguous to the border (75 miles between Sonoyta and Nogales, Mexico). They view their proposed Citizenship Initiative as a first step toward a consistent immigration policy.

"Immigration law is discretionary, and so how it's applied depends on who stops you," said Lupe Castillo, a member of Derechos Humanos, a pro-immigration human rights group in Tucson who is helping the O'odham with their lobbying effort. "What is policy today is not policy tomorrow. . . . The Tohono O'odham are collateral damage of history."

A Patrol Stop

The red and blue lights of the Border Patrol all-terrain vehicle illuminated David Manuel's rattletrap Chevy pickup in the dark of the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona on a recent Saturday night.

Apague su motor!

Kill the engine!

A young U.S. Border Patrol agent trained his flashlight on Manuel's weathered face. Give me your keys. Show me your papers, the agent said in Spanish.

A few miles back, Manuel had entered his nation's land -- a reservation the size of Connecticut, second in size only to the Navajo -- at a traditional crossing called Managers' Dam, nosing through a gap in a barbed-wire fence.

Manuel, 63, was born in Ajo, Ariz., but like many O'odham elders, he was born at home and no official recorded his birth. He has a tribal ID card and a laminated letter from the tribe attesting to his status -- but that did not impress the border patrol agent. After checking with a superior, the agent let Manuel proceed, though he made clear he should have crossed at a designated entry, such as Sonoyta, about an hour away.

Border Patrol officials in the region say that a law providing the O'odham with better documentation would help the border police in Arizona, who face the greatest numbers of undocumented immigrants and drug smugglers.

"If legislation is passed that helps us establish what their identity is, so we're able to do our job and not impede their lifestyle, that would make our life a lot easier, too," said Lisa McClellan, Tucson sector border patrol spokeswoman.

'Make It Right'

Narcho, like all other O'odham, has a tribal ID. But that alone, she fears, will not protect her if she runs up against an unsympathetic U.S. patrol agent or Mexican federale.

She crossed San Miguel Gate, entering Pozo Verde, a sparsely settled O'odham community set amid the yucca and mesquite. A trio of baby-faced federales were waiting near a couple of vendors selling tortillas and cheese. This time, they gave her no trouble.

Narcho proceeded along the desert path, revisiting the places of her youth.

This is where, she recalled, her grandmother used to hold all-night wakes for the dead, chanting prayers in O'odham until the sun rose and it was time to bury the body. "I remember laying beside her on the blanket during the night as she prayed," Narcho said. "It was safe. You wouldn't even think of doing that now."

Narcho was accompanied by Art Wilson, 42, a U.S. citizen born on the reservation and raised in Pozo Verde. He pointed out the spot near a tree where his father was born and the church he attended, then directed Narcho to the adobe home of Alicia Bustamante, Wilson's aunt.

Bustamante is the last traditional potter among the Tohono O'odham. She uses clay collected from the Cedagi Wahia mountain, which, when fired in her earthen kiln, develops distinctive gold specks.

Wilson talked about the importance of being able to share this with his children, about being able to cross into Pozo Verde.

"I was raised in the south, and I've always recognized the south as my home," he said, referring to the Mexican community. "I bring my children here to Pozo Verde and tell them our stories. I show them our ceremonial ground, how we are connected to the land, how we acknowledge our relationships."

Soon, Wilson will be in Washington, where he will ask Congress to "make it right."

"I will ask them," he said, "to make our land to the north and the land to the south all O'odham land again."

The Arizona Republic June 05, 2001

Tohono O'odhams seek U.S. rights

By Sergio Bustos
Gannett News Service
June 05, 2001

WASHINGTON - Alicia Chuhuhua, a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, ventured to Capitol Hill on Monday, hoping Congress will allow her and thousands of other tribal members to freely travel on the land of their ancestors.

In the eyes of the U.S. government, Chuhuhua is considered an illegal immigrant whenever she heads to the northern end of her reservation, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in southern Arizona.

"The United States treats me like a foreigner when, in fact, my family has lived here for centuries," said Chuhuhua, 63, who lives in Pozo Prieto, a community on the Mexican side of the reservation.

The vast reservation, about the size of the state of Connecticut, is home to 24,000 Tohono O'odham members. About 1,400 who live on the Mexican side and another approximately 7,000 members on the U.S. side cannot prove their citizenship because they were born at home and their births were not officially documented.

