Tribal leaders urged lawmakers Wednesday to pass a package of bills that would protect cultural and sacred sites by creating a new tribal cultural areas designation and require Native input on any decisions on those lands.
Legislation was introduced today to protect one of the most culturally significant and ecologically fragile landscapes in the Southwest. The Great Bend of the Gila Conservation Act will establish a 330,000-acre conservation area, as well as the 47,000-acre Palo Verde National Conservation Area and nearly 60,000-acres of new wilderness in the Sonoran Desert.