On Bahsahwahbee, Nevada voters want action by the Biden-Harris administration, not promises

Landscape view of Bahsahwahbee from Rose Guano Mountain. (Photo: Monte Sanford)

The Biden-Harris Administration committed to standing up for tribal sovereignty, preserving our public lands and cultural sites, and ensuring our national parks tell America’s complete story. The Administration even asked for Tribal-led conservation campaigns. Our tribes have delivered for them just that with Bahsahwahbee, a place in eastern Nevada where our people – our families – were murdered during religious gatherings.

For years, we’ve been calling on the Administration to establish the Bahsahwahbee National Monument within the National Park System. But with the clock winding down, we find ourselves asking, “Is the Biden-Harris Administration committed to delivering this monument for the benefit of our tribes and Nevadans, or will this be the latest case of government talk but no action?”

Honoring a place of religious gathering comparable to the Vatican and a mass graveyard not unlike Arlington National Cemetery shouldn’t be political, but tribes are not naive to the fact that we are in the middle of a high-stakes election year. Every vote matters in purple states like Nevada, and decision-making by the Biden-Harris Administration will naturally run through the political lens.

According to the Center for Western Priorities, voters in Nevada want their elected officials to take more conservation actions. They don’t want promises; they want action. A poll from 2023 found that 77% of Nevada voters supported President Biden in designating Bahsahwahbee as a national monument. More than 70% of voters are more likely to support candidates who prioritize protecting and investing in national parks and monuments.

Indigenous-led efforts like Bahsahwahbee are also becoming increasingly more important for the voting public, in part because there is growing awareness of how poorly Tribal nations have been treated – and not just historically.

But things are changing. Our campaign received a boost recently when Senator Cortez Masto introduced legislation to establish the Bahsahwahbee National Monument — a bill intended to spur the Administration to act.

It would be a major blow to our tribes if the Administration didn’t follow through. Tribal elders have died in this process of bringing our Bahsahwahbee campaign to the Administration. Our Tribal leaders and membership put everything they had into it. If our calls continue to go unanswered, what are we to make of this Administration that would abandon 3 Tribal nations who simply wanted a nationally significant place of serial massacres and religious gathering to be preserved and commemorated? What are we to make of an Administration that would abandon our families?

During President Biden’s address to the Nation on July 25, 2024, he said: “This sacred task of perfecting our union is about you, your families, and your futures; it’s about ‘we the people’”. He went on to say that “The decisions we make now determine the fate of our Nation and the world for decades to come. America’s gonna have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division. We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect?”

With those words from the President, I hope the Biden-Harris Administration will rise to the occasion with Bahsahwahbee.

To me, our Tribes’ request to the President to designate the Bahsahwahbee National Monument within the National Park System is good for Tribes, Nevadans, and the Nation. That means it’s good politics too.