Biden creates a new national monument near the Grand Canyon
-
Maya Tilousi, member of the Hopi Tribe, Havasupai Tribe of Grand Canyon, and the Cheyanne and Arapaho Tribes, shakes hands with President Biden after introducing him at Red Butte Airfield, 25 miles south of Tusayan, Ariz., on Tuesday.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images -
President Biden signed a proclamation to designate Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images
President Biden designated 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 nearly 1 million acres.
The president gave remarks at the Historic Red Butte Airfield in Arizona before signing the proclamation and visiting the Grand Canyon.
"Our nation's history is etched in our people and in our lands," Biden said. "Today's action is going to protect and preserve that history, along with these high plateaus and deep canyons."
Tuesday's announcement is part of a trip that will include New Mexico and Utah, where Biden is making the case for how he's tackling the climate and economic challenges facing Americans in the West.
The monument follows a years-long effort
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.
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 upholds private property rights; it also does not affect existing uranium mining claims.
Still, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary, called Biden's move "historic."
"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."
Haaland called her own trip to the area in May "one of the most meaningful trips of my life."
The new national monument will be called Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. 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.
Biden's broader agenda
Biden has created four other national monuments during his presidency — one honors Emmett Till, and the others protect land in Nevada, Texas and Colorado.
But the politics of Biden's Western swing are broader than preservation. It is about emphasizing what the administration has already done to invest in the economy and the climate — because many Americans just don't know about it.
Asked whether this week's trip is about advertising accomplishments, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, "We're going to continue to do our jobs and continue to talk about it ... And 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."
And the Biden reelection campaign is counting on it.
9(MDAxODcyMTgzMDEyMTgxMTY5NjYxN2I4OQ004))
Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
With the current president, who's visiting the Grand Canyon today.
SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
But he's not hiking. The president is there to announce a new national monument. It's all part of a trip this week promoting the administration's environmental policies.
INSKEEP: NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith is traveling with the president. She's on the line from Arizona. Tam, good morning.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: What is the significance of this national monument, which, we should mention, comes after some others the president announced in recent years?
KEITH: Yeah, this new monument, it's all on federal land, nearly a million acres in three different sections around the Grand Canyon. And this land has a lot of meaning to Native American communities. According to the White House, the monument contains more than 3,000 known cultural and historic sites, including a dozen listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Hunting and fishing and existing livestock grazing permits will continue, but this designation prioritizes the cultural and spiritual uses of the land. And notably, this will also prevent future uranium development. So new permits have been frozen for more than a decade, but this will make it permanent. It's something that tribal leaders in the area have been calling on for years. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American secretary, discussed the significance with reporters on a call yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DEB HAALAND: These special places are not a pass-through on the way to the Grand Canyon. They are sacred and significant unto their own right. They should not be open to new mining claims and developed beyond recognition.
KEITH: And she visited the area in May and said it was one of the most meaningful trips of her life.
INSKEEP: Tam, Sarah said a moment ago this is part of a trip promoting environmental policies. Is there something more to this trip than the monument?
KEITH: So when we asked about this, a Biden administration official tied this trip, at least in part, to the extreme heat that the Southwest has been experiencing this summer. It also comes on the one-year anniversary of this big climate and health care bill that was passed under the name the Inflation Reduction Act. So today, Biden will also be announcing $44 million in funding to boost climate resilience in national parks all over the country.
More broadly, in the first two years he was in office, he worked with Congress - sometimes it was bipartisan, sometimes it was just Democrats - to pass a bunch of bills, big bills. Now they're in the implementation phase. And the theory of the case here is that through legislation and executive action, Biden's policies are able to get at some of the drivers of climate change and also create new jobs. So this trip is basically a big billboard advertising what was passed, what they're working on, in hopes of getting some credit, which the public has not yet been really willing to give the president.
INSKEEP: He's also visiting a state, we should note, that until very recently was considered a red state. It did go for him narrowly in 2020, but he has to be thinking about 2024.
KEITH: Right. And this monument designation is broadly popular here in Arizona, though some ranchers in the uranium mining industry are raising flags. But this is the sort of headline-grabbing local story that the president and his campaign need more than a year out from the election. There's a lot of focus in national politics on former President Trump and the Republican primary, but this allows the president to go to places that will matter and get those local headlines.
INSKEEP: NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, thanks so much.
KEITH: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: Safe travels. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad