The Interior Department released hundreds of heavily redacted documents on Monday from a two-week review in February. These records contain action plans for national monuments and mineral withdrawals across the U.S. to accelerate President Donald Trump’s American energy agenda.
“This is over-redacted in a way that is almost laughable,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the nonpartisan Center for Western Priorities. “Clearly, they don’t want to say what they’re up to.”
None of the 468 pages reveal any recommendations for several national monuments of cultural significance to tribes scattered throughout the Southwest.
The Trump administration has been eyeing to shrink large swaths of federally protected lands to expedite the extraction of oil, gas and critical minerals — including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Chuckwalla in California as well as Arizona’s Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni that former President Joe Biden designated in 2023.
In a statement, the Interior Department told KJZZ these internal working documents contain “a large amount of pre-decisional and deliberative information,” which it argues is shielded by law.
“It seems like you’re having it both ways,” added Weiss. “Either you had to have action plans completed in 14 days, or they drafted up a bunch of deliberative action plans and didn’t actually finish them.”
The federal agency would not disclose when its final plans will be released.
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From frybread to biscochitos, Indigenous cooks have relied on Blue Bird Flour in its iconic cotton bag since the 1930s. The Southwest staple has now found space inside the Heard Museum in Phoenix. -
Tuesday marks the deadline to comment on a Trump administration proposal that could roll back a two-decade ban on mineral leases — including oil and gas drilling — around Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. -
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower district court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit from 2024 that looked to overturn Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — or the Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon. -
Navajos refer to Monument Valley as Tsé Bii’ Ndzisgaii, which essentially means “the streaks that go around in the rocks.” If you ever take a road trip there, you’ll see why this legendary landscape is so much more than just a movie set. -
Despite being under new ownership, the Resolution Copper president and general manager stresses Oak Flat will remain mostly untouched. Chí’chil Biłdagoteel, as Apaches call it, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
