A group of North Dakota tribal citizens and conservation advocates are calling on President Joe Biden to make roughly 140,000 acres of undeveloped federal land in western North Dakota a national monument.

The proposed Maah Daah Hey National Monument would preserve land recognized as sacred by members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and other Native cultures, advocates said during a Friday press conference at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum.

“Maah Daah Hey” means “grandfather, long-lasting” in the Mandan language.

With its close proximity to President Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the area is popularly remembered for its ties to the former president and cowboy culture.

The country should honor Native historical and cultural ties to the land as well, said Michael Barthelemy, director of Native Studies at Nueta, Hidatsa, Sahnish College in New Town.

“What we’re proposing, as part of this national monument, is a reorientation around that narrative,” Barthelemy said. “When you look at the national parks and you look at the state parks, oftentimes there’s a singular perspective — as Indigenous people, we kind of play background characters.”

The monument would include 11 different plots of land along the Maah Daah Hey Trail between the north and south units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Badlands Conservation Alliance Executive Director Shannon Straight likened the proposal to “stringing together the pearls of the Badlands.”

The tribal councils of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, the Spirit Lake Nation and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have passed resolutions supporting the creation of the monument.

“It is important that the Indigenous history of the North Dakota Badlands is formally recognized,” state Rep. Lisa Finley-DeVille, D-Mandaree, said during the presentation. “If created, the Maah Daah Hey National Monument would also allow Indigenous people to reconnect to our ancestral lands.”

The land is managed by the United States Forest Service. Turning the 11 plots into a national monument would protect them from future development, according to the group’s proposal.

The land is surrounded by oil and gas development, maps included in the proposal show.

In addition to being an area of significant cultural heritage for Native tribes, it’s also home to sensitive ecosystems, unique geological features and fossil sites, the proposal indicates.

Dakota Resource Council Executive Director Scott Skokos said Friday the group has visited Washington, D.C., twice so far to speak with President Biden’s administration — including the U.S. Forest Service, Department of the Interior, United States Department of Agriculture — about the proposed monument.

“The reception has been pretty good,” Skokos said.

He said the group hopes to see action from Biden on the monument before he leaves office in January, but is also open to working with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration on the project.

“We believe this is a good idea, regardless of who’s president,” Skokos said.

Advocates said the designation would not impact recreational access to the land, and that cattle grazing would still be permitted.

In a statement to the North Dakota Monitor, U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., called the proposal “premature at best.” He said he was not convinced the proposal had sufficient local support from North Dakota residents and worried the project would “lock away land as conservation.”

“Any proposal should have extensive review as well as strong support from local communities and the stakeholders who actually use the land,” he said.

When asked for comment, the North Dakota governor’s office provided this statement from Gov. Doug Burgum, who Trump has chosen as the next Department of Interior secretary: “North Dakota is proof that we can protect our precious parks, cultural heritage and natural resources AND responsibly and sustainably develop our vast energy resources.”

To learn more about the proposal, visit protectmdh.com. The website also includes a petition.

Presidents can designate federal land as national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The first land to receive this status was Devils Tower in Wyoming, which Roosevelt proclaimed a national monument that same year.

Should Maah Daah Hey become a national monument, it’d be the first of its kind in North Dakota.

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A coalition of conservation groups and Native American tribal citizens on Friday called on President Joe Biden to designate nearly 140,000 acres of rugged, scenic Badlands as North Dakota’s first national monument, a proposal several tribal nations say would preserve the area’s indigenous and cultural heritage.

The proposed Maah Daah Hey National Monument would encompass 11 noncontiguous, newly designated units totaling 139,729 acres (56,546 hectares) in the Little Missouri National Grassland. The proposed units would hug the popular recreation trail of the same name and neighbor Theodore Roosevelt National Park, named for the 26th president who ranched and roamed in the Badlands as a young man in the 1880s.

“When you tell the story of landscape, you have to tell the story of people,” said Michael Barthelemy, an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and director of Native American studies at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College. “You have to tell the story of the people that first inhabited those places and the symbiotic relationship between the people and the landscape, how the people worked to shape the land and how the land worked to shape the people.”

The U.S. Forest Service would manage the proposed monument. The National Park Service oversees many national monuments, which are similar to national parks and usually designated by the president to protect the landscape’s features.

Supporters have traveled twice to Washington to meet with White House, Interior Department, Forest Service and Department of Agriculture officials. But the effort faces an uphill battle with less than two months remaining in Biden’s term and potential headwinds in President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

If unsuccessful, the group would turn to the Trump administration “because we believe this is a good idea regardless of who’s president,” Dakota Resource Council Executive Director Scott Skokos said.

Dozens if not hundreds of oil and natural gas wells dot the landscape where the proposed monument would span, according to the supporters’ map. But the proposed units have no oil and gas leases, private inholdings or surface occupancy, and no grazing leases would be removed, said North Dakota Wildlife Federation Executive Director John Bradley.

The proposal is supported by the MHA Nation, the Spirit Lake Tribe and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe through council resolutions.

If created, the monument would help tribal citizens stay connected to their identity, said Democratic state Rep. Lisa Finley-DeVille, an MHA Nation enrolled member.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service. In a written statement, Burgum said: “North Dakota is proof that we can protect our precious parks, cultural heritage and natural resources AND responsibly develop our vast energy resources.”

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven’s office said Friday was the first they had heard of the proposal, “but any effort that would make it harder for ranchers to operate and that could restrict multiple use, including energy development, is going to raise concerns with Senator Hoeven.”

FARGO — Two people were injured in a separate domestic aggravated assault and shooting Saturday, Nov. 23, and the suspect is dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Fargo Police Department said.

Fargo police were dispatched at 2:19 a.m. to a report of a domestic aggravated assault and shooting in the 5500 block of 36th Avenue South, a police department news release said.

When officers arrived, they learned the suspect had committed aggravated assault on a victim, chased that person into an occupied neighboring townhouse and fired shots into the unit.

Another person inside the townhouse was struck by gunfire, police said. Both victims were taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Officers found the suspect’s vehicle parked in the 800 block of 34th Street North by using a FLOCK camera system to identify a possible route of travel from the crime scene, the release said.

Police also used Red River Valley SWAT’s armored Bearcat vehicle to get close to the suspect’s vehicle to make contact with the driver, who was not responding to officers’ verbal commands to come out of the vehicle.

The regional drone team flew a drone to get a closer look inside the suspect’s vehicle. Officers found the suspect was dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the release said.

This investigation is still active and ongoing. No names were released by police on Saturday morning.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Red River Regional Dispatch at 701-451-7660 and request to speak with a shift commander. Anonymous tips can be submitted by texting keyword FARGOPD and the tip to 847411.