The Grand Canyon is seen while in flight from Air Force One, with President Joe Biden aboard, en route to Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Grand Canyon Village, Ariz.
The Grand Canyon is seen while in flight from Air Force One, with President Joe Biden aboard, en route to Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Grand Canyon Village, Ariz.
The Grand Canyon is seen while in flight from Air Force One, with President Joe Biden aboard, en route to Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Grand Canyon Village, Ariz.
FILE - The Grand Canyon National Park is covered in the morning sunlight as seen from a helicopter near Tusayan, Ariz., Oct. 5, 2013. A visit from President Joe Biden to Arizona this week is creating buzz that longtime advocates for banning mining on land around the Grand Canyon could be getting their wish. Biden’s first stop Tuesday will be near the Grand Canyon, where he’s expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve more than 1,562 square miles.
FILE - Arizona's Grand Canyon is seen in this aerial photo Dec. 17, 2019. A visit from President Joe Biden to Arizona this week is creating buzz that longtime advocates for banning mining on land around the Grand Canyon could be getting their wish. Biden’s first stop Tuesday will be near the Grand Canyon, where he’s expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve more than 1,562 square miles.
The Grand Canyon is seen while in flight from Air Force One, with President Joe Biden aboard, en route to Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Grand Canyon Village, Ariz.
Alex Brandon - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Grand Canyon is seen while in flight from Air Force One, with President Joe Biden aboard, en route to Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Grand Canyon Village, Ariz.
Alex Brandon - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Grand Canyon is seen while in flight from Air Force One, with President Joe Biden aboard, en route to Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Grand Canyon Village, Ariz.
Alex Brandon - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
FILE - The Grand Canyon National Park is covered in the morning sunlight as seen from a helicopter near Tusayan, Ariz., Oct. 5, 2013. A visit from President Joe Biden to Arizona this week is creating buzz that longtime advocates for banning mining on land around the Grand Canyon could be getting their wish. Biden’s first stop Tuesday will be near the Grand Canyon, where he’s expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve more than 1,562 square miles.
Julie Jacobson - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
FILE - Arizona's Grand Canyon is seen in this aerial photo Dec. 17, 2019. A visit from President Joe Biden to Arizona this week is creating buzz that longtime advocates for banning mining on land around the Grand Canyon could be getting their wish. Biden’s first stop Tuesday will be near the Grand Canyon, where he’s expected to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve more than 1,562 square miles.
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 (4,046 square kilometers) just outside Grand Canyon National Park, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi confirmed a day earlier. It will mark the president's fifth monument designation.
Biden arrived Monday evening at Grand Canyon National Park Airport, where he 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.
He 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 the president's remarks. Among them are 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. Uqualla is part of a group of tribal dancers who will perform a blessing.
“It's really the uranium we don't want coming out of the ground because it's going to affect everything around us — the trees, the land, the animals, the people,” Uqualla said. "It's not going to stop.”
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.
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 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.
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.
Opponents of establishing a monument have argued it won’t help combat a lingering drought and could prevent thinning of forests and stop hunters from keeping wildlife populations in check. Ranchers in Utah near the Arizona border say the monument designation would strip them of privately owned land.
The landscape of Arizona's political delegation has since changed considerably. Gov. Katie Hobbs, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, are all on board. Hobbs, a Democrat, has openly urged Biden to issue a designation. In a letter sent to Biden in May, Hobbs claimed that she heard from people across the political spectrum, including sporting groups and outdoor groups, in support of a monument.
Mining companies and the areas that would benefit from their business remain vehemently opposed. Buster Johnson, a Mohave County supervisor, said the monument proposal feels solely politically driven and there should have been another hearing on the matter. He doesn't see the point of not tapping into uranium and making the country less dependent on Russia.
“We need uranium for the security of our country,” Johnson said. “We're out of the game.”
No uranium mines are operating in Arizona, although the Pinyon Plain Mine just south of Grand Canyon National Park has been under development for years. Other claims are grandfathered in. The federal government has said nearly a dozen mines within the area that has been withdrawn from new mining claims could still potentially open, even with the monument designation, because their claims were established before 2012.
After Arizona, Biden will go on to Albuquerque on Wednesday, where he will talk about how fighting climate change has created new jobs. He’ll then visit Salt Lake City on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the PACT Act, which provides new benefits to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances. He’ll also hold a reelection fundraiser in each city.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Post a comment as Anonymous Commenter
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.