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Photo: U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz announces the Chuckwalla National Monument Establishment and Joshua Tree National Park Expansion Act of 2024 on April 17, 2024. (Courtesy Rep. Ruiz / Facebook)

A signing ceremony is expected to take place next week for two new national monuments in California, which include tribal cultural and sacred sites.

The White House announced the designations Tuesday and an event was to take place in the state, but was postponed due to high winds.

Suzanne Potter reports.

U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), whose district includes parts of the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument, says the lands will now be protected from mining, drilling, and development.

“This is one of these unique examples where you have both the conservation and tribal leaders, as well as the renewable energy and utility companies, all endorsing this enormous monument.”

Big news! 🎉 @POTUS designated 600K+ acres in #CA25 as the Chuckwalla National Monument—a win for wildlife, sacred sites, tourism, and climate goals.

Grateful to @SenAlexPadilla, @Senlaphonza & all partners.

Watch my recap! 🎥 pic.twitter.com/7sfeXfuHlg

— Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (@RepRaulRuizMD) January 7, 2025

The area south of Joshua Tree National Park is also habitat for the Chuckwalla lizard, bighorn sheep, and the endangered desert tortoise.

Thomas Tortez is former chair of the Torres Martinez Band of Cahuilla Indians.

“The next step is to strategically develop a co-stewardship plan, put all those resources together and then, start to protect the land.”

The White House also intends to designate a new national monument near Shasta Lake in northern California.

Brandy McDaniels with the Pit River Tribe says they’ve been fighting development in the area for decades.

“As social, economically suppressed communities, having to fight against people with deep pockets and have all the money in the world to come in and destroy our lands – and that’s what we’ve been fighting to protect for a very long time.”

Tribal leaders are also calling on President Biden to designate one more national monument in California before the end of his term.

This week, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) shared her perspective about the agency’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative and President Joe Biden’s apology to Indian Country.

In a blog post on the Interior Department website, Sec. Haaland says, of all the work in the department under the Biden-Harris Administration, one of the most significant, she says, has been the boarding school initiative, which she launched in 2021.

Haaland shares thoughts about her own family history with Indian boarding schools.

A day ahead of President Biden’s apology, Haaland told National Native News, she’s been personal impacted.

“Decades ago, when I was sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table and talking to her about boarding schools she didn’t tell me everything, right? I knew there was more to what she was telling me.”

Haaland says she still feels the impact of injustices on her ancestors, including that her great grandpa, being more than 100 miles away from his daughter’s boarding school, only had a “horse and wagon”.

“She told me he was able to only visit her twice during the five years that she was there. Her time there, her dad’s time at boarding school, that affected my life, and I didn’t realize how much it affected my life until I got a little bit older.”

Haaland’s boarding school initiative included an investigative report and listening tour across Indian Country.

Biden traveled to a tribal community in Arizona in October, where he formally apology to Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

In December, Biden established the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument.

In the blog post, Haaland says the work is not finished, but also talks about healing.

The Pennington County Commission in South Dakota has approved a statue commemorating the search for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous peoples.

C.J. Keene has more.

The statue, created by the Red Ribbon Skirt Society, will be installed outside the county administration building.

The base of the statue’s plaque reads “And her name shall be Justice.”

The small-scale mockup of the statue features a woman in traditional regalia holding an eagle feather.

Artist Rachel Berg of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe is creating the statue.

The Red Ribbon Skirt Society has raised about half of the statue’s $30,000 cost and hopes to install the memorial by summer.

 

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