Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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This fall, President Joe Biden made history by declaring Colorado’s Camp Hale as the first national monument of his presidency. Now, he has pledged to honor tribes and protect critical wildlife habitat in Nevada by designating Avi Kwa Ame as the second. Avi Kwa Ame — the Mojave name for “Spirit Mountain” — is sacred to a dozen regional tribes, and I applaud the Biden administration for committing to honor this landscape, and the tribes that hold it sacred, with permanent federal protections.
Located between the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the Nevada-California border (home to the world’s largest Joshua tree forest), the proposed monument would cover more than 450,000 acres in Southern Nevada. This proposal has widespread support across the state, including from local governments and communities like mine whose economies are supported by outdoor recreation on public lands; tribes whose ancestors called this place home; and environmental coalitions who fight for the endangered desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep and other species native to this area.
At the White House Tribal Leaders Summit in November, in conjunction with National Native American Heritage Month, Biden announced plans to declare Spirit Mountain a national monument. As an elected official, I understand that this culturally, historically and environmentally significant area is deserving of national monument status to protect our climate and keep development off lands too beautiful and valuable to be disturbed.
Avi Kwa Ame is a landscape rich in both natural beauty and history, and Spirit Mountain has been deemed a Traditional Cultural Property on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to being considered the spiritual birthplace of the Yuman tribes, the landscape was also once a throughway for travelers heading West, contains a section of the historic Mojave Trail/Road used by Indigenous people for transporting goods and where culturally significant plants are located, is rife with petroglyphs and pioneer-era artifacts, and was home to film stars Rex Bell and his wife Clara Bow in the 1930s.
Moreover, Avi Kwa Ame contains the largest area of quality desert tortoise habitat in the state, and a monument designation would ensure that land is protected and contiguous with critical habitat in California. The proposed monument boundaries would also encompass an important migratory corridor for desert bighorn sheep, which reside on the rocky slopes of the Castle Mountains and New York Mountains, and continue to support one of the largest known golden eagle populations in Nevada.
For more than 100 years, presidents of both political parties have exercised their executive power under the Antiquities Act to protect the lands and waters that make our nation biodiverse, culturally rich and economically robust. It’s a preservative tool to ensure Americans have access to outdoor spaces untouched by development — and, more recently, a means of achieving national climate goals by conserving nature.
A monument designation for Avi Kwa Ame would be a win on all of these fronts. It allows us to fight climate change through conservation, protect critical wildlife habitat and species that depend on it, support local economies and quality of life, and, above all, honor Indigenous culture and history. At last month’s summit, Biden promised “respect” to Indigenous people and tribal nations — respect for tribal sovereignty, respect for tribal consultation in federal decision-making, and respect for Indigenous knowledge. The designation of this monument would be a tremendous example of fulfilling that promise.
I applaud members of Nevada’s congressional delegation who have worked to bring the significance of this region to light on a national scale and rally for its protection, including Rep. Dina Titus for introducing legislation to create Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. Thanks to their work and the advocacy and dedication of tribes, citizens and leaders at all levels of government, Spirit Mountain will soon be a permanently preserved landscape that all Americans can appreciate and enjoy. I ask that the Biden administration now work together and move swiftly to make this official.
Timothy Williams is the Chairman of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe of Nevada, Arizona and California. He is committed to amplifying conservation issues that impact the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe at the tribal, federal, state and local levels.
