RED BUTTE, Ariz. — President Joe Biden dedicated a new national monument bordering the Grand Canyon Aug. 8, combining two local native languages for its name.
The Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument takes “Baaj Nwaavjo” or “where the Tribes roam,” from the Havasupai tribe and I’tah Kukveni, “our footprints,” from the Hopi.
The name choice shows the land’s strong ties to the Havasupai and Hopi tribes, which are just some of the dozen in the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition that have been fighting for protections of this land from possible uranium mining and other ecological and cultural threats.
The new monument spans nearly 1 million acres of public lands around the canyon in three different sections. It is bordered by the Kanab watershed boundary and Kanab Creek drainage in the northwestern area and the Havasupai Reservation and Navajo Nation in the southern area. In the northeastern area, it stretches from Marble Canyon to the edge of the Kaibab Plateau. The land is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
Pops of turquoise, red feathers and bright tribal insignias stood out among the crowd of green-uniformed Forest Service officials that watched Biden and other top Arizona and U.S. officials designate the monument at Red Butte Airfield, 10 miles south of Tusayan.
Red Butte, or “clenched fist mountain,” is a sacred site to the Havasupai, and is just one of the areas of cultural significance that will be protected under the new monument.
Whirlwinds during the event threatened to knock over Biden’s teleprompter and tussled the hair of Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and Senator Kyrsten Sinema during their speeches, but it was a guest welcomed by representatives of the Havasupai Tribe.
“We got all that strong wind because the land is very happy right now,” said Havasupai Tribal Councilwoman Carrie Sinyella, who added she never imagined the president would be involved when she attended the very first gathering at Red Butte about the dangers of uranium mining years ago.
“Just to know that our future, our generations are going to be able to swim in clean water as we were raised to do is just a real honor,” Sinyella said. “And to see all these native people among us and to have that unity is (wonderful). We came in numbers and we came with strength and it’s apparent, and we feel it, and the land felt it.”
However, Councilwoman Juanita Wescogame added that there was a sad aspect among the celebrations as well.
“Our ancestors have been fighting for this since 1987,” she said. “And now that we’re able to protect the land … it’s bittersweet because our ancestors are not here right now to see the actual reality of what they’ve been trying to do.”
A youth leader from the Hopi and Havasupai tribes, Maya Tilousi-Lyttle, said it was an honor to be there and introduce the president.
“I grew up swimming in Havasupai Falls where I learned a deep love and respect for our land and water,” the Cave Creek High School senior said, adding that she was helping her mother, Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Coordinator Carletta Tilousi, on her fight to save the land.
“I am here representing the next generation that has responsibility to continue this vital work. This is our home, and we are committed to its protection,” she said.
In his speech, Biden noted how although tribal ancestors gathered and prayed on the lands, they were forced out 100 years ago.
“That very act of preserving the Grand Canyon as a national park was used to deny Indigenous people full access to their homelands – to the places where they hunted, gathered; to precious, sacred ancestral sites,” he said. “They fought for decades to be able to return to these lands, to protect these lands from mining and development, to clear them of contamination, to preserve their shared legacy for future generations.”
This marks Biden’s fifth new national monument during his presidency, much of which have been in the southwest. In 2021, Biden returned Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante to national monument status, after the Trump administration reduced them to a fraction of their size in 2017. Biden has been using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate and re-designate these monuments.
“I made a commitment as president to prioritize respect for the tribal sovereignty and self-determination, to honor the solemn promises the United States made to tribal nations to fulfill federal trust and treaty obligations,” he said in his speech. “I’ve pledged to keep using all that available authority to protect sacred tribal lands.”
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is enrolled in the Laguna Pueblo and is the first Native American woman to serve in the Cabinet, become emotional during her speech explaining Indigenous peoples’ trauma regarding past policies of the federal government.
“Native American history is history, and that’s what today is about,” she said. “Feeling seen means feeling appreciated for who we are – the original stewards of our shared lands and water. It means investing in our people and recognizing the power of Indigenous knowledge as a key part of collaborative conservation. And it means making sure that Indigenous wisdom and perspective informs our decision so that together we will usher in a future that our grandchildren deserve to inherit.”
Leaders from different tribes in the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition released statements thanking the president for his support and their gratitude for the new monument, including Havasupai, Colorado River Indian Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, and bands of Paiutes Las Vegas, Moapa, Utah, San Juan and Shivwits.
The Hopi Tribe said that life now continues on the lands of the monument and that “as stewards of the land we will continue to safeguard the future for generations to come.”
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren thanked Biden and the Coalition to push the initiative and protect its people from the adverse effects of uranium mining that threatened to “poison the landscape and destroy this sacred land” without the monument status.
