Washington, D.C. — Earlier this month, Chairman Thomas Tortez of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians attended the White House Tribal Nations Summit. At the summit, Chairman Tortez urged the Biden administration to designate the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument in the California Desert and protect lands adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park. 

“The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument would preserve an important cultural landscape by providing protections to multi-use trail systems established by our ancestors, sacred sites and objects, traditional cultural places, and more,” said Chairman Tortez. “I urge President Biden to use the Antiquities Act to permanently protect these important lands.”

Earlier this year, Tribal leaders joined Representative Raul Ruiz (CA-25) in calling on the President to designate approximately 660,000 acres of public lands as the new Chuckwalla National Monument. The area proposed for protection is located south of Joshua Tree National Park and reaches from the Coachella Valley region in the west to near the Colorado River in the East. This effort is also proposing to protect approximately 17,000 acres of public lands in the Eagle Mountains that are adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park.

This area includes the homelands of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan, and Maara’yam peoples (Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan, and Serrano nations). There are many tribal heritage values and cultural resources throughout this living landscape that need holistic and enduring protections. The proposal is supported by the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

“I was eager to share the importance of protecting this landscape at the White House Tribal Nations Summit,” continued Chairman Tortez. “Indigenous peoples have been stewards of the natural resources in these homelands for thousands and thousands of years and the protection of the regional plants and wildlife is foundational to our continued well-being and cultural practices.”