Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 115 Part 3.djvu/496

 115 STAT. 2570 PROCLAMATION 7394—JAN. 17, 2001 tions 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 Ofiate 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 ot approximately 4,148 acres, winch 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

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