A coalition of Native American tribes in the Southwest lobbied the Biden administration to create a sweeping national monument to protect federal lands near Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining and other development.
Members of the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition, which includes the Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai and nine other tribes, held a press conference Wednesday to officially claim about 1.1 million acres north and south of the park as Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. Grand Canyon National Monument.
Edmon Tilousi, vice chairman of the Havasupai Tribe, told reporters the monument will protect the tribe’s ancestral homeland, cultural sites and water sources from the harmful effects of mining. The area is rich in uranium.
“We cannot live without this clean water,” Tilousi said. “As guardians of the Grand Canyon, we have a duty not only to our ancestors … but to our children and future generations.”
Some area tribes have deep cultural and spiritual ties to the Grand Canyon — a connection the tribe hopes can be reflected in the name of the proposed monument. “Baaj Nwaavjo” means “where the tribes roam” in the Havasupai language. “I’tah Kukveni” means “our footprints” in Hopi.
The designation of the monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906 will strengthen the 20-year mining ban that the Obama administration implemented in 2012. In 2017, after a multiyear legal battle, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. uphold the ban of the Obama era, concluding that the temporary freezing of mining leases “will allow more careful, long-term study of the uncertain effects of uranium mining in the region and make better decisions in the future.”
The Trump administration has publicly opposed legislation that seeks to protect similar areas from uranium and other hardrock mining, and in 2020 launched a plan to revive America’s domestic uranium industry.
A coalition of tribes and allied groups are hoping President Joe Biden will act to protect what they call “an irreplaceable gem.”
Joining tribal leaders at Wednesday’s press conference were Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who introduced a similar bill in 2019 to ban new uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.
“We are officially calling on the administration to designate this area of the Grand Canyon as a national monument, to protect water and our cultural heritage while providing recreational opportunities that our communities in Northern Arizona depend on,” Sinema said. “Fortunately for the administration, we have finished our hard work. We have proposed a framework that will be used to work with the administration and the coalition in the coming months to create monuments under the Antiquities Act.
Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition
The push comes just weeks after Biden created two new national monuments – Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada and Castner Range in Texas – which covers 513,000 hectares.
Grijalva said the national campaign for monument designation is the culmination of a 20-year effort to protect the greater Grand Canyon landscape. And he noted that House Republicans passed an energy package late last month — dubbed the “People’s Pollution Act” by critics — that sought to dismantle Biden’s climate agenda and mandate increased drilling and mining on America’s public lands.
“The threats and dangers to the Grand Canyon are greater than ever,” he said. “HR 1 will make the Grand Canyon an expendable commodity. It will exploit, sell and trade this beautiful public land for personal gain. If they are willing to do that to the Grand Canyon, then none of our lands are safe from this uncontrollable greed.
The monument campaign “is not only about making history, but about saving the history and the spirit and the people who respect the canyon,” Grijalva added.
The White House did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. Grijalva said the administration is aware of the effort and that staff-level discussions have taken place.
Tim Nuvangyaoma, chairman of the Hopi Tribe, said securing monument status for the area is “the highest priority for the Hopi people.”
“The Creator gave us a gift, and that gift was a great canyon,” he said. “It’s a gift not just to the tribal nations that we have intimate relationships with, but it’s a gift to the state of Arizona. It’s a gift to the United States. It’s a gift to the whole world. So we have to preserve the beauty and majesty of this area that we call home.