Update on the Grand Canyon Monument!

I have great news to share with you.

You may remember back in May, we sent out a petition urging President Biden to protect the surrounding areas of the Grand Canyon from uranium mining by creating a national monument. Thousands of people signed on and sent a clear message to the White House. This week, President Biden officially created a national monument to protect the area surrounding the Grand Canyon!

"We must act fast to conserve this land, of ancestral footprints, for all future generations."

An indigenous-led effort, the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument is aptly named. "Baaj Nwaavjo" means "where tribes roam," for the Havasupai people, while "I'tah Kukveni" translates to "our footprints," for the Hopi tribe. The monument protects lands sacred to Native Americans and permanently bans uranium mining in the nearly 1,000-acre area.

"Over the years, hundreds of millions of people have traveled the Grand Canyon awed by its majesty, but fewer are aware of its full history. From time immemorial, more than a dozen Tribal Nations have lived, gathered, prayed on these lands, but some one hundred years ago they were forced out. That very act that was used to preserve the Grand Canyon into a National Park was used to deny Indigenous people full access to their homelands."

The decision is applauded by many, including Chairman of the Havasupai Tribe, Thomas Siyuja Sr.; the Hopi Tribe; Chairman of the Moapa Band of Paiutes, Greg Anderson; Navajo Nation President Nygren; Chairwoman for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Corrina Bow; the Pueblo of Zuni, President of the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe Johnny Lehi Jr., Chairwoman for the Shivwits Band of Paiutes Hope Silvas, Chairwoman for the Yavapai-Apache Nation Tanya Lewis, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Tribes have passed resolutions supporting the effort to memorialize tribal lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park. Municipalities, including the City of Flagstaff, have passed resolutions supporting efforts to conserve additional lands in the Grand Canyon region.

This announcement is part of the Biden-Harris Administration's America the Beautiful Initiative, which supports locally-led conservation efforts nationwide to conserve and restore 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

Our movement is powerful. When people like you and me come together, our actions can make a big difference for our planet.

Here at Global Warming Solutions, we are committed to helping elect climate champions AND holding them accountable! But we can't do it alone.

More soon,

Rob