Establishment of the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument

( printed page 6727) Proclamation 10882 of January 14, 2025 Establishment of the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument A Proclamation In northern California, the awe-inspiring geological wonders collectively described here as the Sáttítla Highlands have framed the homelands of Indigenous communities and cultures for millennia, and today this area continues to cradle historic and scientific treasures of our Nation. At this area's core rests a sleeping giant: the Medicine Lake Volcano. This massive volcano—one of the two largest volcanos in the Cascades Volcanic Arc—covers an expanse roughly 10 times that of Mount St. Helens, Washington. “Medicine Lake,” as labeled in English on some maps since approximately 1890, is found within the summit caldera of the volcano for which it is named. Far earlier and through the present day, however, these stunning and unusual lands have been known as “Sáttítla” in the Ajumawi language, which translates to “obsidian place.” Sáttítla's obsidian deposits formed by the volcano have long been important to Indigenous peoples, as shown by obsidian tools and sites they left here from their lives and travels. The Sáttítla Highlands area as described here includes parts of the Modoc, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath National Forests, and stretches from Sharp Mountain, Wild Horse Mountain, and Little Horse Peak in the west, to Cougar Butte, Glass Mountain, and Border Mountain in the east, and to encompass the cinder cones known as Porcupine Butte, Timber Hill, Snag Hill, and Powder Hill in the south. Sáttítla includes portions of the ancestral homelands of the Pit River (Ajumawi—Atsugewi) and Modoc Peoples (Mo Wat Knii—Mo Docknii). For them and many other Indigenous peoples—including the Karuk, Klamath, Shasta, Siletz, Wintu, and Yana and individual Tribes that are members of these groups—the vol…