FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Monday, December 16
CONTACT: Garrett VeneKlasen, (505) 670-2925
Caja del Rio Coalition Delivers Groundswell of Public Support Calling on President Joe Biden to Designate Caja del Rio National Monument
Local and state elected officials, Indigenous and Hispano leaders, business leaders, and conservation groups ask the President to act before the end of his term
_________________________________________________
December 16, 2024
President Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
The Honorable Debra Haaland, Secretary
U.S. Department of Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20242
The Honorable Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20250
The Honorable Senator Martin Heinrich
United States Senate
303 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Senator Ben Ray Luján
United States Senate
498 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández
United States House of Representatives
1432 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury
1421 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Congressman Gabe Vasquez
1517 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Brenda Mallory, Chair
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Re: Support for National Monument Designation for the Caja del Rio Plateau
Dear Secretary Haaland, Secretary Vilsack, Senator Heinrich, Senator Luján, Representative Leger Fernández, Representative Stansbury, Representative Vasquez, and Chair Mallory:
On behalf of the undersigned stakeholders, state and local elected officials, permittees of federal agencies, small businesses, faith and community organizations, conservation groups, outdoor recreation organizations, sportspersons, Tribal leaders and historic Spanish land grant heirs, we write to formally state our earnest support for National Monument designation of the Caja del Rio Plateau, approximately 106,000 acres of Public Lands currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.
The Caja del Rio Plateau has an impressive range of public lands and wildlife habitat that encompass a stunning wealth of landscapes enjoyed equally by all New Mexicans and all Americans. This intact cultural landscape is a remarkable asset for Santa Fe County, the state of New Mexico and the people of the United States of America. The exercise of presidential authority under the Antiquities Act will permanently protect the intact cultural landscape that is not only sacred to the traditional communities that depend upon it, but a treasure to all people of the United States of America.
The Caja del Rio Plateau is considered one of America’s most iconic landscapes and an area of profound cultural, historical, archeological, and ecological significance. The Caja del Rio Plateau possesses dramatic topography created by geological processes stemming from volcanic activity along the Rio Grande rift. The proposed boundaries extend from Cañada Ancha in the north, to the escarpment of La Bajada to the south, and into the La Majada Mesa along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, a National Historic Trail. Public Lands span the terrain in between the Rio Grande and the Santa Fe River. The Caja del Rio Plateau contains two dynamic watersheds or “cajas” – the Santa Fe River Canyon and the Rio Grande corridor from Buckman Diversion to Cochiti Lake. Both watersheds have important cultural, hydrological, ecological, agricultural, and economic significance. The box canyon of the Rio Grande gives the plateau its place name.
With cactus forests, birds ranging from burrowing owls to bald eagles, herds of bighorn sheep, deer, elk, black bears and cougars, the Caja del Rio Plateau has provided essential habitat to wildlife for millennia. A wide variety of bird and animal species, including traditionally raised livestock, continue centuries of use in the area’s migratory corridors, breeding grounds, and relocation routes to this area of natural refuge during wildfires and changing climates. In this convergence of various wildlife habitats, the Caja del Rio Plateau acts as a linchpin of wildlife connectivity and is essential for maintaining wildlife and cattle movement throughout the upper Rio Grande corridor and beyond.
Preserving the Caja del Rio’s intact cultural and ecological landscape is critical for sustaining New Mexico’s rich and diverse culture, traditions, heritage, and the vibrant community we are blessed to collectively share. Permanent protection of the Caja del Rio Plateau defends the very core cultural identity which bonds the people of New Mexico to their natural environment.
The Caja del Rio Plateau has been a pathway for Indigenous Peoples since time immemorial. The area has been recognized by Pueblos as containing significant cultural and sacred areas. Pueblo ancestors built seasonal housing structures to support hunting and gathering that supplemented pre-contact agricultural activities in times of drought. Ceremonial kivas were established, trails and footpaths were utilized, climate management solutions to support agriculture were developed, villages were settled, and abandoned as time passed. The abundance of petroglyphs in this intact cultural landscape reveal to us the evidence of coexistence among all of the traditional communities, including Puebloan Peoples, Hispano settlers, and American trappers, traders and mercantilists. The Caja del Rio Plateau contains a dense concentration of thousands of sacred sites, structures, petroglyphs, irrigation systems and other cultural treasures, acknowledging the history of American coexistence in this intact cultural landscape. This density requires that all of the area described be preserved in perpetuity as a national treasure. These living cultural and ecological elements have been remembered in story, ceremonial song, oral history, pilgrimage, and prayer by all of the traditional communities of the Caja del Rio Plateau from generation to generation and from elders to youngsters. It is our collective will to continue to pass this knowledge on to future generations of Americans.
