Arizona Border Wall Construction Unearthed Native American Remains, Just 15 Days After an 89-Year-Old Elder Warned It Would

In August, an 89-year-old Hia-Ced O’odham elder named Lorraine Eiler told reporters that bulldozers building a border wall in southern Arizona could disturb her ancestors’ graves. About fifteen days later, according to ProPublica, Native American remains turned up in the churned-up soil. The National Park Service says its archaeologist found them on September 8, and it had not reported the discovery publicly before ProPublica’s story.

The warning and the discovery

The site is Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, southwest of Tucson, along Arizona’s southern boundary. Contractors are building a second border wall there. At the press conference, Eiler said people “used to live here.”

Eiler says a park service archaeologist found the remains near the base of a still-standing saguaro cactus. She learned of the find first from a cultural affairs specialist with the Tohono O’odham Nation, and then from the monument superintendent’s office. That makes her account of where the remains lay secondhand. She also says the remains did not come from Quitobaquito Springs, although work crews operate close to that site.

What scientists say about the remains

James T. Watson, curator of bioarcheology at the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona, examined the remains in the field and confirmed they are human. He wrote that the evidence suggests cremation consistent with precolonial practices in the region going back about 1,500 years. He said he could not discuss details without Park Service approval, so the dating remains a suggestion, not a final result.

The Park Service says the University of Arizona assessed the remains under its protocols and found them consistent with tribal cremation practices. It says it is working to identify the culturally affiliated tribe and arrange a respectful return.

Why the usual protections may not apply

Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), remains found by accident on federal land must be secured immediately. The superintendent must notify lineal descendants and tribes with ties to the land, and work in the immediate area must stay suspended for at least 30 calendar days while the Park Service consults with tribes.

The border wall sits under a different regime. After 9/11, Congress passed the Real ID Act, which lets the Homeland Security secretary waive laws that could slow wall construction. ProPublica reports that the department has used this power 66 times in about two decades, 60 of them under the two Trump administrations. A 2019 waiver covering Organ Pipe set aside more than 40 laws, including NAGPRA, and Customs and Border Protection says it remains in effect. A second waiver issued in 2025 covers the monument and a wildlife refuge to the west.

Customs and Border Protection says it learned of the discovery six days after it happened. Its cultural resource specialists examined the area, found no other remains, and report no further construction at that spot so far. That is the agency’s own statement, and ProPublica did not independently verify it.

What the family decided

Eiler’s family has decided not to rebury the remains until construction in the area stops. They fear that more sites will be disturbed. “They’re going to find remains wherever they dig,” Eiler said.

The wider context

ProPublica places the find alongside other recent damage. In April, contractors bulldozed the Las Playas Intaglio, an earthen etching believed to be at least 6,500 years old, and Customs and Border Protection called that accidental. A $443 million contract with Sundt Construction for the second Organ Pipe wall was finalized in May, and Rep. Adelita Grijalva is preparing legislation to void the existing waivers.

What remains uncertain

The discovery details rest largely on Park Service statements and on what Eiler was told. The cremation and 1,500-year figures are a scientist’s suggestion from field examination. The tribe the remains belong to has not been identified yet, and the article names no further steps beyond the Park Service’s stated plan.

Sources: National Park Service statement to ProPublica, and ProPublica’s reporting by Ryan Devereaux (2 November 2026). Image credit: Anna Watts / ProPublica.