[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 3 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Pages 145-147]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
 Proclamation 7394--Establishment of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks 
National Monument

 January 17, 2001

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    Located on the Pajarito Plateau in north central New Mexico, the 
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is a remarkable outdoor 
laboratory, offering an opportunity to observe, study, and experience 
the geologic processes that shape natural landscapes, as well as other 
cultural and biological objects of interest. The area is rich in pumice, 
ash, and tuff deposits, the light-colored, cone-shaped tent rock 
formations that are the products of explosive volcanic eruptions that 
occurred between 6 and 7 million years ago. Small canyons lead inward 
from cliff faces, and over time, wind and water have scooped openings of 
all shapes and sizes in the rocks and have contoured the ends of the 
ravines and canyons into smooth semicircles. In these canyons, erosion-
resistant caprocks

[[Page 146]]

protect the softer tents below. While the formations are uniform in 
shape, they vary in height from a few feet to 90 feet, and the layering 
of volcanic material intersperses bands of grey with beige colored rock.
    Amid the formations and in contrast to the muted colors of the rocks 
of the monument, vibrant green leaves and red bark of manzanita, a 
shrubby species from the Sierra Madre of Mexico, cling to the cracks and 
crevices of the cliff faces. Red-tailed hawks, kestrels, violet-green 
swallows, and Western bluebirds soar above the canyons and use the 
pinion and ponderosa covered terrain near the cliffs.
    The complex landscape and spectacular geologic scenery of the Kasha-
Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument has been a focal point for visitors 
for centuries. Human settlement is believed to have begun in the 
monument as a series of campsites during the Archaic period, from 
approximately 5500 B.C. During the fifteenth century, several large 
ancestral pueblos were established in the area. Their descendants, the 
Pueblo de Cochiti, still inhabit the surrounding area. Although the 
Spanish explorer Don Juan de Onate reached the Pajarito Plateau in 1598, 
it was not until the late eighteenth century that families began to 
claim land grants around Tent Rocks from the Spanish Crown. Remnants of 
human history are scattered throughout the monument.
    Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), 
authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public 
proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, 
and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated 
upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United 
States to be national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof 
parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to 
the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the 
objects to be protected.
    Whereas  it appears that it would be in the public interest to 
reserve such lands as a national monument to be known as the Kasha-
Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument:
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Act 
of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there 
are hereby set apart and reserved as the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks 
National Monument, for the purpose of protecting the objects identified 
above, all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the 
United States within the boundaries of the area described on the map 
entitled ``Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument'' attached to and 
forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land and interests in 
land reserved consist of approximately 4,148 acres, which is the 
smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the 
objects to be protected.
    All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of 
this monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of 
entry, location, selection, sale, or leasing or other disposition under 
the public land laws, including but not limited to withdrawal from 
location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and from disposition 
under all laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing, other than by 
exchange that furthers the protective purposes of the monument.
    For the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, the 
Secretary shall prohibit all motorized and mechanized vehicle use off 
road, except for emergency or authorized administrative purposes.
    Lands and interests in lands within the proposed monument not owned 
by the United States shall be reserved as a part of the monument upon 
acquisition of title thereto by the United States.
    The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument through the 
Bureau of Land Management, pursuant to applicable legal authorities and 
in close cooperation with the Pueblo de Cochiti, to implement the 
purposes of this proclamation.
    The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare, within 3 years of this 
date, a management plan for this monument, and shall promulgate such 
regulations for its management as he deems appropriate. The management 
plan shall include appropriate transportation planning that addresses 
the actions, including

[[Page 147]]

road closures or travel restrictions, necessary to protect the objects 
identified in this proclamation and to further the purposes of the 
American Indian Religious Freedom Act of August 11, 1978 (42 U.S.C. 
1996).
    Only a very small amount of livestock grazing occurs inside the 
monument. The Secretary of the Interior shall retire the portion of the 
grazing allotments within the monument, pursuant to applicable law, 
unless the Secretary specifically finds that livestock grazing will 
advance the purposes of the proclamation.
    The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing 
rights.
    Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish 
the jurisdiction of the State of New Mexico with respect to fish and 
wildlife management.
    This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of Federal law. 
Nothing in this reservation shall be construed as a relinquishment or 
reduction of any water use or rights reserved or appropriated by the 
United States on or before the date of this proclamation. The Secretary 
shall work with appropriate State authorities to ensure that any water 
resources needed for monument purposes are available.
    Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing 
withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the national 
monument shall be the dominant reservation.
    Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to 
appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of this monument and 
not to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day 
of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
fifth.
                                            William J. Clinton

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 19, 
2001]

  Note:  This proclamation was published in the  Federal Register  on 
January 22.