Sections

With less than two weeks in the White House, President Joe Biden created two new monuments in California to honor Native American tribes: the Chuckwalla monument in Southern California and the Sáttítla Highlands monument in Northern California Aterray

Together, they constitute more than 848,000 acres of public lands, which will now be protected from drilling and mining.

Biden had to make an official announcement of the Eastern Coachella Valle White House. Next week.

Located near Joshua Tree National Park, the National Monument in Chuckwalla covers 624,000 acres. With its canyons, mountains, and desert landscapes, the national monument serves as habitat for a variety of animals, adding desert relay sheep, Gila peaks, and Agassiz desert tortoises.

The region is considered sacred to numerous Native American tribes, as it factors into their creation stories. The national monument encompasses the ancestral homelands of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan and Maara’yam peoples, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. It also protects ancient trail systems and artifacts, including ceramics, tools, dwellings and petroglyphs.

“The coverage of Chuckwalla National Monument means that the other Quecan people have an overwhelming sense of peace and joy,” the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a news release. “The tribes united as guardians of this landscape are just the beginning of the healing and essential catering, and we can’t wait to fully reconstruct our appointments with this place. “

In addition to its tribal significance, the National Monument also protects historic trees and the Bradshaw Trail, a land scene path used through gold miners and other travelers in the mid-1800s. It is also home to the remains of World War II education camps, which were used to prepare infantrymen to fight in North Africa.

A post shared by Protect California Deserts (@protectcadesert)

At the end of the State, not from the Oregon border, Biden created the National Monument of the Highlands Settít, which protects more than 224,000 acres.

Indigenous groups have inhabited the area for more than 5,000 years. Today, the site remains culturally and spiritually important to the Pit River, Modoc, Klamath, Shasta, Wintu, Yana, Siletz and Karuk peoples, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Sáttítla is not just a piece of land; it’s the heart of our heritage and the source of life for current and future generations,” Yatch Bamford, chairman of the Pit River Tribe, told the Navajo-Hopi Observer’s Stan Bindell in October.

The National Monument also encompasses Medicine Lake Volcano, one of the largest volcanoes on the Cascade line. The volcano has the landscape for millennia, creating herbal features such as the giant crater, a long formula of lava tubes.

The permeable volcanic rock discovered that the region allows rainwater to infiltrate the surface and accumulate in giant underground aquifers, which supply water to the communities of northern California.

Earlier this week, Biden banned offshore drilling in 625 million acres of federal waters. The ban includes parts of the Northern Bering Sea, which many tribes in Alaska have been trying to protect for decades, per Native News Online’s Brian Edwards. According to the White House, Biden has created ten new national monuments, expanded two existing national monuments and restored three others during his presidency.