The White House announced that President Joe Biden will establish two new national monuments to protect 848,000 acres of public lands in California. One of these sites holds cultural significance to a couple of neighboring Arizona tribes.
The 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument is located just south of Joshua Tree National Park, where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet. This arid landscape is also home to more than 50 rare plant and animal species, including the desert bighorn sheep, Agassiz’s desert tortoise and namesake Chuckwalla lizard.
The Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe and Colorado River Indian Tribes maintain ancestral ties to the area — west of the Arizona-California border — in addition to the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi and Serrano peoples…