“We know from firsthand experience the damage that can be caused by yellow dirt contaminating our water and poisoning our animals and our children,” Nygren said.
As far as nearby towns, reactions are mixed, with Tusayan Mayor Clarinda Vail stating that they stand with their Indigenous neighbors but also commending the Forest Service.
“Uranium mining has many negative impacts and under the mining act of 1872, would provide nothing in funding for these impacts to the local region,” Vail wrote, in part, in a statement.
The majority of the new monument land is in Coconino County with a little under half in Mohave County. Mohave County leaders recently spoke about the divide between the two counties, saying that their county was ignored throughout the new monument process. They have cited a loss of an estimated $29 billion in potential economic impact from mining opportunities they can no longer stake claim to.
Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson called the new monument a “political stunt,” according to Today’s New Herald.
“Mining is pretty much dead in Mohave County,” Johnson said. “This takes away a big source of revenue, and the job creation that we’d have, and it might cripple us in the long run.”
Mohave County Board of Supervisors Chairman Travis Lingenfelter said Mohave County was ignored throughout the process of creating the monument, with all the activity taking place in Coconino County, and promises for virtual meetings in Mohave County unkept.
“In May, Haaland went to Flagstaff and met with Coconino County representatives, while Mohave County didn’t even know that meeting was going to take place,” Lingenfelter said. “They didn’t invite us to participate. We weren’t noticed about it. And then they held a meeting in Flagstaff again last month, and we barely found out about it before the meeting.”
Lingenfelter added that Mohave County tried to work closely with surrounding tribal agencies to identify any cultural sites to avoid development on that land.
“For the past two years, Mohave County and myself worked very closely with the Hualapai to secure their federal water rights settlement, which they had been trying to get for 14 years prior to that,” Lingenfelter said. “We’ve always tried to be a good partner. But no one has tried to contact Mohave County from the tribal standpoint, to really get what our views are.”
“The Hualapai Tribe strongly supports … efforts to bring about designation of the watershed lands around Grand Canyon National Park as the Baaj Nwaanjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument,” Hualapai Tribe Council Chairwoman Sherry Parker said. “… this critical designation by President Biden… will help protect the Grand Canyon and surrounding watershed lands from current threats of logging, uranium mining and other activities detrimental to the long-term health of these culturally historic lands.”
RED BUTTE, Ariz. — President Joe Biden dedicated a new national monument bordering the Grand Canyon Aug. 8, combining two local native languages for its name.
The Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument takes “Baaj Nwaavjo” or “where the Tribes roam,” from the Havasupai tribe and I’tah Kukveni, “our footprints,” from the Hopi.
The name choice shows the land’s strong ties to the Havasupai and Hopi tribes, which are just some of the dozen in the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition that have been fighting for protections of this land from possible uranium mining and other ecological and cultural threats.
The new monument spans nearly 1 million acres of public lands around the canyon in three different sections. It is bordered by the Kanab watershed boundary and Kanab Creek drainage in the northwestern area and the Havasupai Reservation and Navajo Nation in the southern area. In the northeastern area, it stretches from Marble Canyon to the edge of the Kaibab Plateau. The land is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
Pops of turquoise, red feathers and bright tribal insignias stood out among the crowd of green-uniformed Forest Service officials that watched Biden and other top Arizona and U.S. officials designate the monument at Red Butte Airfield, 10 miles south of Tusayan.
Red Butte, or “clenched fist mountain,” is a sacred site to the Havasupai, and is just one of the areas of cultural significance that will be protected under the new monument.
Whirlwinds during the event threatened to knock over Biden’s teleprompter and tussled the hair of Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and Senator Kyrsten Sinema during their speeches, but it was a guest welcomed by representatives of the Havasupai Tribe.
“We got all that strong wind because the land is very happy right now,” said Havasupai Tribal Councilwoman Carrie Sinyella, who added she never imagined the president would be involved when she attended the very first gathering at Red Butte about the dangers of uranium mining years ago.
“Just to know that our future, our generations are going to be able to swim in clean water as we were raised to do is just a real honor,” Sinyella said. “And to see all these native people among us and to have that unity is (wonderful). We came in numbers and we came with strength and it’s apparent, and we feel it, and the land felt it.”
However, Councilwoman Juanita Wescogame added that there was a sad aspect among the celebrations as well.
“Our ancestors have been fighting for this since 1987,” she said. “And now that we’re able to protect the land … it’s bittersweet because our ancestors are not here right now to see the actual reality of what they’ve been trying to do.”
A youth leader from the Hopi and Havasupai tribes, Maya Tilousi-Lyttle, said it was an honor to be there and introduce the president.
