Historian helps steer border wall clear of South Texas’ historic cemeteries and ancient plots

[Elderberry]

Border Report by: Sandra Sanchez 6/23/2020

A look back on 'last area to really be settled' after Civil War

SOUTH POINT, Texas (Border Report) — South Texas historian Eugene Fernandez rarely has both hands on the steering wheel of his weathered “field truck” as he excitedly points out historic cemeteries and family plots from a dusty levee alongside the Rio Grande.

On a recent 8-mile drive to the southern-most tip of Texas known as South Point, Fernandez identified 150 or so ranchitos where hundreds of cemetery plots are located. The small ranch substations, which sprung up after the Civil War, include Rancho La Canasta, Rancho La Bolsa, and Rancho Burrita, named after the ancestral ranch managers.

Ranch workers brought with them their families to live on these outposts, and as generations died off, they were buried together in small cemeteries on the properties. Some rest beneath majestic Montezuma Cypress trees or alongside patches of prickly pear cactus.

“Identifying possible historical and cultural resources within a planned barrier alignment has always been part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s public and stakeholder outreach process. It has never been CBP’s intent to disturb or relocate burial sites or sensitive sites that may lie within planned barrier alignment,” a CBP official said in a written response to Border Report.

CBP officials said they “halt work” if they find “unidentified artifacts.” They then “work with the appropriate stakeholders to identify strategies that avoid, minimize, or mitigate impacts to the greatest extent possible.”

However, environmentalists point out that the Trump administration on Oct. 31, 2019, issued 29 environmental waivers in order to build additional segments of the border wall to connect to the existing wall built on the IBWC’s flood-control levee. This includes waivers to the National Historic Preservation Act, the Antiquities Act, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

More: https://www.borderreport.com/hot-topics/the-border-wall/building-a-border-wall-around-historic-south-texas-cemeteries-and-plots/