President Joe Biden is creating two new national monuments in California to pay tribute to Native American tribes, the White House announced on Tuesday. This move is part of Biden’s initiative called “America the Beautiful,” aiming to preserve a minimum of 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
On Tuesday, official proclamations will be signed to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California and the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California. These declarations will prohibit activities like drilling, mining, and development on the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla site and about 225,000 acres close to the Oregon border in Northern California.
The main objectives of these new monuments are to safeguard clean water sources for communities, recognize areas of cultural importance to tribal nations and Indigenous peoples, and improve access to natural landscapes, according to the White House.
Biden, who has two weeks left in office, is set to visit Los Angeles and the Eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday after meeting Monday with the families of the victims in the New Year’s attack in New Orleans.
Biden announced Monday he will ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, including in California and other West Coast states. The plan is intended to block possible efforts by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.
The flurry of activity has been in line with the Democratic president’s “America the Beautiful” initiative launched in 2021, aimed at honoring tribal heritage, meeting federal goals to conserve 30% of public lands and waters by 2030 and addressing climate change.
The Pit River Tribe has worked to get the federal government to designate the Sáttítla National Monument. The area is a spiritual center for the Pit River and Modoc Tribes and encompasses mountain woodlands and meadows that are home to rare flowers and wildlife.
A number of Native American tribes and environmental groups began pushing Biden to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument, named after the large desert lizard, in early 2023. The monument would protect public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park, spanning the Coachella Valley region in the west to near the Colorado River.
Advocates say the monument will protect a tribal cultural landscape, ensure access to nature for local residents and preserve military history sites.
“The designation of the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monuments in California marks an historic step toward protecting lands of profound cultural, ecological and historical significance for all Americans,” said Carrie Besnette Hauser, president and CEO of the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.
The new monuments “honor the enduring stewardship of Tribal Nations and the tireless efforts of local communities and conservation advocates who fought to safeguard these irreplaceable landscapes for future generations,” Hauser said.
National monuments like Chuckwalla and Sáttítla play a key role in addressing historical injustices and ensuring a more inclusive telling of America’s history, she said.
The Chuckwalla monument is intended to honor tribal sovereignty by including local tribes as co-stewards, following in the footsteps of a recent wave of monuments such as the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, which is overseen in conjunction with five tribal nations.
“The protection of the Chuckwalla National Monument brings the Quechan people an overwhelming sense of peace and joy,” the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a statement. “Tribes being reunited as stewards of this landscape is only the beginning of much-needed healing and restoration, and we are eager to fully rebuild our relationship to this place.”
In May, the Biden administration expanded two national monuments in California – the San Gabriel Mountains in the south and Berryessa Snow Mountain in the north. In October, Biden designated the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary along the coast of central California, which will include input from the local Chumash tribes in how the area is preserved.
Last year, the Yurok Tribe in Northern California also became the first Native people to manage tribal land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed by the tribe, Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League, which is conveying the land to the tribe.
Daly reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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