Here's Joe Biden Making The Grand Canyon Even Grander

It's like he's some kind of National Monument maniac!

Photo by Omer Nezih Gerek on Unsplash

President Joe Biden will be visiting Northern Arizona today to announce a new National Monument that will protect land around the Grand Canyon, realizing a longtime goal for Native American tribes and environmentalists. The Grand Canyon itself has been a National Park since 1919, but the lands around it have long been subject to exploitation by mining and logging and other “extractive industries,” including poisonous uranium mining back in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

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Biden will use his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to declare the new national monument, which will have the name Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — as the AP explains,

Baaj Nwaavjo” means “where tribes roam,” for the Havasupai people, while “I’tah Kukveni” translates to “our footprints,” for the Hopi tribe. […]

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.”

Several Northern Arizona tribes will be represented at the announcement, including Yavapai-Apache Nation Chairwoman Tanya Lewis, Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores, Navajo President Buu Nygren and Havasupai Tribal Councilwoman Dianna Sue White Dove Uqualla.

This will be Biden’s fifth designation of a national monument.

Here’s video! Biden is expected to speak at 2:00 p.m. Eastern or noon “Mountain Time.”

[AP at PBS NewsHour]

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