President Joe Biden is signing a proclamation to establish two new national monuments in California, in part to honor two tribes, a person familiar with the decision said Monday.
The proclamation will create the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park and the Sattitla National Monument in Northern California, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans that were to be announced Tuesday in California.
The declaration bars drilling and mining and other development on the 600,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) area in Southern California and roughly 200,000 acres (800 square kilometers) in Northern California.
The establishment of the new monuments was first reported in The Washington Post. Biden, who has two weeks left in office, is in New Orleans on Monday meeting with the families of the victims in the New Year’s attack in the French Quarter and was heading to California later Monday.
The flurry of activity has been in line with the Democratic president’s “America the Beautiful” initiative launched in 2021, aimed at honoring tribal heritage, meeting federal goals to conserve 30% of public lands and waters by 2030, and addressing climate change.
The Pit River Tribe has worked to get the federal government to designate the Sattitla National Monument. A number of Native American tribes and environmental groups began pushing Biden to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument, named after the large desert lizard, at the start of 2023.
The area would protect public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park, spanning the Coachella Valley region in the west to near the Colorado River.
Advocates say the monument will protect a tribal cultural landscape, ensure access to nature for local residents and preserve military history sites. The California Legislature passed a resolution in August 2024 to urge Biden to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument and another National Park Service-managed national monument adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park, as well as the Kw’tsan National Monument, which would border Mexico and Arizona.
Tribal leaders have also called for the Chuckwalla monument to honor tribal sovereignty to include local tribes as co-stewards, following in the footsteps of a recent wave of monuments such as the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, which is overseen in conjunction with five tribal nations.
“The protection of the Chuckwalla National Monument brings the Quechan people an overwhelming sense of peace and joy,” the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a statement. “Tribes being reunited as stewards of this landscape is only the beginning of much-needed healing and restoration, and we are eager to fully rebuild our relationship to this place.”
In May, the Biden administration expanded two national monuments in California — the San Gabriel Mountains in the south and Berryessa Snow Mountain in the north. In October, Biden designated the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary along the coast of central California, which will include input from the local Chumash tribes in how the area is preserved.
Last year, the Yurok Tribe in Northern California also became the first Native people to receive tribal land back from the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed by the tribe, Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League.
