Remarks on Signing a Proclamation Establishing the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni- Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument Near Tusayan, Arizona

This record captures the remarks President Biden delivered when signing the proclamation establishing the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument near Tusayan, Arizona in August 2023. The underlying proclamation uses the Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect approximately 1 million acres of federal lands surrounding the Grand Canyon from uranium mining and other extractive uses. The area is sacred to multiple Indigenous tribes and contains significant archaeological, cultural, and ecological resources.

The monument designation directly affects the surrounding federal lands, the tribes whose ancestral territories are within the monument, uranium mining companies that held claims in the area, and the communities and conservation groups that had long advocated for the protection. Arizona's tourism and outdoor recreation industries are also affected, as monument status can draw visitors while restricting certain commercial activities.

The signing remarks are part of the official record but carry no independent legal weight — the proclamation itself is the operative legal document. The use of the Antiquities Act for large landscape-scale monument designations has been upheld by courts but remains debated. Some in Congress and the mining industry object to the use of monument authority to foreclose significant resource extraction without legislative action.

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