By: Mia Wang

On Tuesday, August 8, President Biden announced that a new memorial near the Grand Canyon will open. This monument will protect and preserve almost one million acres of the greater Grand Canyon and will permanently ban uranium mining.

This memorial and statemetn protects the sacred land of many Indigenous tribes like the Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, and the Navajo Nation. “They fought for decades to be able to return to these lands, to protect these lands from mining and development, to clear them from contamination, to preserve their shared legacy for future generations,” Biden said during a news conference in Arizona. (Aljazeera). For many years, Indigenous communities have been urging the government to protect the land around the Grand Canyon by stating its cultural significance.

This will be the fifth monument installed by President Biden following Nevada’s national memorial, Avi Kwa Ame. President Biden gave a speech on Tuesday and was introduced by a member of the Hualapai and Havasupai tribes, Maya Tilousi Little. In her introduction, she argued that Biden’s announcement is helping to ensure environmental justice for all people.

Biden has created four other national monuments during his presidency. On what would have been Emmet Till’s 82nd birthday, President Biden created a national monument to honor his life (NPR). The other monuments were meant to protect the land in Nevada, Colorado, and Texas. On the same day as Biden’s installation, his “administration also announced $44 million to strengthen climate resilience in the National Park system”(UPR).

Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans gathered near the Grand Canyon. These areas are significant to both our existence and the ancestry of these communities today. Now, the tribes can finally feel at ease.