TUSAYAN, Ariz. (AP) — President Joe Biden will use his visit to Arizona on Tuesday to formally announce a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, making Native American tribes’ and environmentalists’ decades-long vision to preserve the land a reality.
Biden is expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve about 1,562 square miles just outside Grand Canyon National Park, national climate adviser Ali Zaidi confirmed. It will mark the Democratic president’s fifth monument designation.
Tribes in Arizona have been pushing Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create a new national monument called Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. “Baaj Nwaavjo” means “where tribes roam,” for the Havasupai people, while “I’tah Kukveni” translates to “our footprints,” for the Hopi tribe.
Arizona is a key battleground state that Biden won narrowly in 2020, becoming the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1996 to carry it. And it’s one of only a few genuinely competitive states heading into next year’s election. Winning Arizona would be a critical part of Biden’s efforts to secure a second term.
Later Tuesday, Biden will fly to New Mexico, considered safe for Democrats in 2024, and he will visit the Republican stronghold of Utah as part of his western swing later in the week.
Campaign politics aside, tribes and environmentalists for decades have been trying to safeguard the land north and south of Grand Canyon National Park, while Republican lawmakers and the mining industry tout the economic benefits and raise mining as a matter of national security.
The designation is a reminder of a “new era” in which collaboration and stewardship with tribes is valued, said U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary.
“It will help ensure that indigenous people can continue to use these areas for religious ceremonies, hunting and gathering of plants, medicines and other materials, including some found nowhere else on Earth,” said Haaland, who recently visited the Havasupai Indian Reservation. “It will protect objects of historic and scientific importance for the benefit of tribes, the public and for future generations.”
Biden arrived Monday evening at Grand Canyon National Park Airport and was greeted by Democratic congressmen Raúl Grijalva and Ruben Gallego. Biden embraced them when he got off Air Force One, and the trio chatted for a few minutes. Grijalva, who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, has repeatedly introduced legislation to create the monument.
The president will be speaking in an area that is between Pinyon Plain Mine, which is being developed and has not opened, and Red Butte, a site culturally significant to the Havasupai and Hopi tribes.
Representatives of various northern Arizona tribes have been invited to attend Biden’s remarks.
The Interior Department, reacting to concerns over the risk of contaminating water, enacted a 20-year moratorium on the filing of new mining claims around the national park in 2012.
Existing mining claims will not be affected by this designation, senior Biden administration officials countered. Furthermore, the monument site encompasses around 1.3% of the nation’s known and understood uranium reserves. Officials say there are significant resources in other parts of the country that will remain accessible.
A U.S. Geological Survey in 2021 found most springs and wells in a vast region of northern Arizona known for its high-grade uranium ore meet federal drinking water standards despite decades of uranium mining.
In 2017, Democratic President Barack Obama backed off a full-on monument designation. The idea faced a hostile reception from Arizona’s Republican governor and two senators. Then-Gov. Doug Ducey threatened legal action, saying Arizona already has enough national monuments.
