Stewart Huntington
ICT
A coalition of tribes and the Native American Rights Fund jumped Monday into the legal battle to protect the Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California that President Joe Biden created during his last month in office. Tribes led a long fight to see the monument established.
The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Chemeheuvi Indian Tribe, Colorado River Indian Tribes, and Morongo Band of Mission Indians and NARF on Monday filed to intervene in a case that threatens the long-sought designation of the monument. They were joined by local and state governmental entities, local businesses, California elected officials, and other local organizations.
Amelia Flores, chairwoman of the Colorado River Indian Nation, told ICT in May when the legal challenge to Chuckwalla was filed in federal court in Michigan that protecting the homelands of her people was a primary concern.
“Once any development is approved, it’s impossible to reclaim those lands,” she said. “National monuments and parks across the country are a way to preserve the land so that future generations can experience the same landscape as our ancestors did.”
Presidents since Teddy Roosevelt in the first years of the 20th Century have designated national monuments under The Antiquities Act of 1906. The law grants presidents the authority to protect historic and prehistoric landmarks, structures, and other objects on federal lands with the national monument designation. The law also spells out penalties for disturbing the site.
Biden established Chuckwalla National Monument, protecting over 600,000 acres of public lands in the California desert in January, shortly before he left office. On the same day, he created the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California that protects nearly 225,000 acres.
“For years, we worked with our neighbors across southeastern California to get this monument designation. This unique landscape is valued by so many in the region for its beauty, spirit, and wildlife,” Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians Chair Joseph Mirelez said in a statement. “For the Torres Martinez, the region embodies our people’s origin stories, cultural traditions, and spiritual practices. We are committed to protecting Chuckwalla.”
The challenge to the monument was brought in May in federal court by a Michigan resident who says his mining claims within Chuckwalla’s boundaries would be in jeopardy under the national monument designation. Miner Daniel Torongo was joined in his filing by the Blue Ribbon Coalition, a national off-road vehicle interest group. The suit is filed against the Department of the Interior, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the Bureau of Land Management.
The group seeks to have the courts reign in presidential prerogatives under the Antiquities Act.
“The Chuckwalla National Monument is the latest example of a president abusing the limited powers of the Antiquities Act to restrict access to hundreds of thousands of acres of public land,” Blue Ribbon Coalition Executive Director Ben Burr said when the case was filed.
But NARF Deputy Director Matthew Campbell told ICT that the power to reverse a designation is not found in the statute.
“When you look at the history of the Antiquities Act, the statute is very clear in that presidents only have the power to declare monuments, not revoke them once they’ve been declared,” he said. “And so that was the basis of our lawsuit against President Trump when he attempted to revoke Bears Ears in 2017.”
The Bears Ears National Monument was created by President Barack Obama. In his first term, Trump scaled back the size of the designation by more than 85 percent but didn’t realize his stated ambition of revoking the designation altogether. Biden later restored the Obama era’s original boundaries.
The back and forth tussling is of concern for tribes who have long lobbied for using the Antiquities Act to preserve land from development.
“National monuments are absolutely important,” Campbell said, “especially from the perspective of the many tribal nations that have been requesting national monument status as of late. It’s an important tool that tribal nations have utilized, in advocating for the protection of, historic, sacred places, historic lands that are tied to their communities and their histories.”
President Jonathan E. Koteen of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe said in a statement that the decision will affect generations to come.
“An important part of the national monument designation at Chuckwalla is that it recognizes the role of Indigenous people in land management,” Koteen said. “By providing for tribal co-stewardship, the national monument designation brings Native voices to the table and recognizes the value of knowledge that we have passed down from generation to generation.”