WASHINGTON – Tribal leaders joined state lawmakers on Tuesday in calling on President Joe Biden to secure more than 1.1 million acres around the Grand Canyon as a new national monument.

Environmental groups and a dozen tribes in the area say the Baji Nwabjo Itaa Kukveni Grand Canyon is proposed. national monument It is necessary to protect the waters, wildlife, sacred spaces and ancestral homelands of this region from uranium mining and other projects.

“It is our home, it is our land, it is our water source, it is our very existence,” said Havasupai Vice-Chairman Edmund Tirousi. “Designating these areas as national monuments protects them from pollution, destruction, exploitation, and other harmful effects of mining.”

But critics say a mining ban would ruin the region’s economy, and building a new national monument in a state with vast tracts of land already under federal control is Washington’s overreach. It is said that it is only an example of

“We want to be self-sufficient using the resources we have in our county. We are not seeking subsidies from the government.

“We’re saying we have these minerals in the ground here. We want to mine them and make them prosper. Expanding the Commonwealth of the region.”

The area circled in red shows the footprint of the proposed 1.1 million-acre Burj Nwabjoitakkveni National Monument in northern Arizona, which proponents say is necessary to protect water and tribal sites. says. (Map provided by MP Raul Grijalva)

The call for a new national monument came just three weeks after Biden used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to secure more than 500,000 acres of land in southern Nevada for a new national monument. Abi Kwa Ame National monument. The White House, also known as Spirit Mountain, has historically been sacred to many tribes in California, southern Nevada, and northern Arizona, and is home to important geological features, ruins, and endangered sites. It is also home to endangered wildlife, he said.

Amelia Flores, president of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, said, “I think[Avi Kwa Ame]… set the momentum of this century. It will allow us to build all the religious sites and part of the origins and all the indigenous peoples. It will be possible to designate to Press conference on the Grand Canyon proposal. “It’s long overdue, you know.”

Flores and others on the conference call said Biden would again antiquities law, This allows the president to set aside land to protect cultural or natural resources.

“Luckily for the administration, we’ve already done the hard work,” Sen. Kirsten Cinema (I-Ariz.) said in a call. “We have proposed a framework that we will use to work with the administration and our coalition over the next few months to create a monument under the Antiquities Act.”

Tucson Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva said he and Cinema have privately discussed the designation with the Biden administration, and expects more formal talks to follow Tuesday’s announcement. said he was optimistic given the administration’s focus on tribal sovereignty issues and the recent appointment of Avi Kwa Ame.

“The key to antiquities law and designation is its relevance and significance to indigenous peoples. The Grand Canyon obviously applies that to T.” He cited the tribe’s interest in the Avi Kwa Ame and Bears Ears National Monuments located in Both of these were created using the Antiquities Act.

A request for comment from the Department of the Interior on the Grand Canyon plan, which was referred to the White House, was not responded to on Tuesday.

This isn’t the first time the federal government has put a mining ban on land around the Grand Canyon, nor is it the first time Grijalva has tried to extend its protection.

The proposed footprint of Baji Nwabjo Itha Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument is 1.7 million acres Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument, originally built by Grijalva Proposed in 2015. That proposal would have included the Kaibab National Forest north of the canyon.

The Canyon Mine, located near the Grand Canyon, has yet to produce uranium, but was first approved in 1986, so it will not be subject to the 2012 mining ban. (File photo by Jake Eldridge/Cronkite News)

Current plans encompass a portion of the forest north of the park, but still include a portion of the Kaibab National Forest south of the Grand Canyon. The current plan would occupy most of Mojave and Coconino counties and the boundary between the Navajo, Kaibabhi Paiute, and Havasupai reservations.

In 2012, the Ministry of Home Affairs 20 year moratorium New permits for over 1 million acres of mines around the Grand Canyon. Coconino County Supervisor Lena Fowler said the new monument designation would make the ban permanent, but would not prevent grazing, logging, hunting, or other outdoor recreation.

“There are currently about 6,000 active (mining) claims that need to be barred, which will permanently bar them,” said Fowler. “The monument is very important to our region, the tribes that hold this area as sacred places, and the residents who live in this area.”

Supporters are August poll Two out of three Arizona voters support a permanent ban on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon, according to the Grand Canyon Trust.

But Johnson said the moratorium has made mining communities in Mojave County worse.

“In mining, they are high earners. When they introduced the moratorium, there were some communities where men had to leave,” Johnson said. We did… schools closed, there were no jobs, communities declined.”

He said federal officials don’t care about Mojave County’s priorities, only what looks politically good.

“Good. ‘Oh, we’re saving the environment,'” Johnson said. “No, you are not saving the environment.

But for Havasupai leader Carletta Tilousi, who says she’s been fighting to protect Indigenous lands from uranium mining since she was 16, it’s time to stop mining around the canyon.

“We understand and see the history that uranium has brought to our neighbors, the Navajo and Hopi peoples, in the Southwest,” Tilousi said. “And I don’t want to see that happen to our little tribe.”