Honoring tribes by protecting their lands of heritage, Biden commits to make a huge tract off-limits to development

Proposed monument area (NPCA, OpenStreetMap adapted by The Rural Blog)

Spirit Mountain boasts a 5,642-foot-high summit peak, which is the highest point in the stunning Spirit Mountain Wilderness near Searchlight, Nevada. According to Fort Mojave and 11 other tribes, their ancestors emerged from the rocks and their mystical strength lives through the sacred mountains.

President Biden "pledged Wednesday to put hundreds of thousands of acres off-limits to development in southern Nevada around Spirit Mountain" under the 1906 Antiquities Act "A broad coalition backs the move, but renewable energy firms have raised concerns," reports Dan Michalski of The Washington Post.

"This expanse of Nevada offers some of the best prospects for clean energy development in the country," Michalski writes. "The canyons here produce tremendous wind, and the sun shines 292 days per year, usually without any cloud cover. The area also boasts dozens of mining claims for rare earth elements, now coveted by the clean tech sector." Solar energy firm Avantus says it supports the monument but wants an exception: a narrow path "that 'avoids all cultural and environmentally sensitive areas' so renewable energy companies can access transmission infrastructure from a long-decommissioned coal-fired plant in Laughlin."

Native Americans "have often been pressured to make concessions in the past," Michalski notes, but "this marks a rare instance in which they have driven the process — bolstered by the support of environmental groups, lawmakers and the rural business community."

“There’s a spiritual connection that makes us Mojave people,” Tim Williams, chair of the tribal council told Michalski. “If it’s not protected, our generation will not have done our job.”

Neal Desai, a senior project manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, who has been spent more than a decade working to protect the area, told Michalski, "This is the missing link connecting the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Plateau. . . . Wind and solar companies will have to stay on the other side of the monument boundaries."

Many activists feel the land can support the people through "businesses related to camping, hunting, birding, hiking, stargazing and other forms of outdoor recreation," Michalski writes. It is also an area that will protect animals. "This 700-square-mile expanse will allow desert tortoises, bighorn sheep, golden eagles and dozens of other species to live and migrate uninterrupted."