This national monument is “a part of the true history of the United States.” Will it survive in Trump 2.0? |California

IIt is easy to get lost in the remote northeastern Satra Heights California. There are miles of lava fields, untouched forests and obsidian mountains. By night, darkness and silence stretched infinitely.

This is one of the latest national monuments in the United States. This is also one of the most threatened.

In January, the Pete River Tribe celebrates decades of victory Joe Biden Federal protection has been provided for nearly 230,000 acres of forest land by establishing the Satra Heights National Monument.

The declaration reads: “The awesome geological wonders that are collectively described here as the Sátítla Highlands have formed the homeland of indigenous communities and cultures for a thousand-year-old motherland.”

The tribe fought with environmental groups for many years to protect the land from industrial energy development. The area north of Mount Shasta is entertaining, the darkest night sky in the United States, home to the tribe’s story-making and regularly used in rituals.

“This is a place of healing for our people. It’s really tied to our traditional health,” said Brandy McDaniels, a member of the Pitt River tribe. “We have been working hard to defend this field all our lives.”

The name ensures future energy development and mineral extraction while using it for public entertainment.

But in March, Donald Trump said he would pull Biden’s actions and withdraw protections of Sátítla and Chuckwalla National Monuments, which he believes is “locking large amounts of land from economic development and energy production.”

Although legal experts say the president has no clear mechanism to revoke monument protection (only narrowing it down), the Justice Department argued in a recent memorandum that Trump “changed previous manifesto” was in Trump’s power, suggesting that the administration will continue to work to remove the national monument designation of thousands of acres of wilderness.

Now, as the tribe attempts to move forward, another battle may take place after years of court hearings and protests with limited resources, unpaid lawyers and “take every penny”.

“Almost like you’re in another world”

Located five hours northeast of the California State Capitol, Sátítla is located in a sparsely populated area and is out of the way.

“If you were to go there, you wouldn’t try to get to other places. It was very dark, very quiet, and there was no cell phone reception,” said Nick Joslin, director of policy and advocacy for the regional environmental advocacy group. “It’s easy to get lost.”

The 224,676 acres of the monument include part of Modoc, Shasta-Trintial and Klamath National Forest, are home to endangered, rare flora and fauna, with a large number of underground volcanic aquifers that provide water to millions of people and store water with 200 waters in California’s largest ground storage. Due to heavy snow, it can only enter a few months of the year through cars.

The landscape, along with its old growing pine forest island, snow-covered mountains and scattered lakes, is amazing and otherworldly. Jocelyn said it is full of unique geological features such as ice caves, lava tubes and lava flows. Then there is the dormant volcano from 500,000 years ago, about 10 times the size of Mount St. Helens in the monument. Locals usually camp, hike hundreds of miles of trails or take a boat ride on the Medical Lake.

“It’s a place known for its high-quality silence, and you can’t experience its night sky anywhere else,” McDaniels said. “Depending on your location, people describe it as almost like you’re in another world, just like you’re on another planet.”

There are signs of human destruction. The forest fragments on the chessboard have been clearly cut down, and there are two large trees on the large tract of land that look like toothpicks in the air.

For the indigenous peoples, this area is the location for the Peter River tribe’s creative narrative. There the tribe held important rituals and collected berries such as Manzanita and gooseberry plants, sugar pine seeds, and plants used for medicinal abilities.

“The landscape in this area literally tells the history of our people. In this way, it is part of the true history of the United States of America,” McDanils said.

An undeveloped landscape is under threat

She added that the tribe had fought for nearly three decades to protect the area, challenging geothermal development and mass logging.

Since Sátítla is a volcanic region, there are speculations that there might be enough heat to develop geothermal resources, and in the 1980s the federal government granted a lease on thousands of acres to private energy companies.

Sivas said the Environmental Law Clinic conducted a series of lawsuits on behalf of the tribe, challenging some of the leases and extensions of proposed projects, and believed that the federal government failed to consult with the tribe. Industrial energy development will require a huge shift in the landscape, while tribes oppose intrusions of sacred lands and fear that hydraulic fracturing used to generate geothermal energy may contaminate the aquifers.

In the end, Sivas said there is no resource potential. Just two days after the monument declaration, the final solution with Calpine, the remaining last company controlling the land, was signed.

Joslin noted that while the community has broad support for the monument, some elected officials in the conservative area are more modest.

Regions of Congressman Doug Lamalfa include Sátítla, who described Biden’s behavior as “executive over-division” and argued that it would “pose unnecessary challenges to land management, especially in preventing wildfires and maintaining the uses of local residents.”

But there is no organized opposition party to the monument.

The president has the right to grant protection status with cultural, scientific or historical resources of national significance, which Biden and other presidents often use for protection and support of tribes.

Sivas said that in the case of Sátítla, the name could prevent industrial energy development but not recreationality, or prohibit the U.S. Forest Service from doing wildfire management.

But Trump, as part of his pro-capital agenda, took a combative stance on national monuments, cutting Utah’s bear ears and the size of the national monuments In his first semester (The subsequent move by Biden reversed). Earlier this month, the Ministry of Justice Post a memorandum of comments It is believed that Trump has the right not only to shrink, but also to completely abolish the national monuments created by his predecessors.

But the legal arguments about the position seem fragile. Sivas said the Antiquities Act is a regulation that designates national monuments and does not give the president the power to do so.

“There is no language there that shows that he can stand out or go back on what the previous president did,” Sivas said, adding that the government’s recent arguments are not particularly persuasive.

Sivas said the move appears to be a test of the limitations of the president’s power given the objection to Sáttítla. She added that if the government does roll back, legal proceedings will be taken, which she hopes will go to the Supreme Court.

“If this happens, we’ll file a lawsuit. It’s a kind of canary in the coal mine.”

McDaniels described the rollback protection efforts as “confused.” She pointed to the speech of Home Secretary Doug Burgum to the American Indian National Congress, who showed that he did not believe that the country’s “most valuable places,” such as parks and monuments, should be targeted at development.

But the tribe is focused on celebrating the monuments, introducing the public to the importance of these lands and ensuring it continues to be a place of treatment for indigenous peoples with a long history of genocide and injustice, McDaniels said.

“If we keep fighting to protect our sacred land, we can’t start,” McDaniels said.

“This is the children we don’t want, our grandchildren and all the descendants. Everyone should have the right to experience the gift this land has to offer people.”