In August 2025, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Colorado River Indian Tribes, and Morongo Band of Mission Indians, filed to intervene in Torongo v. Burgum. The case, which was brought in Michigan federal court by an individual miner and a national off-road vehicle special interest group, seeks to dismantle protections for the Chuckwalla National Monument. Chuckwalla is in southeastern California and is part of the traditional homelands of several Tribal Nations who led the movement to protect the region with national monument designation.
Background:
After years of advocacy from Tribal Nations and local communities, Chuckwalla National Monument was established in 2025 to protect more than 624,000 acres of national public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park. The monument reaches from the Coachella Valley region in the west to near the Colorado River in the east. Local leaders and residents advocated for the monument in order to boost the local economy, protect Tribal lands and items, preserve access to places for camping, hiking, hunting, and off-highway vehicle use, and protect wildlife habitat.
Chuckwalla is part of the traditional homelands of the Tribal Nations, federally recognized Indian tribes who are among the Iviatim (Cahuilla), Nüwü (Chemehuevi), Pipa Aha Macav (Mojave), Kwatsáan (Quechan), Maara’yam and Marringayam (Serrano), and other Indigenous peoples. For generations, the Tribal Nations have used the area for food and trade, to conduct religious ceremonies, and to raise their families, and Tribal Nations continue these connections today.
Like the wide-bodied lizard found throughout its landscape, Chuckwalla National Monument derives its very name from the Cahuilla word čáxwal. Its ancient trails remain sacred to the Tribal Nations. They, along with tools, habitation sites, petroglyphs, and pictographs, mark the area with religious, historic, and cultural significance for the Tribal Nations. In total, they help ensure that Tribal Nations can maintain their ways of life for generations to come.
These lands and items, however, have been under threat from things like looting, vandalism, and desecration. In seeking national monument status, the Tribal Nations sought to safeguard the area’s diverse geographic landscape, its sacred and historic places, its ecological, geological, and cultural resources, and the plant and animal species located within. The Tribal Nations’ advocacy bore fruit. In January 2025, President Biden established Chuckwalla National Monument. The designation extended new legal protections to Chuckwalla and provided for Tribal co-stewardship of the Monument.
Now, Chuckwalla’s protections are under threat. In May 2025, an individual miner from Michigan and a national off-road vehicle special interest group sued the federal government challenging the monument’s designation.
CASE UPDATES:
August 2025: Tribes file to intervene in suit challenging Chuckwalla National Monument
On Monday, August 11, 2025, on behalf of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Chemeheuvi Indian Tribe, Colorado River Indian Tribes, and Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Native American Rights Fund filed to intervene in Torongo v. Burgum, a case that threatens the long-sought designation of the Chuckwalla National Monument. Tribal Nations led the effort to establish Chuckwalla National Monument. They were joined by local and state governmental entities, local businesses, California elected officials, and other local organizations.
The case was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, by a national off-road vehicle special interest group and a Michigan man who says he has mining claims within the Monument.
As leaders in the original efforts to establish the monument with unique interests in protecting their traditional homelands, the Tribal Nations in the Chuckwalla region seek to intervene in the suit. The Tribal Nations have cultural, historical, spiritual, and governmental interests in Chuckwalla. The suit threatens Tribal co-stewardship provisions and it would undo Tribal efforts to establish the monument in the first place.
“For years, we worked with our neighbors across southeastern California to get this monument designation. This unique landscape is valued by so many in the region for its beauty, spirit, and wildlife. For the Torres Martinez, the region embodies our people’s origin stories, cultural traditions, and spiritual practices. We are committed to protecting Chuckwalla.”
– Chair Joseph Mirelez, Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.
“An important part of the national monument designation at Chuckwalla is that it recognizes the role of Indigenous people in land management. The monument’s Tribal Commission brings Native voices to the table and recognizes the value of knowledge that we have passed down from generation to generation.”
– President Jonathan E. Koteen, Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe.
“The connection between the lands, waters, and wildlife of Chuckwalla and our people is hard to express when it comes to shared spiritual cultural sites, areas, and places. We have lived here for so many generations. We are committed to taking care of these lands as they have taken care of us. Getting the national monument designation was one step in that process.”
– Chairman Daniel Leivas, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe
“Tribal Nations led the efforts to protect Chuckwalla National Monument. We have unique interests in this landscape. It is part of our ancestral home, and it is a cultural and religious place that we have spent years working to protect and continue to maintain. We deserve to be heard in the Torongo case.”
– Chairwoman Amelia Flores, Colorado River Indian Tribes
“You can find our ancestors’ marks across the Chuckwalla National Monument. Indigenous people have been here for all of recorded history, and we continue to be here today. We continue to come to Chuckwalla and maintain our cultural heritage. Without protections, that heritage is threatened by vandalism and desecration.”
– Chairman Charles Martin, Morongo Band of Mission Indians
“The Tribal Nations in the Chuckwalla region advocated vigorously to protect their homelands and the many historic and scientific items within Chuckwalla from looting and destruction. As the original stewards of Chuckwalla, they are entitled to participate in the defense against this attack. They are committed to protecting their homelands.”
– NARF Staff Attorney Lenny Powell