“I grew up swimming in Havasupai Falls where I learned a deep love and respect for our land and water,” the Cave Creek High School senior said, adding that she was helping her mother, Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Coordinator Carletta Tilousi, on her fight to save the land.
“I am here representing the next generation that has responsibility to continue this vital work. This is our home, and we are committed to its protection,” she said.
In his speech, Biden noted how although tribal ancestors gathered and prayed on the lands, they were forced out 100 years ago.
“That very act of preserving the Grand Canyon as a national park was used to deny Indigenous people full access to their homelands – to the places where they hunted, gathered; to precious, sacred ancestral sites,” he said. “They fought for decades to be able to return to these lands, to protect these lands from mining and development, to clear them of contamination, to preserve their shared legacy for future generations.”
This marks Biden’s fifth new national monument during his presidency, much of which have been in the southwest. In 2021, Biden returned Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante to national monument status, after the Trump administration reduced them to a fraction of their size in 2017. Biden has been using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate and re-designate these monuments.
“I made a commitment as president to prioritize respect for the tribal sovereignty and self-determination, to honor the solemn promises the United States made to tribal nations to fulfill federal trust and treaty obligations,” he said in his speech. “I’ve pledged to keep using all that available authority to protect sacred tribal lands.”
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is enrolled in the Laguna Pueblo and is the first Native American woman to serve in the Cabinet, become emotional during her speech explaining Indigenous peoples’ trauma regarding past policies of the federal government.
“Native American history is history, and that’s what today is about,” she said. “Feeling seen means feeling appreciated for who we are – the original stewards of our shared lands and water. It means investing in our people and recognizing the power of Indigenous knowledge as a key part of collaborative conservation. And it means making sure that Indigenous wisdom and perspective informs our decision so that together we will usher in a future that our grandchildren deserve to inherit.”
Leaders from different tribes in the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition released statements thanking the president for his support and their gratitude for the new monument, including Havasupai, Colorado River Indian Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, and bands of Paiutes Las Vegas, Moapa, Utah, San Juan and Shivwits.
The Hopi Tribe said that life now continues on the lands of the monument and that “as stewards of the land we will continue to safeguard the future for generations to come.”
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren thanked Biden and the Coalition to push the initiative and protect its people from the adverse effects of uranium mining that threatened to “poison the landscape and destroy this sacred land” without the monument status.
“We know from firsthand experience the damage that can be caused by yellow dirt contaminating our water and poisoning our animals and our children,” Nygren said.
As far as nearby towns, reactions are mixed, with Tusayan Mayor Clarinda Vail stating that they stand with their Indigenous neighbors but also commending the Forest Service.
“Uranium mining has many negative impacts and under the mining act of 1872, would provide nothing in funding for these impacts to the local region,” Vail wrote, in part, in a statement.
The majority of the new monument land is in Coconino County with a little under half in Mohave County. Mohave County leaders recently spoke about the divide between the two counties, saying that their county was ignored throughout the new monument process. They have cited a loss of an estimated $29 billion in potential economic impact from mining opportunities they can no longer stake claim to.
Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson called the new monument a “political stunt,” according to Today’s New Herald.
“Mining is pretty much dead in Mohave County,” Johnson said. “This takes away a big source of revenue, and the job creation that we’d have, and it might cripple us in the long run.”
Mohave County Board of Supervisors Chairman Travis Lingenfelter said Mohave County was ignored throughout the process of creating the monument, with all the activity taking place in Coconino County, and promises for virtual meetings in Mohave County unkept.
“In May, Haaland went to Flagstaff and met with Coconino County representatives, while Mohave County didn’t even know that meeting was going to take place,” Lingenfelter said. “They didn’t invite us to participate. We weren’t noticed about it. And then they held a meeting in Flagstaff again last month, and we barely found out about it before the meeting.”
Lingenfelter added that Mohave County tried to work closely with surrounding tribal agencies to identify any cultural sites to avoid development on that land.
“For the past two years, Mohave County and myself worked very closely with the Hualapai to secure their federal water rights settlement, which they had been trying to get for 14 years prior to that,” Lingenfelter said. “We’ve always tried to be a good partner. But no one has tried to contact Mohave County from the tribal standpoint, to really get what our views are.”
“The Hualapai Tribe strongly supports … efforts to bring about designation of the watershed lands around Grand Canyon National Park as the Baaj Nwaanjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument,” Hualapai Tribe Council Chairwoman Sherry Parker said. “… this critical designation by President Biden… will help protect the Grand Canyon and surrounding watershed lands from current threats of logging, uranium mining and other activities detrimental to the long-term health of these culturally historic lands.”