‘Grandmother’ is no more, but resistance continues

After 71 days of resistance, the last of four centuries-old “grandmother” cottonwood trees standing in the way of a double border wall being erected in the San Rafael Valley fell victim to the heavy equipment of Fisher Sand and Gravel.

Some, perhaps most, would say this was the inevitable endgame. No way several dozen idealistic, mostly young, tent-camping, prayer-chanting, mask-wearing, tree-hugging/sitting activists were ever going to throw a permanent monkey wrench into the ravenous gears of border protection.

Perhaps so. The construction crews and steel bollards continue their march toward the Pacific Ocean. A symbolic protest was bulldozed, exposed as a futile gesture, no match for the muscle of the Border Patrol or massive machinery of the construction crews.

Or maybe not.

Kate Scott, who has served as spokesperson for the protest, has been on the front lines in Lochiel before it was even a thing – since mid-June upon learning that the Department of Homeland Security was waiving environmental protections for the cottonwoods to ensure speedy construction of the wall. Looking weary yet energized in the aftermath of Monday’s confrontation, she said the Border Patrol’s show of force will only embolden the activists.

“We want to let everyone know that this doesn’t change anything,” Scott said, surveying the tent-strewn encampment. “We’ll stay. We remain. We have other work to do. Stopping the border wall in whatever ways that we can and empowering people with the elections coming up. It’s mainly to get our country back.”

The Border Patrol declined to respond to multiple email or voicemail requests for comments on Monday’s actions, so the only reckoning of what happened Monday comes from photos and livestreams that were posted online and on social media, and from Scott’s first-hand account.

The encampment is based on private land, with permission from the owner, Laurie Butler, who said she received no notification from government officials about their plans to enter the camp and described Monday’s activities as “heartbreaking” and “depressing.”

“We want to let everyone know that this doesn’t change anything. We’ll stay. We remain. We have other work to do.”

Kate Scott

Scott says activists were engaged in their sunrise prayer ceremony at the base of “grandmother” at about 6:30, using the construction easement, as they’ve done for several weeks, when they were confronted by a squadron of Border Patrol officers in vehicles and on motorcycles, coming toward them from both east and west. Scott said there were more than 50 vehicles and 200 masked and armed agents.

“They told us that we were in violation of the closure (of the construction easement),” she said. “We were around grandmother at the time. We said we’re in prayer; we want to finish our ceremony.

“We gathered around the grandmother. We locked arms. They started to physically force us back very violently. The agents got out of a van carrying T-poles for fencing and began to clip the private property fence, entering it with very heavy-duty T-poles, not like the kind you see for cattle fencing, and created another border wall. A wall completely encircling most of the tents that you see.

“And then they all proceeded to forcibly push us back. We’re saying this is private property. You have no right. It didn’t matter.”

Scott said she and three other females went back under the barbed-wire fence, knowing it was restricted territory, in an effort to protect the grandmother tree but were quickly overwhelmed.

“With that amount of manpower, it was pretty futile,” she said.

She said one agent pinned down a colleague and put a knee on her neck. Another was pushing an indigenous elder toward the barbed wire. Recognizing the danger, Scott said she pleaded for a chance to return to the other side of the fence.

Meanwhile, the activity was being livestreamed on an Instagram feed. The stream captured protesters screaming: “You’re stepping on them!” and “You’re pushing them into barbed wire!”

Scott, who identified herself as a military reservist, said the Border Patrol ignored demands to show a warrant authorizing entry into the encampment and refused to identify a commanding officer of the operation.

“They entered private property,” she said. “They broke down and cut a private fence line. And 200 agents are coming at you, right? There’s not a whole lot you can do with that.”

Scott said the activists remained encircled by the agents for about four hours.

“They were laughing,” she said. “They were joking. They were smiling behind their masks. You know, just another day of work.”

A day earlier, on Sunday, activists held what they called a “Day of Action:” A plant walk, a parade down the easement, music, a panel discussion about data centers, a sunset ceremony complete with a sacred campfire – all sorts of threatening activity.

“Who knows if it was our action yesterday that did it,” Scott said. “We had a giant jaguar puppet parading down the easement. We had a horned lark puppet, several masked animals. We were joyfully resisting. I think that was the last straw: they’re dancing in the easement again.”

Scott said 10 campers were cited at the scene and released and another 10 arrested and taken to the Sonoita Border Patrol station, but those reports could not be confirmed.

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva issued a statement condemning the Border Patrol’s actions.

“This is what the militarization of our borderlands looks like – and it’s all because DHS has more taxpayer dollars than it knows what to do with,” she said. “That’s the DHS playbook. Shut out the public, evade scrutiny and recklessly bulldoze our lands to build a completely unnecessary second border wall.”

Scott, meanwhile, is continuing to encourage resistance in one form or another.

“I don’t expect them to do what we do here, but they have to be emboldened to make sure to get their votes lawfully placed, because we’ve got a month (until the election) and there’s more of us than there are of them.”