President signs proclamations protecting nearly 120,000 acres

Vehicles are parked along a proposed expansion area of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in the Angeles National Forest on April 16, 2024 near La Cañada Flintridge, California. (Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Chairman Octavio Escobedo III of the Tejon Indian Tribe stepped foot inside the White House for the first time Thursday to watch President Joe Biden sign a proclamation the tribe had sought for many years.

“To have a seat at the table and to be in the Oval Office is truly special,” Escobedo told ICT. “It was just a great honor to represent my people and the tribes that have worked and suffered to get here.”

The proclamation was one of two signed Thursday, May 2, by Biden, expanding the San Gabriel Mountain National Monument by more than 100,000 acres and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in northern California by about 13,500 acres.

This story first published at ICTnews.org. It is republished here with permission.

The proclamations will mean additional protections of ancestral lands for the Tejon Indian Tribe, and other tribes in the region.

The tribe participated in government-to-government consultations leading up the proclamation, which requires Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ensure that Indigenous knowledge and maximum community input is woven into the land management plan for the expanded areas.

The San Gabriel Mountains are the traditional homelands of many Indigenous nations, including the Tejon Indian Tribe. The national monument is located between Los Angeles and San Bernandino.

“The San Gabriel Mountains were the southern edge of our aboriginal territory, the Kitanemuk people,” Escobedo said. “We acknowledge Mount Baldy as a sacred place. The region in general is definitely very special to us.”

Escobedo credited the government’s work consulting with tribes for the proclamations.

“You hear about acknowledgement of sovereign nations, and consultation, government-to-government, and this is exactly an end product of that consultation with tribes and tribal input on this proclamation,” Escobedo said.

“So [this is a] very proud moment for not just our tribe, but all tribes who are able to participate in government-to-government consultation.”

The proclamations are part of Biden’s America the Beautiful Initiative that seeks to protect 30 percent of the country’s landbase by 2030. The Biden administration has already preserved 41 million acres of land and water, more than any other president in history.

The latest proclamations permanently protect the national monuments unless repealed by Congress.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1924 against the Tejon Indian Tribe’s land claim, making the California nation, which predates this country, landless for nearly a century. That changed in 2022, when 320 acres was put into trust for the nation.

“We had nothing,” Escobedo said. “We were landless.”

This history is why Escobedo describes the tribe’s inclusion in the process as historic.

In 2014, Lynn Valbuena, chairwoman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, was at the signing of the original proclamation that designated the San Gabriel Mountains as a national monument through the Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the authority to protect public lands with historic, cultural or scientific significance by designating them as national monuments.

Obama was onsite in California to sign the proclamation.

“We were right there with President (Barack) Obama doing it, and here 10 years later, we’re expanding it, too,” Valbuena said. “It’s great. … The land is so important to protect.”

Nearly every president has used the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments.

In 2018, now-vice president Kamala Harris, at the time a U.S. senator, introduced a bill that would protect the San Gabriel Mountains and rivers. Through the recent proclamation, all the lands in her bill will be protected.

“As a U.S. Senator from California, I fought to defend and grow our public lands protections, including by introducing legislation to expand the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a press release Thursday.

“Thanks to President Biden’s leadership and the dedicated organizing of advocates throughout my home state, we are making that a reality by protecting an additional 120,000 acres of lands that are culturally, ecologically, and historically important to California and our nation,” she said. “These expansions will increase access to nature, boost our outdoor economy, and honor areas of significance to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples as we continue to safeguard our public lands for all Americans and for generations to come.”

Looking ahead

Ahead of last year’s White House Tribal Nations Summit, several California Indigenous nations had been advocating for the protection of the San Gabriel Mountains, proposed Chuckwalla National Monument, and Sáttítla and Medicine Lake Highlands.

The expansion of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument is the only one to come full circle.

“This isn’t the end,” Escobedo said. “This might be the end of this one phase of the battle, but there’s still many more to go, and hopefully tribes will continue to fight for their rights as sovereign Indian nations.”

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