Five Native tribes are coming together to protect a California cultural landscape

"When an ecosystem is so ingrained in your psyche, so essential to your culture and so central to the stories you tell about your reason for being, you have no choice but to safeguard it. This is the galvanizing sentiment behind the recent creation of an unprecedented commission for California that brings together five tribes to advise the U.S. government on the management of a monument that holds specific meaning to each and is a treasure to all."

"The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, the Cahuilla Band of Indians, the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe and the Colorado River Indian Tribes each have passed resolutions recognizing their role on the commission. Processes to appoint commission members and write bylaws started this fall. "Rather than be in conflict, there is mutuality," said Daniel Leivas, chairman of the Chemehuevi."

Chuckwalla National Monument spans 624,000 acres from the Coachella Valley to the Colorado River and contains towering rocks, hidden canyons, ghost flowers, smoke trees and chuckwalla lizards. Tribal members describe the landscape as possessing a spirit and energy that flows through every object, living thing and molecule of air. Five tribes — Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla, Fort Yuma Quechan, Cahuilla Band of Indians, Chemehuevi and Colorado River Indian Tribes — passed resolutions to serve on a new advisory commission to the U.S. government. Processes to appoint members and draft bylaws began this fall to protect cultural connections amid a history of displacement and erasure.

Read at Los Angeles Times