Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

As tribes celebrate Nevada’s newest national monument, governor pans ‘confiscation’

Proposed National Monument

Steve Marcus

A view of Spirit Mountain during a tour of a proposed national monument south of Boulder City, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. A coalition of Native American tribes, conservation groups and Searchlight residents are asking Nevada’s Congressional delegation to consider the establishment of a new national monument.

Minutes after President Joe Biden confirmed the designation Tuesday of Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, which protects a culturally and ecologically significant swath of land that some area tribes consider their sacred cradle of humanity from development, Gov. Joe Lombardo issued a statement calling the monument status an economically unsound “federal confiscation” taken without consulting his office.

The first-term Republican governor’s comments didn’t sit well with conservationists who have long advocated for the designation.

“These are not our lands,” said Battle Born Progress Executive Director Annette Magnus on behalf of the Honor Avi Kwa Ame coalition, with which Battle Born Progress is aligned. “The original stewards of this land are the ones who asked for the designation, and the federal government and our federal delegation complied.”

About a dozen tribes in the region consider Avi Kwa Ame and its surrounding landscapes significant.

The Mojave people consider Avi Kwa Ame their holy site of creation; its reservation borders the new monument. When Fort Mojave Indian Tribe Chairman Timothy Williams introduced Biden on Tuesday at the White House Conservation in Action Summit in Washington, D.C., where the president would sign the proclamation protecting Avi Kwa Ame, Williams spoke first in Mojave.

Whoops swelled from the joyous crowd when he said “Avi Kwa Ame,” Mojave for the area’s other name, Spirit Mountain, and rapped his chest, hand over heart.

While federal and tribal leaders celebrated Biden’s signature, Lombardo took a different stance. In a statement he said:

“Since I took office, the Biden White House has not consulted with my administration about any of the details of the proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument which, given the size of the proposal, seems badly out of step. Upon learning that the president was considering unilateral action, I reached out to the White House to raise several concerns, citing the potential for terminal disruption of rare earth mineral mining projects and long-planned, bipartisan economic development efforts. While I’m still waiting for a response, I’m not surprised. This kind of ‘Washington Knows Best’ policy might win plaudits from unaccountable special interests, but it’s going to cost our state jobs and economic opportunity — all while making land more expensive and more difficult to develop for affordable housing and critical infrastructure projects.

“The federal confiscation of 506,814 acres of Nevada land is a historic mistake that will cost Nevadans for generations to come.”

A spokeswoman for the governor did not respond to a request for clarification, including whom Lombardo considered “special interests.”

Magnus said Lombardo’s statement was frustrating because members of the coalition reached out to his office but were not given a chance to sit with the new governor. Lombardo took office in January.

“Today is supposed to be a celebration, and a celebration for our tribal government who is a sovereign government that oversees this land. They are the stewards of this land and they worked with another sovereign government, which is the federal government, to make sure that this land is protected for future generations,” Magnus said. “That doesn’t involve Joe Lombardo.”

A tribally led campaign to legally protect Avi Kwa Ame dates to at least 1999, when Spirit Mountain — just the peak itself and its immediate base — was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property.

The monument designation, which encompasses more than half a million acres of desert just outside Laughlin about an hour south of Las Vegas, allows recreation, but blocks development, including mining and renewable energy projects.

“Protection of the Avi Kwa Ame area will preserve its diverse array of natural and scientific resources, ensuring that the cultural, prehistoric, historic and scientific values of this area endure for the benefit of all Americans,” reads a passage in Biden’s 14-page proclamation. “The living landscape holds sites of historical, traditional, cultural and spiritual significance; is the setting of the creation story of multiple Tribal Nations; and is inextricably intertwined with the sacred significance of Avi Kwa Ame.”

Biden announced at the White House Tribal Nations Summit in November that he would designate Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument.