America’s most important conservation law turns 120

Acadia. Olympic. Zion. The Grand Canyon. Before becoming beloved national parks, each was first designated as a national monument under the Antiquities Act, one of our most important conservation laws. Long before that, they were stewarded by Indigenous peoples who have maintained connections to these lands for generations.

Now entering its 120th year, the law gives U.S. presidents the authority to protect lands and waters of natural, cultural or historical significance. Congress passed the Antiquities Act in 1906, and since then, nearly every president, 18 in all, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, has established or expanded more than 160 national monuments across the country.

Monday, June 8, marked the 120th anniversary of this remarkable law that has set aside some of our most iconic national lands for public and scientific use. This law has preserved outdoor access for local communities, petroglyphs and cliff dwellings, historical sites that explain the American story, forested watersheds that provide clean drinking water, fossil beds teeming with ancient life, migratory corridors for wildlife and landscapes that help buffer the impacts of climate change.

The law is as vital as ever—today and for the future generations who will inherit these special places. Here’s a brief history of its legacy—a legacy that, for 120 years, has protected some of America’s most treasured places and ensured that people have the freedom to enjoy the nation’s most remarkable landscapes.

By the turn of the 20th century, after decades of westward expansion, looting and vandalism of cultural and burial sites surged, especially in the Southwest. Driven by profit and pressure, looters raided archaeological sites to sell artifacts to museums and private collectors eager to display “treasures.” 

“To appreciate the legacy of the Antiquities Act, it is helpful to consider its place alongside other conservation authorities,” writes Mark Squillace, author and natural resource law professor at the University of Colorado School of Law. “At the time it was enacted in 1906, Congress had enacted no other laws that specifically authorized the President to set aside lands for preservation purposes.” 

In direct response, Congress passed the Antiquities Act in 1906, becoming America’s first law to protect cultural and natural heritage, and empowering the president to act swiftly with authority delegated by Congress. President Theodore Roosevelt wasted no time putting it to use, designating Devils Tower (Mato Tipila in Lakota, or Bear Lodge), a sacred site to many Tribal Nations, in Wyoming as the first national monument later that year. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Congress passed the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, which granted Tribal Nations and their descendants the right to reclaim human remains and cultural objects from federal agencies and museums.

Roosevelt’s passion for preservation didn’t stop there. In 1903, President Roosevelt stood on the rim of Arizona’s epic chasm and remarked, “The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison—beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world... Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness." 

In 1908, he used the Antiquities Act to protect 800,000 acres in Arizona when he designated the Grand Canyon National Monument. This designation spurred the first legal challenge against the use of the Act, claiming the monument was bigger than the “smallest area necessary to protect the objects.” But the Supreme Court ruled that the protection of the massive Grand Canyon as "an object of unusual scientific interest," was warranted. 

The Court went on to say, “[The Grand Canyon] is the greatest eroded canyon in the United States, if not in the world, is over a mile in depth, has attracted wide attention among explorers and scientists, affords an unexampled field for geologic study, is regarded as one of the great natural wonders, and annually draws to its borders thousands of visitors.” In 2023, 4.7 million people visited the park, supporting thousands of local jobs and infusing the Arizona economy with $1 billion. 

According to John Leshy, former solicitor at the Department of the Interior and a well-known scholar of conservation law, numerous Supreme Court and lower court decisions have rejected challenges to the Antiquities Act. 

The Antiquities Act grants presidents the ability to designate federal public lands, waters and cultural and historical sites as national monuments. However, at his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Secretary Burgum offered a limited view of the Act’s purpose, stating it should be used for “Indiana Jones-type archaeological protections.” 

This narrow interpretation overlooks the broader scientific and cultural importance of large, intact landscapes. These areas are crucial for maintaining ecological integrity, a key factor in protecting vulnerable species by ensuring they have adequate space, resources and connectivity. Intact ecosystems also provide essential services, such as clean water, flood control, carbon storage, and pollination, all of which help buffer against the impacts of climate change. Human activities that fragment and degrade natural habitats are the leading drivers of biodiversity loss in the United States. 

Equally important is the cultural richness of these landscapes. For example, in Bears Ears National Monument, scientists have found evidence of plant communities still living around ancient habitation sites. These culturally significant plants, valued for their nutritional and medicinal properties, were intentionally cultivated by Indigenous peoples. The connection between cultural sites and plant communities forms an “ecological legacy” of long-term human stewardship. Protecting these landscapes on a large scale is essential to preserving that history and connection.

In 2016, President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument, named after its distinctive twin buttes, in southeast Utah. By this point, the Antiquities Act had been broadly used to protect cultural and sacred sites, but what set this apart was the leadership of Tribal Nations. 

The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, an alliance of leaders from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe and Ute Indian Tribe, became the first intertribal coalition to advocate for and help manage a national monument. 

These Tribes formed a Commission that is part of a co-management structure representing a new model of public lands management that honors Tribal sovereignty and incorporates Traditional Indigenous Knowledge to protect the cultural values of the monument.  This approach reflects a broader global reality: although Indigenous people make up just 5% of the global population, they are protecting 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity, according to Australia’s 2021 State of the Environment report. 

In 2017, vast portions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah were slashed by the Trump administration, triggering legal battles over whether a president has the power to undo what the Antiquities Act authorizes only to do.

Despite the attempt at reductions, the law remains clear. Several environmental lawyers summarized that presidents do not have the authority to revoke, downsize or weaken protections of national monuments designated by their predecessors; only Congress has that power.

Meanwhile, in Congress, Senator Mike Lee and Representative Celeste Maloy are actively attempting to erode protections for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument through use of the arcane Congressional Review Act. Their efforts target the monument’s land use plan – the blueprint that guides how the landscapes’ ecological, cultural and recreational resources are managed. Overturning this plan risks protections for nearly 1.9 million acres of public lands and unravels more than two years of collaborative planning with Tribal Nations, local communities, scientists, recreationists and the public.

You can take action to protect Grand Staircase-Escalante here.

As we celebrate 120 years of the Antiquities Act, we continue to fight for our national monuments and the storied legacy the law represents . Its next chapter depends on all of us speaking out, showing up and standing up for the places that define us.