Biden to visit Coachella Valley, possibly announcing nat’l monument

President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel Tuesday to the Coachella Valley, possibly to announce a new national monument located south of Joshua Tree National Park.

The president and first lady Jill Biden will travel Monday to New Orleans, where they “will grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack” on Bourbon Street that occurred on New Year’s Day “and meet with officials on the ground,” according to the White House. Fifteen people died and dozens suffered injuries when an alleged terrorist drove a truck into a crowd.

The Bidens will then go to Los Angeles later Monday.

On Tuesday the president will be in the eastern Coachella Valley, the White House announced. No additional information about the trip was provided.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Biden is on the verge of signing a proclamation to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument in southeastern Riverside County. The federal protection would ban drilling, mining and other energy- and industrial-related activity within the monument’s boundaries. The newspaper reported that Biden also intends a similar designation for land surrounding the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California.

Leaders from Southern California tribes went to the nation’s capital last year to advocate for protecting the homelands of local Indigenous cultures. The proposed Chuckwalla monument includes the traditional homes of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan and Maara’yam peoples, also known as the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mohave or CRIT Mohave, Quechan and Serrano nations.

“Since time immemorial, we have called the lands in the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument home,” Secretary Altrena Santillanes of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians said in an August statement. “These lands contain thousands of cultural places and objects of vital importance to the history and identity of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.”

The tribes proposed a monument that would include about 627,000 acres of public lands with an additional 17,000 acres in the Eagle Mountains.

Monument supporters said it would also “protect important heritage values tied to the land, such as multi-use trail systems established by Indigenous peoples and sacred sites,” while also further recognizing tribal sovereignty and allowing for new ways for tribes to co-steward their homelands with federal agencies.

Advocates said public-land status would also help ensure more equitable access to nature for communities in the eastern Coachella Valley and surrounding areas. Popular trails and interesting destinations that would receive federal protection as part of the monument include Painted Canyon and Box Canyon in the Mecca Hills area, Corn Springs Campground and the Bradshaw Trail.

The potential monument holds spiritual significance and contains natural resources sustaining multiple Indigenous peoples, according to the advocacy group Protect Chuckwalla National Monument.

The organization noted that the monument’s proposed boundaries were in synch with the developmental Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. The boundaries were intended to not interfere with DRECP areas that may be suitable for renewable energy development, with the DRECP identifying areas in the eastern Coachella Valley necessary for biological conservation.

“As the original stewards of these lands we have been tasked with preserving the cultural, natural, and spiritual values imparted by our ancestors,” David Harper of the Mojave Elders for the Colorado River Indian Tribes said in a statement. “Therefore, caring for these lands is a sacred duty and honor.”

In 2024 at least 24 members of the California congressional delegation, including Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Indio, and U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, called for a Presidential Proclamation under the 1906 Antiquities Act to officially establish the national monument.

The Chuckwalla monument also drew support from a number of tribal leaders and representatives, at least eight city councils in the Coachella Valley and more than 225 area businesses and organizations.

“For the Quechan people, a national monument designation status for the land means preserving the lifeways, culture, stories and teachings that connect us to our past, present and future,” Donald Medart Jr. of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe Council said in a statement. “We’re calling on President Biden to help us continue to share the beauty of these places that our ancestors entrusted us to steward by indefinitely protecting them.”

More information about the campaign to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument is available via protectchuckwalla.org.

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