Native American tribes have urged President Joe Biden to establish three new national monuments in California before Donald Trump takes office.
The proposed historic sites – called the Chuckwalla, Kw’tsán and Sáttítla Monuments – aim to protect more than 1.2 million hectares of sacred land.
Tribal members have emphasized the urgency of these efforts, as Trump has shrunk several national monuments during his first term.
“Time is running out,” Brandy McDaniels of Pit River Nation said at the United Nations COP16 biodiversity summit in October.
The Chuckwalla Monument would protect 620,000 acres, from the Coachella Valley to the Colorado River Los Angeles Times reported.
This initiative is supported by the Cahuilla Indians of the Torres Martinez Desert, the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe and several other tribes. They also want to expand Joshua Tree National Park by 18,000 hectares.
Advocates argued that protecting this land is essential to preserving the environment and cultural integrity of the space.
“Permanently protecting our nation’s public lands has been critical to preserving America’s heritage and history,” said Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, in a statement statement.
Native Americans have called for expansion and protection of Joshua Tree Park under President Joe Biden’s administration
Brandy McDaniels of the Pit River Nation said “time is running out” when it comes to protecting Native American lands
Goldbeck also pointed out the country’s military significance as a former training area.
The executive director of Alianza Coachella Valley said the creation of the monument and the park’s expansion will “benefit our communities in the eastern Coachella Valley by providing equitable and increased access to nature, combating climate change and preserving the rich preserve desert biodiversity.’
“I urge the Biden administration to protect these public lands for our desert community so they can thrive for generations to come,” she added.
The Kw’tsán Monument covers 390,000 hectares of desert, from the southeastern corner of California, near the Colorado River to the border with Mexico, and is an initiative led by the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe.
The monuments website states that it would “permanently protect our homelands, cultural objects and sacred sites.”
Sacred sites that are part of the proposed monumental area “are increasingly threatened by mining exploration, natural resource extraction, harmful development, unregulated recreational use, management deficiencies and climate change.”
The Pit River Nation has applied for 200,000 hectares for Sáttítla – also known as Medicine Lake Highlands – which has been a ‘spiritual center’ for the tribe, the Protect the Sáttítla website states.
A statement from the tribe reads: “Permanently protecting these sacred lands and waters will not only honor the longstanding efforts of the Pit River Tribe, but will also ensure that future generations are able to practice time-honored traditions on pristine areas.’
The Pit River Nation has requested that Medicine Lake be designated a national monument
The Kw’tsán monument is an initiative of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe
Coachella Valley has been named as part of the proposed Chuckwalla monument
McDaniels said, “We depend on the water, food and medicine that comes from this area, and we need it to be a healthy, intact and intact place.
‘But not just for us. It really serves as a headwaters for California.”
Sáttítla would include the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath, and Modoc forests.
Environmentalists have started a separate movement: a call to save the ‘Range of Light’.
This would mean Biden would allocate 1.4 million acres spread across Sequoia-Kings Canyon and Yosemite national parks.
Members of the California Assembly and Senate expressed support for the three Native American appeals by passing a resolution in August urging Biden to follow through on these plans.
But critics have also had their say, claiming that the creation of these monuments would entail regulations that would conflict with existing natural disaster relief plans.
This is what the American Forest Resource Council writes a letter to Biden about their concerns.
“We cannot identify a successful example of a national monument created by presidential proclamation on this scale that has resulted in targeted, accelerated, timely and proactive action on the ground to address our wildfire and forest health crises,” it said.
Conservatives were also unenthusiastic about the ideas, criticizing it as an abuse of the Antiquities Act of 1906, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The law provides “general statutory protection of cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific importance on Federal lands,” the law says National Park Service.
However, opposition to the protection of indigenous lands is nothing new.
Donald Medart Jr., a member of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribal Council, told the Los Angeles Times: “Every 20 years we have had to fight the same battle to protect these lands that are sacred to us and the objects stored within them. within these countries and the landscape as a whole.’
Sáttítla would include Klamath National Forest, but critics have argued that making the site a monument would hamper environmental protection protocols
At the tribe’s suggestion, Joshua Tree National Park is proposed to be expanded by 18,000 acres
The Modoc National Forest would be included in the Sáttítla Monumental Area
Last year, Biden designated land for the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni monument in Arizona.
The name means “where native peoples roam” in the Havasupai language and “our ancestral footprints” in the Hopi language.
His actions preserved nearly 1 million acres of public lands around the Grand Canyon.
It was the fifth monument Biden named since becoming president, using his authority under the Antiquities Act.
As tribal leaders and environmentalists pushed for the designation, Republican lawmakers and the mining industry have responded by pointing to the economic benefits of mining.