O'odham responds on border and passports

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham living in O'odham territory (on the so-called US/Mexico border) responds to a reader comment at the Atlantic Free Press:

"Once again this statement proves the government mindset, they can not see beyond government policies. I have more right to say anything as a traditional person. Our ceremony the only existing one is threatened by this type of mindset. I and all the traditional elders and participants of the ceremony are ask to have a passport to re-enter the United States in 2008. We have no birth records to start the process of obtaining US passports. Our so-called government has not protected the best interest of the people in their United States mandated constitution, to safeguard our way of life. Why are we living in our own territories and required to carry another Nations passport."
Ofelia Rivas

Original article with comments:
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2841/81/

Latest reader response:
Article title: Mohawks Inflamed Over Tohono O'odham Tribal Council Complicity In "Border" Oppression Of Indigenous People - U.S. welcomes rich and kills the poor
Title: Indigenous

Comment: Enforce a whole region to Only buy your fish & you'll make millions!
That is a right call to, "get the country's they come from to get rid of the corruption ". Too bad the countries governments are all in on it too. Including your boss. NAFTA and other similar trade agreements create the poverty & corruption that these Refugees are Escaping.Every border has Criminal Smugglers. The elderly are concealing contraband medication to save a buck on prescriptions. US citizens smuggle between states to avoid higher taxes on cigarettes & gas. In some cases, US citizens jeopardizing indigenous sovereignty by encouraging the state to collect use fees from the Indians, rather than collect the fees from the us citizens.
Are the women, children, and men seeking a better life smuggling too? Each one that you round-up and put in a pen for a $100 a head, has some kind of contraband on their person?
Ellis Island saw Boatloads of these people; impoverished, oppressed, robbed of their rights as a human being, escaping corrupting. The only difference is no boats.. & origin.

[i]"She needs to run for office and, if she gets in, then she can speak in our behalf"[/i]So your a Top-down nation. A peoples who defer to their social betters i see. Well, some of us operate through the will of the people. Nobody has to become a big chief, or head man, to have the right to speak in public. This is the 21st century after all. That campaigning you see on the TV, that's called politics. Even the US allows free speech, lobbying, and speaking your mind. Why should your leaders suppress it?