President Joe Biden has designated two new national monuments: Castner Range, a lush mountainous area in West Texas that once served as a military training ground; and Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada. Its name comes from the Mojave word for Spirit Mountain. It’s a biologically diverse and culturally significant swath of land bordering several other protected areas in the region.
Avi Kwa Ame sits at the southern tip of Nevada, south of Las Vegas and at the convergence of the Arizona and California borders. The craggy, rugged landscape is part of the Mojave Desert. It’s home to abundant plant and animal life and is also among the most sacred areas for a dozen Southwestern tribes.
“This is where our creation story begins,” says Timothy Williams, chairman of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. “Much like other religions, they have a place of creation. There’s definitely some areas within their own stories that are sacred to them. And this is our place, Avi Kwa Ame, the mountain.”
Williams accompanied President Biden last week as he signed the declaration at a conservation summit in Washington D.C. The half-million-acre expanse is the president’s largest monument designation to date and only the second time such a declaration has been made to preserve Indigenous culture and heritage. Avi Kwa Ame’s centerpiece is Spirit Mountain, which is the spiritual birthplace of several Southwestern tribes.
“There are different stories for different tribes in their connection, from a spiritual standpoint, that make this mountain so special to us,” he says. “Each time you go up there you just feel something different up there. So powerful. It can knock you to your knees.”
Spirit Mountain was listed on the national Register of Historic Places in 1999. For over a decade the Mojave and other tribes and conservationists have pushed for the federal protection of the larger area. Spirit Mountain itself is also sacred to the Hopi and Southern Paiute.
“We have had people moving through Avi Kwa Ame forever, for generations and generations,” says Taylor Patterson, who has advocated for the national monument designation for years as a member of the Bishop Paiute Tribe and the executive director of Native Voters Alliance Nevada. “All of the tribes that call the Southwest home have moved through this area and found it to be really important and really significant.”
Patterson, who also joined the president for the monument signing ceremony, says Avi Kwa Ame is a key migration route for bighorn sheep and a critical habitat for desert tortoises, bald eagles and many migratory birds. You can also find some of the largest and oldest Joshua trees in the country there.
“Keeping this landscape intact is the most important part,” she says. “People make the mistake of the desert being desolate, but we know there’s so much there. You can really see that in full spectrum in Avi Kwa Ame.”
The national monument designation shields Avi Kwa Ame from possible wind-energy projects and mining development. It’s home to petroglyphs and an unknown number of culturally significant spaces and archaeological sites amid the picturesque desert landscape. There’s even an historic ranch once owned by silent film stars Clara Bow and Rex Bell in the 1930s.
“It’s gorgeous,” says Patterson. “And one of my favorite things is to take people out to Avi Kwa Ame that have never been there before because everybody’s hearts and minds are really changed by the area when they get to really take a look.”
Biden’s monument designation under the Antiquities Act comes as Indigenous peoples in the West fight mining projects backed by his administration on sacred lands. The U-S Forest Service plans to move ahead with the land swap of Oak Flat in Arizona, paving the way for one of the nation’s largest copper mines. In northern Nevada, construction has begun on a lithium mine at another sacred site. Still, dozens of Southwestern tribes along with local governments supported the president’s designation of Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument.
