Avi Kwa Ame is considered the creation site for Yuman-speaking tribes like the Fort Mojave, the Cocopah, the Quechan and the Hopi. Native tribes, environmental groups and local and state leaders have been seeking the designation for more than a decade.
“Breathtaking deserts, valleys, mountain ranges, rich in biodiversity, sacred lands that are central to the creation story of so many tribes who have been here since time immemorial,” Mr. Biden said as advocates cheered. “Look, you know, it’s a place of reverence, it’s a place of spirituality, it’s a place of healing and now it will be recognized for its significance as a whole and will be preserved forever.”
Native groups celebrated the moment and its meaning for preservation of their heritage. “This is truly a historic day as it signifies a change in posture toward Indigenous people from the federal government than that which we are unfortunately used to by now,” said Taylor Patterson, executive director of Native Voters Alliance Nevada.
The Biden Administration’s Environmental Agenda
Castner Range, located at the Army base Fort Bliss, served as a training and testing site for the U.S. Army during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War until it closed in 1966. The range includes archaeological sites, some prehistoric, that feature cave etchings made by Native Americans and stone shelters built by ranchers more than a century ago. The terrain is filled with Mexican yellow poppies and is home to the checkered whiptail lizard, desert cottontail and Western desert tarantula.
It is also littered with thousands of rounds of unexploded ordnance. Once the area is made safe for the public, Castner Range will provide access to nature for the historically underserved communities bordering the range, according to a White House statement. In the 1950s, the novelist Jack Kerouac extolled the view from the range in “The Dharma Bums,” writing of seeing “all of Mexico, all of Chihuahua, the entire sand-glittering desert of it, under a late sinking moon that was huge and bright.”
