President Biden designated the new Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument on nearly 1 million acres.
It is slightly smaller than the 1.1 million acres called for by tribal leaders, who hold the area sacred.
“From time immemorial, more than a dozen tribal nations have lived, gathered, prayed on these lands, but some 100 years ago they were forced out,” Biden said. “That very act of preserving the Grand Canyon as a national park was used to deny indigenous people full access to their homelands, to the places where they hunted [and] gathered.”
The area will also be protected from new uranium mining, which was celebrated by several tribal leaders and environmentalists but lamented by industry and Republicans.
“President Biden is once again helping our enemies by denying Americans access to the resources we need,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said in a written statement. “President Biden is blocking access to key deposits of American uranium and other critical minerals to satisfy his leftwing base.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
