Five Native American tribes have formed a commission to help manage the Chuckwalla National Monument, which includes protected desert and mountain lands in Southern California that Trump administration officials have explored dismantling.
“It is our inherent role to be the stewards and guardians of these lands, and in this moment of federal government dysfunction, all the more important that we reassume it formally,” said Jonathan Koteen, president of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, in a statement, referring to the federal shutdown since Oct. 1, when lawmakers failed to broker a deal to fund the government.
Situated where the Colorado and Mojave deserts meet in Southern California, Chuckwalla is part of an 18-million-acre connected corridor of public lands that stretches roughly 600 miles from the Mojave Desert to Moab, Utah.
Former President Joe Biden in the final days of his administration created the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands national monuments. The proclamation creating Chuckwalla directed the Interior Department to engage with tribes connected to the region through an independently set up tribal commission. That commission was planned as a way for tribes to help guide the Bureau of Land Management’s supervision of the monument.
