‘A place to heal’: Native tribes urge Biden to protect sacred lands before leaving White House

Environmental groups are also petitioning Biden to protect Sattitla, Kw'tsan and Chuckwalla in California

Hidden amid a vast expanse of snow-brushed pines in northern California is a rare, half-million-year-old volcano called Sattitla. Thousands of years ago, its flows created crystalline mountains of obsidian and dim grey bands of pumice rock, which from a bird's-eye view look like ripples of taffy.

When you're there, you really do feel like you're in another world, or on the moon or even another planet," said Brandi McDaniels, a member of the Pit River Tribe in northern California, whose ancestral homelands encompass the area. The way it glistens and twinkles - deep black, but shiny like diamonds."