On Sept.15, the El Paso, Tex. City Council voted 5 to 4 in favor of a road extension project that would run right over the Tigua Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribe’s original pueblo site. The site is a holy site for the Native American tribe.
Angry residents stormed out of the meeting, and one city councilwoman was in tears as the capitalists mounted immense pressure to push through the vote.
The road project has been debated for over 30 years.
Two years ago, organized residents defeated a slightly different plan that would have destroyed 250 homes. The city, defeated by working-class homeowners, thought they could run roughshod over the rights of other oppressed peoples.
The Tigua tribe was a declared a sovereign nation in 1987. But the developers and the council members who side with them have disregarded the tribe’s right to self-determination.
