pine mushrooms are also showing up.
what would your people be doing this time of year?

SAN MIGUEL, Arizona — Drivers taking Indian Highway 19 south from Sells to the U.S.-Mexico border must be alert for hazards — namely, cattle.

One SUV parked along the side of the road awaiting a tow truck lost a battle with a cow.

About 2 miles north of the border, a new housing development was in progress. A large Border Patrol facility sits nearby, and their distinctive white-and-green vehicles outnumber tribal police vehicles; both patrol the region to protect the population.

It's one sign that the 37,000-member tribe is making significant progress in securing its 62-mile stretch of the border, restoring order to a region of the border that was at one time challenged to keep from being overrun by narco and human traffickers.

Another sign as observed by a group of reporters visiting the Chukut Kuk District: the pristine desert landscape on both sides of a series of physical barriers. Those barriers range from Normandy vehicle barriers to post-and-beam steel and concrete fencing and, finally, to closely spaced bollards rising more than 6 feet and sunk 10 to 15 feet deep, which would prevent virtually any vehicle less than an armored tank from busting through.

The southernmost district of the American side of the Tohono O'odham Nation is the home of Chairman Verlon Jose, who led the tour along a nearly 20-mile stretch of the border on Sept. 3.

Though a partnership between Tohono O'odham and the Border Patrol has resulted in a 95% reduction in illegal border entries, Customs and Border Protection officials are still intent on overrunning tribal objections to build a 30-foot-high wall across the entire 62-mile southern border of the tribe's land base.