Biden to create two new California national monuments protecting tribal lands
In one of his final acts as head of state, President Biden is set to declare two new national monuments in California honoring tribal lands. The sites are in the rocky, mountainous desert near Joshua Tree and amid dense forests and pristine lakes near the Oregon border.
In the coming days, Biden will sign proclamations creating the 644,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California and the 200,000-acre Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, a source who requested anonymity confirmed to The Times. The news was earlier reported by the Washington Post.
In taking this action, the president will be fulfilling the wishes of tribal members and environmentalists who have fought for generations to protect these sacred Indigenous lands and their rich natural resources from industrialization, development and degradation.
“It gives you new faith that the process is working and that people are listening to Indigenous voices,” said Brandy McDaniels, a member of the Pit River Tribe who helped lead the effort to establish the Sáttítla National Monument. “We’ve spent a lifetime fighting to protect this area, and it’s hard to put into words how important this is to us.”
The efforts have not been without criticism, however. Biden’s upcoming actions could upset groups who want to use the Chuckwalla monument area for mining and off-roading and those who want to use the Sáttítla area for geothermal energy, mining and timber. He will also be frustrating conservatives who believe that presidents have abused their authority in creating monuments.
Some are looking to Biden to make the designations before the arrival of an administration that has advocated for opening public lands to oil drilling and other development.
The Blythe City Council, which represents a community of 18,000 people near Joshua Tree, stated its position over the summer that it opposed restrictions that the monument would place on the development of solar farms, which provides economic opportunity to the city and bolsters their sustainability goals.
However, the main solar energy industry groups working in the region — Solar Energy Industries Assn. and Large-scale Solar Assn. — decided to support the designation after the conservation groups worked with them to craft the monument boundaries to suit their needs.
Those in support of the monuments, can now breathe a sigh of relief after winning what may have seemed like a race against the clock to protect these lands.
Although Biden has already used his executive authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create six national monuments and expanded several others — including two expansions in California — Trump has shown far less enthusiasm for the program. During his first term, Trump created no new national monuments and slashed almost 2 million acres in total from two national monuments in Utah.
Three California Democrats, Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler and Rep. Raul Ruiz, introduced legislation to Congress in April to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument. Then in September, Padilla and Butler introduced legislation to establish the Sáttítla National Monument. Neither bill advanced in a a divided Congress, prompting Biden’s executive action.
The Chuckwalla National Monument will be located southeast of Joshua Tree National Park. The push to protect the site was led by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, who have lived in the desert regions of Southern California, including the Coachella Valley near Joshua Tree, for thousands of years.
The monument’s name comes from the stocky Chuckwalla lizards that frequent the area, which is also home to bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, kangaroo rats, burrowing owls and jackrabbits.
“For thousands of years, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians have called the lands in the Chuckwalla National Monument home,” said Joseph DL Mirelez, chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. “We are happy to see the designation protect this area that contains thousands of cultural places and objects of vital importance to the history and identity of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.”
Indigenous Californians want President Biden to establish a national monument in a stretch of desert that is both an ecological wonder and a window into their cultures.
The monument will begin at Painted Canyon near the eastern edge of the Coachella Valley, where rocky hills and canyon walls are washed in light pink, red, gray, brown and green hues. To the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the red color of the hills represents the bleeding heart of their creator god Mukat, who was exiled in this land and whose remains became the native vegetation that nourished his people.
Some 750 miles to the north, the newly created Sáttítla National Monument will also protect a land linked to an Indigenous creation story. The 11 bands of the Pit River Tribe consider the Medicine Lake Highlands area near Mount Shasta as their ancestral homeland.
“For the Pit River people, it’s the actual place of our creation and is a very sacred place for us in the narrative of our peoples,” said McDaniels. “In addition to that, it is a very unique and spectacular biodiverse area that supports habitats, ecosystems and fisheries.”
The monument extends over a landscape of jaw-dropping natural beauty in parts of the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Modoc national forests. There are rich, green forests, abundant wildflowers, intricate cave systems and drinking water that can be sipped on site.
It is often referred to as the headwaters of California because its lakes and aquifers help provide clean drinking water to the rest of the state.
The Pit River Tribe has long been involved in litigation to prevent the development of geothermal energy systems in the area. The new landmark designation will help prevent similar efforts from moving forward in the future, McDaniels said.
“We’ve spent a lifetime fighting to protect this area being a tribe and a socially, economically suppressed community that doesn’t have a lot of resources,” said McDaniels. “It’s really important to protect this area for future generations so that they can heal without constantly having to defend our natural resources from the ongoing threats.”
Some renewable-energy advocates say the monument will result in the loss of an important clean-energy source that would advance the Biden administration’s agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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