New Nevada monument is a chance to do right by tribes

The relationship between tribal nations and the U.S. Department of Interior has been fraught, to say the least. It’s that historical context that shapes the interactions between the federal government and tribes to this day. With the nomination and confirmation of Deb Haaland to serve as the first Native American secretary of the Interior — and first Native Cabinet secretary at all — it seems like a page is finally turning. It signaled a good faith effort, on behalf of the Biden-harris administration, to work toward healing the generations of racism, exclusion and colonialist genocide enacted against sovereign Tribal Nations.

Since Haaland’s confirmation, she and the administration have worked to begin mending some of these wounds, such as acknowledging the horrific legacy of Indian boarding schools.

While these gestures are certainly not liberatory to the entire history of genocide against Native Americans, they do represent a new chapter in governmental cooperation between the federal government and tribal governments across the nation. But what of land that was seized from our ancestors? The Interior seems to have a plan for that too, in the form of reaching out to locally led grassroots movements for input on expanding federal protection for the country’s lands and waters.

I traveled to Washington, D.C., this summer with a group of tribal representatives, local business owners, offroad enthusiasts and conservationists to make our voices heard about the need to protect Avi Kwa Ame, a special landscape in Southern Nevada that is sacred to 10 Yuman-speaking tribes as well as the Hopi and Southern Paiute.

As a member of the Bishop Paiute Tribe and the executive director of Native Voters Alliance Nevada, I’ve been advocating for permanently protecting the Avi Kwa Ame landscape for several years. Our region’s tribal nations have sought permanent protections for this landscape near Searchlight since 1999, when nearby Spirit Mountain was designated a traditional cultural property.

Our grassroots-focused efforts have included outreach to our region’s tribal partners, government leaders, environmental groups, local residents and recreation enthusiasts. After two years of discussions involving many stakeholders, including tribal and local governments, an agreement on the monument’s boundary was successfully negotiated, ensuring protections of this cultural landscape stretching from the Dead Mountains in the south to Mccullough Mountain to the north.

Now, a victory is within reach. We are asking President Joe Biden to designate Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument, using his power under the Antiquities Act. For our region’s Yuman tribes, the area is tied to their creation, cosmology and well-being. It is the whole landscape that deserves permanent protection.

The Bureau of Land Management, which would continue managing these public lands, has scheduled a community meeting today in Laughlin to discuss the management of public lands in the Southwest, including the proposed designation of Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument. We are excited and hopeful that this meeting will be a chance for tribal leaders and supporters to be heard about the importance of protecting Avi Kwa Ame and the sacred lands included in the proposed boundaries of the national monument.

This community meeting, we hope, will be a good omen of things to come from the Biden-harris administration, as we await news of more national monuments being declared. We encourage federal officials to give respect to Native American tribes in these ongoing conversations by honoring their traditions and ancestry in demarcating the boundaries of this and future monuments. In the meantime, I look forward to working alongside my colleagues in the Honor Avi Kwa Ame coalition to ensure that our voices in this process are heard.