AJO, Arizona — A contractor for the Department of Homeland Security working on the expansion of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has reportedly destroyed part of the Las Playas intaglio, a sacred Indigenous geoglyph in the Sonoran Desert estimated to be more than 1,000 years old. The damage occurred on April 23, 2026, within the protected lands of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
Initial reports of the destruction emerged on social media and were later confirmed through aerial photography, high-resolution satellite imagery, and reporting by the Washington Post. The images show bulldozer tracks cutting through a large fish-shaped geoglyph measuring approximately 280 by 50 feet. Archaeologists Richard and Sandra Martynec documented the site in 2002, estimating the intact figure at roughly 200 feet in length. Reports indicate that approximately 60 to 70 feet of the ancient etching were destroyed during border wall construction activities.
The Las Playas intaglio is sacred to the Hia-Ced O’odham and the broader O’odham peoples, including the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Sand dunes in the Gran Desierto de Altar. Photo Credit: Eddo CC BY 3.0
The site lies within a remote region of the Sonoran Desert that is both ecologically and spiritually significant. The refuge lies within a UNESCO-recognized biosphere region containing endangered flora and fauna as well as thousands of archaeological and cultural sites, including more than 3,000 petroglyphs. Lorraine Eiler, a Hia-Ced O’odham elder and co-founder of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance, said the destruction represents both an environmental and cultural tragedy.
Archaeologists and Indigenous community leaders said the destruction is permanent and irreparable. The geoglyph is believed to depict a fish, possibly symbolizing the historical relationship between the O’odham peoples and the nearby Sea of Cortez.
In a statement issued after media reports circulated, Customs and Border Protection spokesperson John Mennell acknowledged the damage. “On April 23, 2026, a border wall contractor inadvertently disturbed a cultural site known as Las Playas Intaglio, located west of Ajo, Arizona along the border,” Mennell stated. “The remaining portion of the site has been secured and will be protected in place.”
Image: Wing-Chi Poon, CC lic. Wikipedia Commons
The Sonoran Desert intaglios are massive geoglyphs created by scraping away the desert’s dark surface stones to reveal lighter soil beneath, a technique often compared to the famous Nazca Lines of Peru. Indigenous leaders and conservation advocates have drawn parallels between the destruction of the Las Playas intaglio and the defacement of other globally significant geoglyphs.
The Hia-Ced O’odham, sometimes referred to as the “Sand Dune People,” are one of several O’odham groups indigenous to the Sonoran Desert, alongside the Tohono O’odham (“Desert People”) and Akimel O’odham (“River People”). Members of the O’odham community had reportedly been monitoring border wall construction closely in the days leading up to the destruction.
For much of the 20th century, the Hia-Ced O’odham were frequently treated as a “lost” people or administratively absorbed into the larger Tohono O’odham Nation due to displacement and the isolation of their traditional desert homeland. While the Hia-Ced are not federally recognized as a separate tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation established the Hia-Ced District in 2012, providing political representation and a land base near Ajo, Arizona. The community continues to advocate for the protection of sacred and environmentally sensitive sites throughout the Sonoran Desert, including Quitobaquito Springs and other ancestral locations threatened by border wall construction and regional environmental pressures.
According to Lorraine Marquez Eiler, an elder of the Hia-Ced O’odham and co-founder of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance, O’odham runners monitoring the high desert had already observed construction crews operating dangerously close to the protected area. They warned that bulldozers were indiscriminately clearing vegetation and desert habitat near the intaglio.
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“They’re coming with their bulldozers and they’re knocking down trees and cactus and everything that’s along the border,” the runners reportedly told Eiler. “They’re just bulldozing everything down and they are getting near the intaglio.”
The elder contacted tribal representatives and environmental organizations in an effort to stop the work, but construction continued the following day. “I alerted people, but all I got was, ‘We’re going to have meetings, we’re going to discuss it,’” Eiler said.
The destruction of the Las Playas intaglio comes amid a broader expansion of border wall construction under President Donald Trump’s administration. Construction of the border fence along the U.S.-Mexico border has remained a central priority for President Donald Trump during both his first and second terms in office. In March, archaeologists and landowners in Val Verde County raised concerns over proposed border wall construction along the Rio Grande, warning that the project could damage numerous prehistoric rock art sites in the region.
The current project, funded through the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act, is reportedly adding approximately three miles of wall per week and includes new barriers in Texas as well as secondary walls across portions of California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
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