Rising above a corner of southwestern Nevada, Spirit Mountain is a sacred place to Native American tribes.

An effort is underway to protect the lands and the legacy for generations to come.

Los Angeles Times Louis Sahagún joined “LA Times Today” host Lisa McRee to talk about preservation efforts at Spirit Mountain.

Sahagún shared where Spirit Mountain is, and why it’s so important to indigenous tribes.

“Just about a four-hour drive east of downtown Los Angeles, Spirit Mountain rises like a Sentinel over a primeval land of boulders, of granite outcroppings, of gorges that change color by the minute. It’s strewn with petroglyphs, filled with paintings that were made 6,000 years ago. It is also a place that is home to guiding spirits that are alive and important for tribes... It is home to spiritual entities that gave relevance to the landscape for the very first settlers of the Southwest.”

The mountain’s history goes back 9,000 years. Native people treat Spirit Mountain as a church of sorts. And now, they are trying to preserve it at a federal level by making it the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. 

“The Fort Mojave Tribes believe that the entities that guide them at Spirit Mountain have empowered and obligated them to protect it from exploitation,” said Sahagún. “Wind farm developers have had their eye [on Spirit Mountain] for a long time. You’ve got that tribe working on behalf of 10 Mojave tribes. You also have this eclectic group of artists, poets and activists who adores that mountain almost much as the Native Americans.”

Tribes also want to use the land around Spirit Mountain to grow their businesses.

“What they’re pitching to small towns like Searchlight in the vicinity is that they could become stewards of the desert,” Sahagún said. “They could take on a new brand, beyond casinos, and set up ecotourism.”

In the meantime, advocates are waiting for Congress to preserve the land or for President Joe Biden to designate it as a national monument.

Click the arrow above to watch the full interview.

Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.