Chuckwalla National Monument, one of America's newest protected public lands, is more than an epic expanse of towering rocks, hidden canyons, ghost flowers, smoke trees and its namesake lizard.

Stretching across 624,000 acres from the Coachella Valley to the Colorado River at the state's border with Arizona, this landscape possesses a spirit and energy that flow through every object, every living thing and every molecule of air within it, according to tribal members.

The ecosystem's essential cultural role is the galvanizing sentiment behind the recent creation of an unprecedented commission for California that brings together five tribes to advise the U.S. government on the management of a monument that holds specific meaning to each and is a treasure to all.

The Torres Martinez Desert

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