The Caja del Rio Plateau is a living but imperiled landscape that has been the middle ground of the historic Rio Abajo and Rio Arriba regions of New Mexico. Many people of Santa Fe County’s traditional Hispano villages maintain deep ties and living roots in the Caja del Rio cultural landscape as “Ejido” (common land) through perpetuation and practice of traditional uses ranging from religious ceremony, pilgrimage and prayer, to livestock grazing, piñón, firewood, and herb gathering. These enduring practices form distinctive traditions that enrich American society, and must continue in perpetuity.
The area is home to significant portions of the National Historic Trail of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro–the longest North American trade route that ran from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo–and the 1926-1938 alignment of Route 66, which is the “Mother Road” of the United States’ westward advancement of modern culture. The abundant petroglyphs, archeological sites, and feats of historic American engineering found along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, and throughout the Caja del Rio Plateau speak to the arrival, presence, history, common culture, and sustainability of the area’s inhabitants. Caja del Rio’s Traditional Historic Communities of Santa Fe County, including Jacona, Agua Fria, La Cieneguilla, La Cienega, and La Bajada remain deeply connected to the Caja del Rio and act as living repositories of traditional ecological knowledge, and continuing stewardship of the public lands in the region.
We recognize the importance of traditional livestock production on the Caja del Rio mesa. We support continued responsible range management in perpetuity, as has been conducted through the Caja del Rio Majada Cooperative livestock permittees, and traditional Spanish land grant and acequia communities, in their capacities as political subdivisions of the state of New Mexico collaborating federal agencies.
The Caja del Rio is still used by the Pueblo Nations and traditional Hispano communities to exercise traditional land use values including hunting, fishing, grazing, wood gathering, piñon harvesting, herb and plant gathering, pilgrimage, and the historical community use of the land. Maintaining and ensuring the protection of these traditional uses through National Monument status is vital for sustaining the rich culture and identity of New Mexico and the American Southwest.
The Caja del Rio Plateau landscape and objects of historical and scientific interest are under imminent threat from theft, vandalism and desecration, rustling, illegal dumping, unfettered OHV misuse, wildlife poaching, and encroaching urban sprawl and development.
Given the remarkable geologic, paleontological, ecologic, historic, archaeological, anthropologic, cultural and spiritual values of this singular intact landscape, we urge you to expedite a national monument designation of the Caja del Rio using the presidential authority of the Antiquities Act.
The public’s interest is served now and for future generations by the exercise of the President’s executive power as afforded by the Antiquities Act to permanently protect the Caja del Rio Plateau as a National Monument.
Preliminary geodetic data and implementing proclamatory language according to the existing Public Laws of the United States of America are ready and available for your review and immediate approval.
This is the opportunity for you to leave an enduring legacy. Protecting New Mexico’s land, water, wildlife and diverse cultures is a matter of establishing harmonious governance of these public lands.
Your timely and immediate consideration is greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
Camila Bustamante
Santa Fe County Commissioner, District 3
Anna Hansen
Santa Fe County Commissioner, District 2
Senator Peter Wirth
New Mexico Senate Majority Leader
Carol Romero-Wirth
Santa Fe City Councilor, District 2
Representative Linda Serrato
New Mexico State Representative, District 45
David Fresquez
Executive Director
Santa Fe Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Renee Villarreal
Former Santa Fe City Councilor
Hispanic Conservation Leadership Council Member for HECHO
Carmichael Dominguez
Hispanic Organizer
EarthKeepers 360 and Former Santa Fe City Councilor
Julia Bernal
Executive Director
Pueblo Action Alliance
Julian Gonzales, Jr.
Grazing Permittee, Caja del Rio Majada Cooperative
La Cienega Valley Association
Joseph Brophy Toledo
Jemez Pueblo Member
Cultural Advisor, Flower Hill Institute & EarthKeepers 360
Keegan King
Founder, Executive Director
Native Lands Institute
Paul Reed
New Mexico State Director & Preservation Archaeologist
Archeology Southwest
Jesse Deubel
Executive Director
New Mexico Wildlife Federation
Michael Fiebig
Director, Southwest River Protection Program
American Rivers
Mark Allison
Executive Director
New Mexico Wild
Reverend Andrew Black
Minister of Word and Sacrament
First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe & EarthKeepers 360
Max Trujillo
Regional Field Manager
Hispanics Enjoying Camping Hunting and the Outdoors (HECHO)
Michael Casaus
New Mexico State Director
The Wilderness Society
Maude Dinan
New Mexico Program Manager
National Parks Conservation Association
Greg Peters
Public Lands & Wildlife Advocate
Conservation Voters of New Mexico
Alexandra Merlino
Executive Director
Partnership for Responsible Business
Romir Lahiri
New Mexico Associate Program Director
Conservation Lands Foundation
Judy Calman
New Mexico Policy Director
Audubon Southwest
Camila Feibelman
Executive Director
Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
