O'odham no longer existed. They were the most nomadic of all the O'odham. The Hia-Ced were overlooked completely. None of their ancestral lands are included in the reservation. Johnson said non-O'odham often look at the Sonoran Desert west and south of Sells, with its sparse cactus and bushes as barren.
All land is sacred.
Most of the non-tribal land near the border of Mexico is federal land, controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Air Force. Since 1987, the Hia-Ced O'odham Program, funded by the Tohono O'odham Nation, sought to create a 12th tribal district or a separate land base adjacent to tribal land. But even with the support of the tribe, land acquisition has not been possible. Mike Flores, Hia-Ced O'odham, said he wonders how serious the tribe has been in its efforts to acquire land. Elders have spent decades working and hoping for homes with no results.