Justin McAfee/Provided
The Newberry Mountains are part of Ave Kwa Ame National Monument. Arizona Republicans are objecting to President Joe Biden’s designation of 1,500 square miles near the Grand Canyon as a national monument in 2023.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024 | 2am
Visitors will look at the Grand Canyon’s awe-inspiring scale and majesty and imagine this national park to be vast and safe for future Americans. However, a significant area of it has not been protected at all until now.
Last year, President Joe Biden invoked authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create “Burge Nwabujo Ita Kukuveni — Ancestral Footprints of Grand Canyon National Monument.” This National Monument designation protects and protects more than 1,500 square miles of area immediately surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. Grand Canyon National Park is beloved for its beauty and is sacred to many tribal nations and indigenous peoples. The monument’s boundaries include an area that extends to the edge of the canyon, but is not currently included in the national park designation.
By creating a new national monument, Biden seeks to expand the preserve north and south of the Rim Plateau, effectively creating a buffer zone around the canyon and protecting it for future generations.
All that could change if efforts by anti-protection extremists in Arizona are successful.
Last week, the top two Republicans in the Arizona Legislature, Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Thoma, challenged the authority granted by the Antiquities Act and Mr. Biden’s discretion in designating national monuments. filed a lawsuit.
The Antiquities Act provides that the president can designate lands that are “historically or scientifically interesting,” provided that the designated land is on federal land and “limited to the smallest area that allows for adequate care and management of the object.” It allows objects to be preserved as national monuments. Protected. ”
Despite 100 years of court cases affirming the president’s authority to create national monuments, Arizona Republican leaders argue that Burge Nwabujo Ita Kukuveni does not meet the standards required by the Antiquities Act. Rather, they claim that it is a ploy to prevent mining in the area.
Peterson said in a statement that the Biden administration’s installation of the monument is “incredibly dishonest” and “has nothing to do with actual artifact protection.”
The thousands of Native Americans who have called this land home and held it sacred for generations may disagree.
More than a dozen tribal nations in the Southwest — Las Vegas Paiute, Moapa Paiute, Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Kaibab Paiute, Utah Paiute Indian Tribe, Navajo Nation, Southern San Juan Paiute Tribes such as the Yavapai Apache, Zuni Pueblo, and Colorado River Indian Tribes believe that the lands within the National Monument have special historical, cultural, and religious significance. .
The area also has unique landscapes and ecosystems, such as the Gray Mountains (Giubee, as the Navajo call them), which have inspired spiritual songs and fables that refer to locations within the monument. Or Red Butte, a sacred site called Wiyi Gudwisa near Havasupai that rises to the south of the monument.
Not protecting these places is the same as allowing mining in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Kaaba, and the Temple Mount. That is never acceptable and should not be tolerated.
Additionally, the Republican leaders’ lawsuit challenges long-standing interpretations of the Antiquities Act and denies all national monuments, including Nevada’s Abe Kwa Ame, Basin and Range, and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monuments. Threatening monuments.
Ironically, the lawsuit that established the current interpretation involved an Arizona businessman and miner who challenged President Theodore Roosevelt’s creation of Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908. . Grand Canyon National Monument was created more than a decade before the canyon received the added protection of being designated a national park.
While 100 years of jurisprudence may once have been considered “settled law,” the Supreme Court’s current willingness to overturn decades-old precedent, especially on environmental protection issues, is alarming. Should. Additionally, Chief Justice Roberts’ 2021 statement appears to invite challenge to the current interpretation of the Antiquities Act.
In an unnecessary, unusual and lengthy statement in the Northeast Canyon and Seamount Marine National Monument case, Mr. Roberts argued that the Antiquities Act lacked “meaningful limitations” and therefore “does not cover vast, amorphous areas.” It includes an unrecognizable and unrestricted power to ensure that the Terrain above and below the ocean. ” The statement comes as Mr. Roberts votes to overturn the current interpretation of the Antiquities Act, allowing political, business, ranching, and mining interests to put short-term cultural and environmental protection, conservation, and preservation ahead of long-term cultural and environmental protection, conservation, and preservation. This suggests that it creates opportunities to leverage profits.
National monument designation is neither arbitrary nor easily granted. There is a rigorous and detailed process in which the costs, benefits, risks, rewards, and concerns of all stakeholders are considered. Because the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that cultural, scientific, and natural treasures are preserved for future generations of Americans, it is inherently involved in the creation of national parks, monuments, and nature preserves. I am. This is a serious obligation and one that should not be taken lightly.
That’s why it is imperative that voters elect members of Congress who will strengthen antiquities laws and further codify the president’s authority to establish and maintain national monuments.
Nevada is fortunate to have a delegation in the House and Senate who believe in preserving our sacred and beautiful landscapes for future generations. All but one member of Congress scored him above 95% on the League of Conservative Voters’ 2022 Congressional Scorecard. Unsurprisingly, the outliers have repeatedly voted against federal protections for numerous sites of historical, religious, and cultural significance, including voting against the Grand Canyon Protection Act of 2021. Republican Mark Amodei.
State politics tends to be topical in nature, which is why the federal government and the presidency have been given the power to protect Americans not yet born. We must take that responsibility seriously and pass on to the next generation a culture that has preserved as much of our pristine country and important sites as possible intact.