Spirit Moves

Now that Spirit Mountain’s National monument designation is official, what’s the future of Avi Kwa Ame?

BY Anne Davis

Avi Kwa Ame (or its Anglicized equivalent, Spirit Mountain) is likely familiar to environmental news watchers. And since President Biden officially designated the sacred area as a national monument under the Antiquities Act on March 21, Spirit Mountain will likely become familiar to all Nevadans soon, too.

Biden’s declaration was the culmination of decades of work by Indigenous and environmental advocates to block more than 500,000 acres of Native ancestral land about 80 miles south of Las Vegas from development. Taylor Patterson, the executive director of Native Voters Alliance Nevada, says, “All of us, as Indigenous people, have fought really hard to hold onto our traditions, and to be able to access the same places that our ancestors did is really vital for all of our youth and the generations coming up after us.”

National monument status means Spirit

Mountain is excluded from future development proposals (a point of contention recently) and will close what advocates call a “doughnut hole” of unprotected land between California and Arizona, creating a corridor of continuous protected space between the three states.

U.S. Representative Dina Titus, who predicted the designation would come this spring, emphasizes how beneficial the new National Monument is for all involved. “It’s bringing more dollars to the area, it’s going to save a sacred place, it’s going to protect the land, it’s going to keep it from being developed,” she says.

Avi Kwa Ame National Monument also represents the determination of Indigenous Peoples who consider the area sacred. UNLV anthropology professor Nicholas Barron says actions that some people see as strictly symbolic can have significant material impacts on tribal communities. “It’s just another way for a tribe to exercise their sovereign rights through these avenues that we don’t always necessarily see as being inherently political,” Barron says.

The conversation on Avi Kwa Ame has not ended — it’s simply shifted to focus on a new stage of the conservation process, Patterson says. “Next on the list is just figuring out what type of management plan works best and allows the most sovereignty for the Fort Mojave Indian tribe and some of the other tribes that are involved.” ✦

FOLLOW UPDATES: At press time, state and local officials were reacting to the president’s declaration.

Avi Kwa Ame is considered a sacred space for 12 Indigenous tribes and is home to Native rock art, the world’s most expansive Joshua tree forest, and numerous endemic species of wildlife. Here’s a snapshot of the road to preservation.

 Spirit Mountain conservation was notably discussed by Yuman elders in 1988, when they laid out a preservation plan.

 In 1992, the Fort Mojave Tribal Council passed a resolution to protect Spirit Mountain as a way to fight encroachment and damage.

 Seven years later, at the approval of the Bureau of Land Management, Spirit Mountain was added to the National Registry of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property.

 In 2002, the mountain and its 33,500 adjacent acres were named the Spirit Mountain Wilderness.

 2019 brought renewed calls for protecting the area: The Fort Mojave Tribal Council once again passed a resolution, this time urging officials to designate Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument.

 In 2021, in response to the Fort Mojave Tribal Council’s resolution, dozens of other tribal nations and city governments also endorsed national monument designation.

 Over the past few years, Avi Kwa Ame has been the proposed site for multiple wind farms.

Sources: Bureau of Land Management; honorspiritmountain.org