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Results of a new statewide poll in Arizona show high levels of support for a national monument proposal near Grand Canyon National Park.
As Arizona Public Radio’s KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius reports, it comes as advocates have increased their calls for President Joe Biden to make the designation under the Antiquities Act.
The survey showed 75% of Arizona voters favor added federal protections on more than a million acres of the proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.
It includes majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents and the numbers are mostly unchanged from a similar poll taken last year.
Carletta Tilousi is a member of the Havasupai Tribe and coordinator of the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition.
“Water is very important for everyone, not just Havasupai, but everyone that lives in this region deserves the right to clean water and clean air. I’m very encouraged to see this in my lifetime.”
The survey also showed large numbers of Arizonans support water conservation and want to protect the Grand Canyon specifically from uranium mining.
The monument proposal is being driven by tribes like the Havasupai and Hopi who say it would protect threatened sacred sites and water resources. But the uranium industry says modern extraction methods are safe and oppose the monument push along with some area ranchers who worry it could impact their livelihoods.
A 2012 federal moratorium on new uranium claims near the Grand Canyon has prevented an expansion of mining in the area. The monument proposal would make the ban permanent.
Currently there’s only one active uranium mine near the park and it has yet to produce ore.
This week, President Biden is scheduled to travel to Arizona and visit the Grand Canyon.
Advocates are hoping the president will designate the area as a national monument during his trip to the state.
Sunday’s Road To Healing tour stop in Riverside, Calif. (Courtesy Sec. Deb Haaland / Facebook)
Survivors of Indian boarding schools and their descendants in California testified about their experiences and the impacts before U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) Sunday, as part of her “Road to Healing” cross country tour.
Christina Aanestad reports.
Trigger warning: This story contains testimony of child sexual abuse
For many survivors and their descendants, the horrors of U.S. Government run boarding schools for native American children was another form of genocide.
“I saw my first suicide at 12 years old”
Ahtta is a member of the Cahto or Koi-yon Tribe in Laytonville, Calif.
She was forced to attend the Stewart Indian School in Carson City, Nev., one of more than 400 boarding schools for Indigenous children that operated in 37 states.
“We knew the buildings where they were raping the little boys, we knew the buildings where they were raping the little kids, the little girls. We seen the unwanted pregnancies-by the raped child… wom… girls, they were 12, 13 years old.”
Some of the descendants of boarding school survivors took issue with the Department of Interior for not recognizing their tribes.
Federal recognition provides financial resources and other support.
About 45 tribes in California are unrecognized-most remain landless.
“They were Indian enough to be sent over to those Indian schools at the time”
Jack Potter Jr. is tribal chair of the Redding Rancheria, part Miwok and part Wintu, a federally unrecognized tribe.
“If there was some remedy that could fix those things, because in the past we were all Indian people and we’re still Indian people.”
This Not Invisible Act hearing in Minneapolis, Minn. was one of seven in-person events this year.
The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Justice have concluded public hearings addressing missing and murdered Indigenous people and human trafficking.
The final Not Invisible Act hearing was held last week.
Seven hearings were held across the country, and some virtually, to gather information from the public, advocates, law enforcement, survivors, and family members.
Written testimony can still be submitted to the Interior Department by Thursday, August 10, 2023 via NIAC@ios.doi.gov with the subject line “NIAC Testimony”.
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