US President Joe Biden was yesterday expected to formally announce a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, making Native American tribes’ and environmentalists’ decades-long vision to preserve the land a reality.
Biden was expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve about 4,046km2 just outside Grand Canyon National Park, national climate adviser Ali Zaidi confirmed.
It would be the Democratic president’s fifth monument designation.
Photo: Reuters
Tribes in Arizona have been pushing Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create a new national monument called Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. “baaj nwaavjo” means “where tribes roam,” for the Havasupai people, while “i’tah kukveni” translates to “our footprints,” for the Hopi tribe.
Tribes and environmentalists for decades have been trying to safeguard the land north and south of Grand Canyon National Park, while Republican lawmakers and the mining industry tout the economic benefits and raise mining as a matter of national security.
The designation is a reminder of a “new era” in which collaboration and stewardship with tribes is valued, said US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary.
“It will help ensure that indigenous people can continue to use these areas for religious ceremonies, hunting and gathering of plants, medicines and other materials, including some found nowhere else on Earth,” said Haaland, who recently visited the Havasupai Indian Reservation.
“It will protect objects of historic and scientific importance for the benefit of tribes, the public and for future generations,” she said.
Biden arrived Monday evening at Grand Canyon National Park Airport, where he was greeted by Democratic representatives Raul Grijalva and Ruben Gallego.
Grijalva, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee, has repeatedly introduced legislation to create the monument.
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