national monuments

Protections continue for Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument

April 9, 2026Matthew Campbell

On April 1, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the Arizona Legislature’s challenge to Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The decision leaves the monument in place and fully protected. You can see the decision here:

2026-04-01 25-1370 Memorandum – 9th Cir USCA Download

In September of 2024, the District Court denied, without prejudice, the Tribes’ motion to intervene in this case, finding the United States adequately represented the Tribes’ interests at that time. Here is that order:

2024-9-9 DOC 72 Order denying Motions to Intervene Tribal Nations, and Conservation Intervenors, granting State intervenors 4887-3571-0947 v.1 Download

The Ninth Circuit’s April 1 decision affirms the District Court decision dismissing the two consolidated cases filed against the Monument designation.

The National Monument protects thousands of historic and scientific objects, sacred places, vital water sources, and the ancestral homelands of many Indigenous Peoples. Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni lands include cultural and sacred places of the Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Navajo Nation, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Pueblo of Zuni, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The Monument receives its name from the Indigenous names given to the area by the Havasupai and Hopi. Baaj nwaavjo (BAAHJ – NUH-WAAHV-JOH) means “where Indigenous peoples roam” in the Havasupai language, and i’tah kukveni (EE-TAH – KOOK-VENNY) means “our ancestral footprints” in the Hopi language.

Learn More: Arizona Legislature v. Biden

PR_BEITC_recommendations_8-24-17

Updated Bears Ears Coverage

August 25, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

WaPo: “Interior secretary recommends Trump alter at least three national monuments, including Bears Ears”

NYTs: “Interior Secretary Proposes Shrinking Four National Monuments“

WaPo: “Meet the nation’s most endangered monuments”

August 23, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

“Presidents Lack the Authority to Abolish or Diminish National Monuments” (Published Version)

June 13, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Mark Squillace, Eric Biber, Nicholas S. Bryner, & Sean B. Hecht have published “Presidents Lack the Authority to Abolish or Diminish National Monuments” in the Virginia Law Review Online. PDF

An excerpt:

The narrow authority granted to the President to reserve land[11] under the Antiquities Act stands in marked contrast to contemporaneous laws that delegated much broader executive authority to designate, repeal, or modify other types of federal reservations of public lands. For example, the Pickett Act of 1910 allowed the President to withdraw public lands from “settlement, location, sale, or entry” and reserve these lands for a wide range of specified purposes “until revoked by him or an Act of Congress.”[12] Likewise, the Forest Service Organic Act of 1897 authorized the President “to modify any Executive order that has been or may hereafter be made establishing any forest reserve, and by such modification may reduce the area or change the boundary lines of such reserve, or may vacate altogether any order creating such reserve.”[13]

Unlike the Pickett Act and the Forest Service Organic Administration Act, the Antiquities Act withholds authority from the President to change or revoke a national monument designation. That authority remains with Congress under the Property Clause.

“California attorney general to Trump: You can’t touch our national monuments”

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the L.A. Times.

HT.

“‘Spiteful and petty’: Maine governor bans signs to Obama-designated monument”

May 21, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Guardian, here.

Katahdin is the Penobscots’ sacred mountain. When you look north as the river splits into its east and west branches, you look directly at Katahdin.

Legal Planet: “Politicians and Commentators Who Criticize Recent National Monuments Are Making Up Their Own Version of History”

May 20, 2017May 20, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

By Sean Hecht (“Go Blue”), here.

An excerpt:

But the idea that large monument designations are new or inappropriate is, much like other current right-wing narratives about the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies, a false story based on false history. Bears Ears contains tens of thousands of culturally and archaeologically significant sites. In this case, as in others, preserving a large area of land is warranted in order to adequately protect unique ecological and cultural resources. Beyond that, the history of the Act’s application, and the history of court decisions interpreting the Act, demonstrate that since the Act’s enactment, Presidents have lawfully designated large monuments to protect landscapes, ecosystems, and natural features as well as culturally important sites.

I haven’t done the math to fact-check the claim by Secretary Zinke that “since the 1900s, when the Act was first used, the average size of national monuments exploded from an average of 422 acres per monument.” The claim is written so ambiguously that it may mean any number of things. But any cursory look at the history of monument designations reveals that this claim, and similar claims by Sen. Hatch and others, are false or extraordinarily misleading.

In fact, the Antiquities Act has been used to protect enormous areas of land since 1908, when President Roosevelt designated the 818,000-acre Grand Canyon National Monument. He also designated the 615,000-acre Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909, and the 60,000-acre Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906, within a few months of the passage of the Act.

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And from HuffPo: “Why Trump Doesn’t Have The Power To Mess With National Monuments.”

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