Machita Incident
DateOctober 13, 1940 - May 17, 1941
LocationArizona, United States

The Machita Incident occurred between October 1940 and May 1941 when an elderly O'odham chief and medicine man, Pia Machita, resisted arrest by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for inciting his people to dodge the draft. It has since been called the "most dramatic of Indian resistance" to the United States during the World War II-era.[1]

Background

Pia Machita was eighty to eighty-four years old when the trouble began, having been born around 1860. He lived with his small band of about thirty people in the northwestern area of the Hackwan District, at an isolated village called Toapit. Machita considered himself to be a Mexican citizen. He openly said that he did not recognize the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which put the United States in control of O'odham land, and therefore did not recognize the authority of the Indian Bureau or the O'odham tribal government.[1][2][3][4]

The Tohono O'odham tribe of southern Arizona was one of the last to begin assimilation. In the 1930s, there was non-violent resistance to the Indian Bureau's construction of wells on the Sells Reservation, as well as concern about the loss of land. Leaders such as Machita feared that using the wells would make their people dependent on them and prefered the traditional methods of collecting rain and spring water. In a 1934 meeting with T.B. Hall, the superintendent of the Sells Indian agency, to discuss the Indian Reorganization Act, Machita said that "his people owed allegiance to Mexico." After the interview, Machita stopped cooperating with the Indian Bureau in regards to land conservation, the inoculation of cattle, and the taking of the 1940 census.[1][3]

Following the signing of the Selective Training and Service Act in 1940 by President Theodore Roosevelt, attempts to enroll Indian men for the draft were made. For Machita, enrollment in the draft was just another way the United States government was taking his people's freedom away, so he encouraged the young men to refuse to register.[1][2][3]

Incident

On October 13, 1940, Indian agents arrived at Toapit to enlist thirty men for the draft, but the natives refused to comply. In response, the tribal chief of police and a force of United States Marshals under the command of Ben McKinney launched a raid against Toapit to arrest Machita. The raid began at 2:00 AM on October 16, 1940. Entering with guns drawn and tear gas grenades at the ready, the raiders captured Machita without a shot fired. However, while they were on their way out, the O'odham villagers confronted the raiders and released their chief, severely beating one of the marshals in the process. When the scuffle was over, the police reatreated to Tucson and Machita fled into the desert with twenty-five followers.[1][3][4]

The Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to move quickly to suppress the "draft rebels," because they feared that the resistance to the draft would spread to other reservations, but for the next seven months the old chief remained on the run, evading both the police and the military. Machita and his band could have easily crossed the border into Mexico, but all accounts suggest that they were within Arizona during the entire time. O'odham oral tradition says that aircraft from the United States Army bombed their villages, however, the "bombs" were actually sacks of flour used to mark the villages, which blended in so well with the surrounding desert. Machita and his band were finally apprehended without incident at the Pima village of Stoa Pikt on May 21, 1941. Machita was sentenced to serve eighteen months at the Terminal Island Federal Prison, but a tribal chairman named Peter Blaine managed to persuade Machita's judge to let him go early.[1][3][4]

The following appeared in a 1941 newspaper editorial:

For goodness knows how many years Pia Machita has exercised undisputed authority over his little group of villagers. To those who have sought to bring him into what we call civilization he has declared, "this is my land, these are my people; the white man leave me alone, I leave the white man alone." And so Pia Machita's life tells a little story of civilization. The weak must give way to the strong, must submit to superior force. In this year 1941, when with one breathe we express horror at the use of race, we give approval to the use of force against a man who has had part of his lands taken away from him by force, who now has his own liberty taken away by force.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Bernstein, Alison R. (1999). American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806131845, 9780806131849. ((cite book)): Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  2. ^ a b Melton, Brad (2003). Arizona Goes to War: The Home Front and the Front Lines during World War II. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0816521905, 9780816521906. ((cite book)): Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e "Resistance and Collaboration: O'odham responses to U.S. Invasion" (PDF). J.D. Hendricks. 2004. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  4. ^ a b c "Native American Netroots:: O'odham". Retrieved November 5, 2012.
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