The problem prompted several dozen tribal members to travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow official Tohono O'odham Nation members to be granted U.S. citizenship rights.

Other tribes, including the Kickapoo in Texas and tribes along the U.S.-Canadian border, have received such permission for a limited number of members to travel back and forth.

The citizenship issue dates back to the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 when the United States bought nearly 30,000 square miles of land from Mexico.

The deal between the two countries did not include any provisions dealing with citizenship for Tohono O'odham members. The issue again was overlooked in 1937 when the tribe was officially recognized as a sovereign Indian nation by the federal government, according to tribal leaders.

But the issue didn't emerge as a problem until the 1990s, when Congress began spending millions of dollars to stem the flow of illegal immigrants along the U.S-Mexico border. Before then, tribal members crossed the bleak and barren border by simply flashing tribal identification cards.

The increased vigilance, however, has brought large numbers of U.S. Border Patrol agents, turning the reservation into a "war zone," said Henry Ramon, the tribe's vice chairman.

He said appointments with doctors, visits with family members and regular pilgrimages to burial sites and other sacred places have become dangerous and difficult because tribal members now routinely are questioned about their legal status by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Since many Mexican members speak their native language or Spanish, they often get deported or hassled when confronted by federal authorities, he said.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service tried to resolve the problem in 1999 when it issued temporary border crossing cards to Mexican tribal members. But tribal leaders want a permanent solution.

"We have become 'aliens' on our own lands," Ramon said. "This is not right."

For Chuhuhua, who has children and grandchildren on both sides, the tension along the border has kept her close-knit family divided and separated.

"The border is just a wooden fence with barbed wire," she said. "The land belongs to all of our people."

Sergio Bustos is a reporter for The Republic and Gannett News Service. Reach him at sbustos@gns.gannett.com or (703) 276-5812.

The Tucson Citizen July 2, 2001

Legislation would make all O'odham U.S. citizens

The measure, introduced in the House, seeks to cut red tape for tribal members who regularly cross the border.

SERGIO BUSTOS
Citizen Washington Bureau
July 2, 2001

WASHINGTON - Members of the Tohono O'odham Nation came to Capitol Hill earlier this month and approached every member of Congress, telling them how the federal crackdown on illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border had unraveled their lives.
They told them the land they had called their home for generations had turned into a "war zone" because tribal members were constantly being questioned about their legal status by U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Last week, tribal members cleared their first congressional hurdle.
U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, a Phoenix Democrat whose district includes the Indian nation, introduced a bill to give all recognized O'odham tribal members full U.S. citizenship.
The border splits the tribe's traditional lands, and the 8,400 O'odham living in Mexico could benefit from passage of the bill.
"The tribe was here long before the boundary between Mexico and the United States was drawn," Pastor said. "This bill is a solution to a historic injustice."
The bill still has a long way to go. The House Judiciary Committee must approve before it can be brought to a vote in the House. It would then need majority support in the Senate and President Bush's signature.
But Pastor, who already has two Democratic co-sponsors, said the strong grassroots effort of tribal members will boost the bill's prospects of passage.
During the past month, O'odham have not been strangers on Capitol Hill. They have staged a demonstration on the Capitol steps, visited the offices of each member of Congress twice with slick "briefing books" in hand, and conducted a media blitz that has spawned articles in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
Margo Cowan, an attorney leading the tribe's lobbying effort, said she is confident the tribe can garner majority support in Congress, even though some lawmakers insist the matter should be resolved through the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"We keep reminding lawmakers that members of the Tohono O'odham Nation are not immigrants and should not be treated as immigrants," she said. "They are indigenous."
If the legislation is approved, it would end a problem that tribal leaders say began in 1853 when the United States bought nearly 30,000 square miles from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. At the time, the two countries did not include provisions for dealing with citizenship for tribal members who lived in Mexico.
It was again overlooked in 1937 when the tribe was officially recognized as a sovereign Indian nation by the U.S. government, according to tribal leaders. But it didn't become a serious problem until the 1990s, when the federal government began fortifying the border.
Before the arrival of hundreds of Border Patrol agents in the region, tribal members would routinely cross the bleak and barren border area by simply flashing tribal identification cards.
Today, doctor appointments, family visits and pilgrimages to burial sites and other sacred places have become dangerous and difficult because of the presence of scores of agents.
"We know Congress never intended that our people would not be United States citizens," said Henry A. Ramon, the tribe's vice chairman. "We're now calling on Congress to make it right."

