On September 23, 2026, the Tucson FBA, District Judge Martinez’s chambers, and Julian Garcia, founder of the Bryan Brown Foundation, collaborated to present: “Indigenous Reflections on the Declaration of Independence.” This event was part of the District’s yearlong Semiquincentennial Celebration.

The event began with a presentation on the Declaration’s historical context with respect to Indigenous land by Professor Robert A. Williams, Jr., Regents Professor and E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law. Then, Bern Velasco, Assistant Attorney General for the San Carlos Apache Tribe and former FBA President, led a panel discussion featuring indigenous attorneys. Panelists included: Chase Velasquez (Law Office of Chase A. Velasquez, LLC); Fred Urbina (Senior Counsel, Gila River Indian Community’s Office of the General Counsel); Serra Tsethlikai (Assistant United States Attorney); and O.J. Flores (Attorney General for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe). Reflections were provided throughout the event, featuring: Damon Clark (President, National Native American Law Student Association); and Pete A. Sabori (President, William D. Browning Tucson Chapter of the Federal Bar Association). Special guests included over 50 students from the Tohono O’odham High School and Baboquivari High School.

Pete Sabori’s reflection, reshared for the Courthouse newsletter, is included below:

Reflection on the Declaration of Independence

My name is Pete Sabori. I come from the Akimel Oʼodham and Hopi tribe. When I think of the Declaration of Independence, I feel conflicted because I come from two tribes that have had very different interactions with the U.S. government. My father is from the Gila River Indian Community, the same community as Ira Hayes, one of six Marines who victoriously lifted the U.S. flag at the battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. My mother is from the Hopi tribe specifically the village of Orayvi. In 1895, the U.S. government imprisoned 19 Hopi men, leaders from Orayvi including my great-great-great grandfather, for sedition based on their refusal to send Hopi children to government boarding schools. Fast forward several generations and my father’s family is filled with marines. My mother’s family is filled with strong women who have used their higher education to further our village and the tribe. These backgrounds are difficult to reconcile. So when we talk about the Declaration and its values, we are also talking about a similar tension contained in that document: it is a document that simultaneously speaks to the universal rights afforded to all but references us as Merciless Indian Savages.   

My tribe’s experience with those ideals is, as mentioned, conflicted, but one lesson I hope future generations understand is this: two things can be true at the same time. The treatment of Indians by the United States is based on policies grounded in exclusion, erasure by assimilation, or eradication by other means. At the same time, this country has relied upon indigenous knowledge, it is interwoven into its fabric.

Let’s consider Arizona.

Before the inception of America, the 1680 Pueblo Revolt drove the Spanish from tribal communities in the north. At the same time, the Yaquis and Oʼodham fought to keep both the Spanish and Mexican Republic out of their homelands resulting in warfare that lasted up until the 20th century. U.S. expansion into the southwest does not happen without Arizona tribes keeping Spain and Mexico at bay.

Settlers move into the state and the state thrives. But Phoenix and Cuk Ṣon (Tucson) are not newly discovered, they were pre-selected areas inhabited by the Akimel Oʼodham (the river people) and the Tohono Oʼodham (the desert people) and the Yaqui. There was already an infrastructure in Phoenix, canals which allowed agriculture to thrive, giving rise to Arizona’s commercial agriculture. In Tucson, the use of dry farming at mountain bases, and the use of dug swales and berms to catch summer rains, provided cultivation to sustain life despite the dryness and heat. Moreover, both Phoenix and Tucson, were already stops on a trade route linking Mesoamerica, to the northern Arizona tribes. It’s the reason Pueblos to the north have seashells from the Yucatán and it’s the reason they have Pueblo turquoise. Arizona doesn’t become the state you know without the infrastructure created by Arizona tribes.

Earlier, I mentioned WWII, I would be remiss not to mention the Hopi and Diné code talkers who gave the United States military a strategic advantage. There were, however, 14 tribes that provided code talkers during WWII. I would also be remiss not to mention the indigenous peoples of the south pacific who sacrificed their homelands so that the allies could have a strategic footing in the pacific theater. There were also those, like the Marshallese, who relocated their entire communities to allow the H-bomb tests, believing this sacrifice was their contribution to the war that would end all wars. America does not thrive without indigenous knowledge.

We helped shaped this Country. Us, the Merciless Indian Savages. The funny thing about that characterization, is that it’s listed under the grievances to King George III, which accused the Crown of inciting Indian violence on the Western Front. The implicit conclusion is that the colonies understood their survival was tenuous, and with a little push, it could turn quickly at the hand of those bordering tribal communities. One reading of Merciless Indian Savages suggests a recognition of power. So, embrace it.

Be Merciless in your refusal to accept attempts to rewrite history that minimizes your peoples’ contributions to this country.

Be Savage in your defense of tribal values and beliefs.

And be Indian, unabashedly and proudly. Because when you look in the mirror, when you look at your siblings, nieces, and nephews, when I look at my daughter, we should see two things: (1) living proof of resilience in its purest form; and (2) the contributions of our people showing the promise of what this country can be.

Both of those things can be true at the same time.