Sen. Heinrich looks to establish Bandelier as national park

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Senator Martin Heinrich is pushing ahead with a bill to establish Bandelier Monument as a national park.

The bill would help build a stronger relationship between the National Park Service and pueblos by permanently safeguarding tribes’ religious rights and practices in Bandelier. It will also establish a tribal advisory commission that provides guidance for park management.

“Creating this new national park is in my view the best way to ensure that Bandelier’s cultural treasures and northern New Mexico’s history and beauty receive the recognition nationally and protection that they have always deserved,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich.

Bandelier dates back 10,000 years where pueblo people built homes, dug kivas, and planted crops leaving behind what Heinrich calls a “living cultural landscape.”