Indigenous, Hispano, State Leaders Call on Biden Administration to Protect Caja del Rio

SANTA FE, N.M. - Indigenous, Hispano, and state leaders called on the federal government to protect the Caja del Rio so that wildlife habitat, cultural and historic sites, traditional land uses, and recreational opportunities can be protected. The New Mexico State Land Office issued an executive order that will ban new mining and the construction of large transmission lines and major thoroughfares on state lands located on the Caja del Rio Plateau. It follows the adoption of resolutions by the All Pueblo Council of Governors and Santa Fe County asking the Biden Administration to designate the Caja del Rio as a national monument

"The permanent protection of the Caja del Rio is a top priority for the Indigenous Peoples who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial. The Pueblos and Tribes in the region maintain strong ties to these lands through story, song, pilgrimage, hunting, medicinal gathering, and prayer, so it is vital that the lands are protected from development, vandalism, and reckless shooting," said Garrit Voggesser, senior director of Tribal partnerships and policy at the National Wildlife Federation. "The Biden Administration should safeguard this important landscape through national monument designation."

In working with local Hispano communities and Native Pueblos, the New Mexico Land Office issued protections that continue to honor the traditional and cultural land uses of medicinal and herb gathering, firewood and pinon gathering, hunting, grazing, and pilgrimage and prayer that takes place on this landscape. The order applies to 3,487 acres of surface and 5,523 acres of subsurface mineral rights on state trust lands within the Caja del Rio.