The Tucson Citizen Aug. 8, 2001

Locals back O'odham push for citizenship

GARRY DUFFY
Citizen Staff Writer
Aug. 8, 2001

Efforts by the Tohono O'odham Nation to obtain citizenship rights for almost a third of its tribal members in the United States got a boost from Pima County Supervisors yesterday.
About a third of the nation's 24,000 enrolled members born in this country don't have the paperwork needed to prove citizenship.
A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor of the second congressional district would grant citizenship to approximately 7,000 members of the nation.
Board members voted 4-0 yesterday to support citizenship for all Tohono O'odham enrolled on tribal membership rolls.
"It's high time to rectify what appears to be a mistake of over 50 years ago," Supervisor Ray Carroll said.
Supervisor Sharon Bronson, in whose District 3 much of the Tohono O'odham Nation in Pima County is located, called on state leaders to support the issue.
"This is a reality that exists," Bronson said. "The nation straddles the border."
Tribal leaders have sought to convince members of Congress to support U.S. citizenship for all enrolled members of the nation. Their main argument is that the nation's presence in the Sonoran Desert predates the creation of international boundaries by the United States and Mexico. In recent times, cross-border trips by tribal members have increasingly been subject to stops, searches and arrests under tougher U.S. immigration enforcement policies.
Citizenship for the Tohono O'odham living in the United States was supported by a majority of Arizonans in a recent poll.
A Rocky Mountain Poll conducted by the Behavior Research Center in Phoenix showed state residents support the Tohono O'odham in their citizenship fight by a 61 percent to 28 percent margin, said pollster Earl de Berge.
Democrats and independents appear most sympathetic, with 70 percent of those asked saying they support citizenship. Republican support for full tribal citizenship was 38 percent.
Pima County residents and those in rural areas were most supportive, de Berge said.
The poll surveyed 702 adults across the state from July 5 to July 11, de Berge said. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

The Tucson Citizen Nov. 23, 2001

O'odham citizenship bid wins 100 backers

The bill, introduced by Rep. Ed Pastor, would ease border flow for tribal members.

SUSAN CARROLL
Citizen Staff Writer

After months of lobbying in Washington, D.C., the Tohono O'odham Nation has 100 members of Congress ready to co-sponsor a bill that would grant U.S. citizenship to tribal members in the United States.
U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Philadelphia Democrat, was the most recent to formally support the Tohono O'odham Citizenship Act of 2001. U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., whose district includes the O'odham Nation, introduced the bill.
"This is very significant because 100 members of Congress have indicated that the legislation under consideration is being taken very seriously," said Margo Cowan, general counsel for the tribe.
A delegation of tribal members has been in Washington since June, trying to gather support for the bill, which would affect about 8,400 O'odham. The nation is planning on the bill going before the full House early next year.
About a third of the nation's 24,000 enrolled members born in the United States don't have paperwork needed to prove citizenship.
Henry Ramón, vice chair of the nation, urged members of Congress to "correct a historical oversight and make all enrolled members of the Tohono O'odham nation citizens."
With the Border Patrol buildup along the border in the mid-'90s, the 1,400 tribal members who live in traditional communities south of the border are subject to arrest and deportation for traveling north to Sells, the tribe's headquarters.
Until the mid-1980s, most tribal members were born at home. In O'odham tradition, births were not recorded in writing, but were remembered by elders, who related them to significant moments such as droughts or rains.
Without birth certificates, some cannot obtain Social Security numbers, work, receive retirement or veterans benefits, cash checks, travel or obtain a drivers license, tribal leaders say.
"It is simply wrong that our people, who have lived in our sacred desert since time immemorial, are treated like illegal aliens in our own land," Ramón said.

Etats-Unis - nationalité, citoyenneté
United States - nationality, citizenship

SUFFRAGE UNIVERSEL - UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
citoyenneté, démocratie, ethnicité, nationalité - citizenship, democracy, ethnicity, nationality