The United States damages millennia-old archaeological site with explosives to build the border wall | U.S.
The U.S. crackdown on migration from Mexico has destroyed a sacred site shared by both countries. According to reports from residents in Baja California, as covered by Mexican national media, explosions were heard last weekend on Cuchumá Hill as part of construction work on the border wall. The explosives were used by U.S. personnel. According to the reports, a 35-meter-tall monolith, carved and considered sacred by Indigenous people in the region, has been damaged. At the time of this publication, the extent of the damage is unknown.
Miguel Olmos Aguilera, who holds a Ph.D. in ethnology, ethnography, and social anthropology and serves as a professor and researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, explains over the phone that the hill is a religious site of great sacred significance to the Kumiai people, who also live on both sides of the border. He says that some people in the community told him about the construction work being carried out there: about the obstruction to passage and the destruction of their ceremonial site. He also does not know how severe the damage to the monolith is.
The Cuchumá mountain is an archaeological zone and ceremonial site of the Yumano people — a family of Indigenous tribes including the Cucapah, Halyiikwamai, Alakwisa, Kamai, Yuma, and Mojave, among others — that stretches and rises to the summit, some 3,500 meters above sea level. The vast summit was split in two during the 19th century by a border. That imaginary line also divided the Kumiai people, who inhabited this area: they scattered across Southern California, in the United States, and the cities of Ensenada and Tecate.
“Although the hill is divided by the border, the Kumiai used to be able to cross over. Now it seems to me that they can’t anymore,” says Olmos Aguilera. The Kumiai are considered a binational culture, but the Trump administration is reluctant to allow border crossings. The situation has angered the Kumiai. “They hold constant protests at the border,” says Olmos.
The Kumiai language belongs to the Hokana language family (which includes Seri and Yumano-Cochimí, among others). A 2018 publication by the Colegio de la Frontera states that there were about 200 speakers. “Yes, there are few. But their vitality is much greater than that. The people are very strong,” says Olmo, emphasizing that the loss of their language is not the only indicator of how many people belong to the lineage.
In October 1992, the mountain was officially recognized as a historic and sacred site on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In the database, the site is listed under the name Kuchamaa, located at Tecate Peak. “The mountain lies largely in the United States between the communities of Dulzura and Potrero. Tecate, Mexico sprawls for several miles along the southeastern base of the peak,” the document states. In Mexico, the site is considered Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Baja California border is not the only one whose hillsides have been blasted in the first days of April 2026. As reported by this newspaper, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted a video on social media showing the explosions in New Mexico. In it, they stated that Mount Cristo Rey, located between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, was undergoing a “cosmetic procedure.” Building a wall in binational areas of high historical and cultural value — part of Trump’s original campaign promise — continues during his second term.
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