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APPENDIX A 

Presidential Documents 

7343 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001

Proclamation 7394 of January 17, 2001 

Establishment of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument 

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 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 Oñate 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 
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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 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. 

Signed by President William J. Clinton