Tribal leaders from throughout California called on President Biden Thursday to designate three new national monuments in the state in order to protect sacred Tribal lands.
The members issued the call from Colombia, where they are participating in the 16th United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16). They also say the designation would preserve cultural landscapes and biodiversity.
The three proposed national monuments include two in Imperial County – Chuckwalla National Monument, south of Joshua Tree National Park – part of the site is in Riverside County – and Kw’tsán National Monument. The third is Sáttítla National Monument, spread across three national forests in Northern California.
The push came as President Biden said he will formally apologize on Friday for the country’s role in forcing Indigenous children for over 150 years into boarding schools, where many were physically, emotionally and sexually abused. More than 950 died.
“I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago: To make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years,” Biden said Thursday as he left the White House for Arizona.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland launched an investigation into the boarding school system shortly after she became the first Native American to lead the agency. She will join Biden during his first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation as president as he delivers a speech Friday at the Gila River Indian Community outside Phoenix.
But at COP 16, Brandy McDaniels, who leads the Sáttítla National Monument Campaign, is focused on the struggle “to protect our Ancestral homelands since time immemorial,” she said in a news release. She called that struggle “a global fight.”
“We hope the Biden administration, and leaders worldwide, leave this gathering with a renewed sense of urgency and a commitment to turn these vital conversations into action, including protecting places like Sáttítla as a national monument,” McDaniels said.
National monuments are designated to permanently protect federal lands and waters in the United States with cultural, historical, ecological and scientific values. A 1906 law, the Antiquities Act, allows the president to establish new national monuments with a Presidential Proclamation.
Tribes are advocating for these designations as a way to permanently protect places of cultural significance and biodiversity. They also are calling for the opportunity to co-steward their homelands in partnership with federal agencies.
“We are here at COP16 to ensure our voices are being heard as we call for a national monument for our homelands – Kw’tsán National Monument – and to help amplify the voices of global Indigenous communities who are in the same fight as us to preserve our culture for future generations,” said another COP 16 participant, Lena Ortega, a Kw’tsán Cultural Committee Member and part of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe.
California’s national monument opportunities will be highlighted at COP16, with Tribal leaders from California participating in discussions with Indigenous leaders from other countries and highlighting the critical role of Indigenous leadership in biodiversity conservation and sustainable stewardship.
Each monument designation would conserve habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife and plants that are found nowhere else in the world. The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument, for example, is home to more than 50 species that are threatened, endangered, sensitive or otherwise of concern.
To date, Biden has designated five new national monuments and expanded two, protecting over 1.6 million acres of public lands using the Antiquities Act.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
