President Biden is proposing a new Grand Canyon national monument and the Havasupai: Conservation Laws and the Associated Mining Industry
President Biden is designating a new national monument near the Grand Canyon on Tuesday. The move protects lands that are sacred to indigenous peoples and permanently bans new uranium mining claims in the area. It covers more than one million acres.
In the Grand Canyon, tribal nations and conservationists have been calling for additional protections in the area for years, as KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius has reported.
The sacred and culturally important places are at risk as a result of uranium mining according to the Havasupai.
“That’s all we have left now as Native Americans, our historical sites and sacred places. Everything else has come from our homelands, our sacred places. Carletta Tilousi is a former council member and the liaison to the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition.
It’s not surprising that the industry has opposed restrictions on mining in the area. They say there are significant reserves near the Grand Canyon and that they can mine it with minimal impact to the land.
The Laguna Pueblo Native American Tribal Coalition and the Project for a U.S. Uranium Resource Enhancement Monument (Haaland)
The Biden administration was willing to listen to Native peoples’ concerns. The president appointed the nation’s first Indigenous Cabinet member, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is Laguna Pueblo. The tribal coalition has been requesting and she put them in the driver’s seat for the current version of the monument proposal.
“A lot has changed in … 50, 60, 70 years,” Moore said. “We know a lot more about how to mine uranium responsibly. The Grand Canyon is a national treasure and we want to protect it as much as possible.
Moore says it’s important to develop a domestic uranium supply because Russia and former Soviet republics supply nearly half of all U.S. nuclear fuel now.
The White House says the land inside the new monument has less than 2% of the known uranium reserves in the U.S. and that there’s plenty of uranium elsewhere.
The president said he’s setting the land near the Grand Canyon aside because there are thousands of sacred and cultural sites that are important to more than a dozen tribes there.
The new monument will encompass lands on both the Grand Canyon’s north and south rims. North of the park it’s high-elevation ponderosa pine forest, at about 8,000 feet above sea level, and to the south its mixed vegetation with pinyon pine and junipers. There is a section of desert landscape along the Colorado River outside the park that will be protected. It’s an area with many springs and seeps that feed the river.
The Grand Canyon National Monument in Washington, D.C. During Biden’s Western Swing, President Obama will visit New Mexico, Utah, and the United States
The trip will include New Mexico and Utah and Biden is expected to make a case for how he is tackling the climate and economic challenges that face Americans in the West.
A recent statewide poll showed broad support for the proposal, though local ranchers who have worked the land for generations have concerns. Senior administration officials told reporters that the national monument designation protects private property rights and does not affect existing mining claims.
“It will help protect lands that many tribes referred to as their eternal home, a place of healing and a source of spiritual sustenance,” she said. “It will help ensure that indigenous peoples 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. It will protect objects of historic and scientific importance for the benefit of tribes, the public and for future generations.”
The Grand Canyon National Monument will be named Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. According to the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition that drafted a proposal for the monument, “Baaj Nwaavjo” means “where tribes roam” in Havasupai, and “I’tah Kukveni” translates to “our ancestral footprints” in Hopi.
But the politics of Biden’s Western swing are broader than preservation. Because many Americans don’t know what the administration has done to invest in the economy and the climate, it is about emphasizing what has already been done.
Asked if this week’s trip was about advertising, the press secretary said “we’re going to continue to do our jobs and continue to talk about it.” The hope is that we’ll get our message out.
She said support would continue to build for the president as the legislation is implemented around the country. “We’ll see, I think, Americans start to feel and see what it is that we have been able to do in Washington, D.C.”