California legislators, Tribal leaders urge Biden administration to designate three national monuments

Legislators and Tribal leaders gathered at the California state Capitol on Wednesday, urging the Biden administration to designate three new national monuments in the Golden State. 

Of the potential areas for monument designation, two are located in Southern California; one proposed monument would be the Chuckwalla National Monument, located just south of Joshua Tree National Park, and the other would be the Kw'tsán National Monument in Imperial County. The third, Sáttítla, is located in northeastern California, by the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. 

Yatch Bamford, chairman of the Pit River Tribe, said the Tribe has worked to protect Sáttítla for years. The area, which is also known as the Medicine Lake Highlands, spans a little over 200,000 acres. Bamford described it as a place of ecological importance. 

“It's the headwaters of the Fall River, it's the largest aquifer on the West Coast and it provides a lot of rich nutrients and resources for the state,” Bamford said. 

Beyond that, he said many members of his Tribe have personal relationships with the area, which is part of their ancestral lands. 

“It's a spiritual connection out there,” Bamford said. “People go out there to source medicines … hence the name Medicine Lake.” 

The president has the power to designate monuments through the Antiquities Act of 1906. Bamford said this status could protect Sáttítla from developers who’ve proposed energy projects in the area in recent years. 

“They've been trying to do geothermal out there,” he said. “It would protect us from the outside invasion of industrialization.” 

Thomas Tortez Jr., chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, said his Tribe has long fought to make the Chuckwalla site reservation land. While those efforts have stalled, he said he sees monument designation as an alternate way to protect the land from development and also open up an avenue for the Tribe to steward the land. 

“With co-stewardship, now we’ll have a say and we can be part of the management in protecting our own lands,” he said. 

Tortez said the Tribe’s stewardship efforts would be aimed at educating people about the history and importance of the land.

“The ultimate goal is to have Tribal rangers, people hired to go out there and just protect the land, revitalize the land from vandalism, pick up trash,” he said. “But I think education is first and foremost.”

Assembly member James Ramos sponsored two Senate joint resolutions urging President Joe Biden to recognize the areas. He said monument status could aid tribes in preserving cultural sites from destruction or vandalism. 

“There's been areas where we know where cultural sites are at and we go back to them and they're gone,” Ramos said. “So a designation would also come with some type of protection.” 

There’s no timeline for when the Biden administration might make these designations happen. But Ramos said he’s encouraged by the administration’s recent monument designations, including the addition of an area called Molok Luyuk to the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.