Chair Grijalva Introduces Bill to Protect Tribal Cultural, Historical, and Natural Resources of Great Bend of the Gila in Southern Arizona

Press Release

Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today introduced the Great Bend of the Gila Conservation Act to protect one of the most culturally significant and ecologically fragile landscapes in the southwestern United States. The bill will establish the 330,000-acre Great Bend of the Gila National Conservation Area, the 47,000-acre Paolo Verde National Conservation Area, and nearly 60,000 acres of new wilderness.

The full text of the bill is available here.

A fact sheet on the bill is available here.

The area designated by the Great Bend of the Gila Conservation Act, located in the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona, includes numerous cultural, historical, and natural resources, many of which are considered sacred to Native Americans in the area. At least 13 federally recognized tribes retain cultural connections to this landscape. For thousands of years, the Great Bend of the Gila was a meeting point for diverse peoples and cultures, who built villages, cultivated the landscape through innovative irrigation canals, and left countless petroglyphs and other forms of rock art.

"The Great Bend of the Gila Conservation Act represents nearly a decade of work, not just by me, but by the tribes and Indigenous communities who consider the Great Bend sacred," Chair Grijalva said. "Together, we crafted legislation that will be clear and purposeful in making tribal and Indigenous involvement critical to the stewardship of these public lands and special places. The Inter-Tribal Commission at Bears Ears National Monument is setting the standard for what tribal co-management of public lands can be--this bill will expand that legacy to southern Arizona, and I couldn't be prouder. I'm grateful to the tribes who have helped shape this legislation and I hope my colleagues will honor that work by supporting this bill."

The Great Bend of the Gila Conservation will protect the Great Bend of the Gila from further degradation, limit destructive development of roads, withdraw lands from new mineral development, and require the development of new management plans to prevent resource damage. The legislation honors commitments to restore both ecological integrities and tribal nations' sovereign interests in the proper treatment and management of public lands. The bill also significantly enhances the role of tribes in the stewardship of the newly established site, and explicitly incorporates tribal cultural resources protection and Indigenous uses as a core function of the Great Bend of the Gila National Conservation Area.

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