The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service held a public meeting in northern Arizona on Tuesday on a new tribally-proposed national monument near the Grand Canyon.
It would protect over one million acres of land for tribes that call the canyon home.
The proposed national monument is called Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni, a combination of phrases from the Hopi and Havasupai languages.
In addition to conserving what the tribes regard as sacred land, it would make permanent an already existing ban on uranium mining in the region, and would help protect water sources that flow into the Colorado River.
Dianna Sue WhiteDove Uqualla is a member of the Havasupai tribal council.
“We always protected this place with respect, honor and dignity because our elders before us understood the connection to the Mother Earth," she said. "Everything upon this earth, especially out at the Grand Canyon Rim – it has medicine.”
U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Krysten Sinema of Arizona have introduced a bill to create the national monument.
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