Biden will honor tribal requests by designating 2 new national monuments in California
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is signing a proclamation to establish two new national monuments in California, partly in honor of two tribes, a person familiar with the decision said Monday.
The proclamation will create Southern California’s Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park and Northern California’s Sáttítla National Monument, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans Tuesday. would be announced in January. California.
The declaration bans drilling, mining and other development on the 600,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) area in Southern California and about 200,000 acres (800 square kilometers) in Northern California.
The creation of new monuments was first reported in The Washington Post. Biden, who has two weeks left in office, met in New Orleans on Monday with the families of the victims of the New Year’s Eve attack in the French Quarter and was en route to California later Monday.
The wave of activities is in line with the Democratic president’s ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative, launched in 2021, aimed at honoring tribal heritage, meeting federal objectives to conserve 30% of public lands and waters by 2030 and address climate change.
The Pit River Tribe has been working to get the federal government to designate Sáttítla National Monument. A number of Native American tribes and environmental groups began pushing Biden in early 2023 to designate Chuckwalla National Monument, named for the large desert lizard.
The area would protect public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park, which extends from the Coachella Valley region west to near the Colorado River.
Supporters say the monument will protect a tribal cultural landscape, ensure access to nature for local residents and preserve military historic sites. The California Legislature passed a resolution in August 2024 urging Biden to establish Chuckwalla National Monument and another National Park Service-managed national monument adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park, as well as Kw’tsán National Monument, which would border Mexico and Arizona. .
Tribal leaders have also called for the Chuckwalla Monument to honor tribal sovereignty and include local tribes as co-stewards, following a recent wave of monuments such as Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, which guided coherently with five tribal nations.
“The protection of Chuckwalla National Monument brings an overwhelming sense of peace and joy to the Quechan people,” the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a statement. “Reuniting tribes as stewards of this landscape is just the beginning of much-needed healing and recovery. restoration, and we would like to completely rebuild our relationship with this place.
In May, the Biden administration two national monuments expanded in California – the San Gabriel Mountains in the south and Berryessa Snow Mountain in the north. In October, Biden designated as the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary along the coast of central California, which will include input from local Chumash tribes on how the area is conserved.
Last year, the Yurok tribe in Northern California also became the first indigenous people to regain tribal lands of 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.
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Ding contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Long reported from New Orleans.