The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe has long advocated for the protection of the region's natural and cultural resources.[10] Spirit Mountain was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. After a proposed large-scale wind farm faced opposition from local Searchlight residents, residents and tribal groups began a push for national monument designation in 2020.[7] The Clark County Commission voted unanimously to support the monument. In February 2022 U.S. Representative Dina Titus introduced a bill that would have designated Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument.[17][18] Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited the area to discuss the region's significance in September,[19] before BLM director Tracy Stone-Manning hosted a town hall meeting in November.[13] On November 30, 2022, President Biden announced to attendees of the White House Tribal Nations Summit that he was committed to protecting the area around Spirit Mountain.[14]
Though most of the proposed boundaries already excluded wind energy, the monument designation prevents the development of new wind and solar power, putting land conservation in contention with reducing emissions.[20] Previous proposals for a wind farm had been blocked by the Bureau of Land Management,[14] and the creation of the monument ended speculation for the revised 308 MW Kulning Wind Energy Project.[20][21] Solar power developers requested that an area near Laughlin, Nevada, be excluded for the proposed 2,500 acre, 400 MW Angora Solar Project, which would have transmission to the former Mohave Power Station,[22][23][20] but this carve-out was not included in the final monument designation.[24]
President Biden announced the creation of the monument at the White House Conservation in Action Summit with tribal leaders on March 21, 2023, along with Castner Range National Monument.[25] There was a delay of more than three months in designating the monument after President Biden said he would do so, in part due to difficulties in scheduling an event in Nevada to make the proclamation.[6] Local reporters expected Biden to make the designation on a trip to Las Vegas on March 14,[26] but plans changed when members of Congress were unable to attend.[27] Part of President Biden's 30 by 30 conservation goals, Avi Kwa Ame was his largest act of land protection, surpassing Camp Hale—Continental Divide National Monument,[27] until he designated Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August. The final monument designation was slightly larger than the approximately 450,000 acres (1,800 km2) proposed by advocates, as it also included three wilderness areas already protected within Lake Mead National Recreation Area, including Spirit Mountain itself.[9][28]
The monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service; it is not a unit of Park Service, as its portion overlaps Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Small areas are owned by the Bureau of Reclamation and will be transferred to the BLM.[8]
In recognition of Indigenous influence on the area, the monument will have an advisory committee with a majority of members belonging to Tribal Nations, and the Tribal Nations will be involved in co-stewardship of the monument similar to the management of Bears Ears National Monument.[7]
^Paul Jackson, Jr. (December 1, 2021). Avi Kwa Ame: Road to 30 Postcards. Center for Western Priorities. Event occurs at 0:07. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
^"Avi Kwa Ame National Monument". Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition. 2023. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023. Pronounced Ah-VEE kwa-ah-may.
^Munro, Pamela; Brown, Nellie; Crawford, Judith G. (1992). A Mojave Dictionary(PDF). Los Angeles: University of California. pp. 36, 123. Archived(PDF) from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
