Sáttítla Medicine Lake Highlands

Sáttítla, Medicine Lake Highlands, with Mount Shasta in the distance

source: Bob Wick

In November 2023 the Pit River Nation submitted a proposal to President Biden and launched a campaign to protect Sáttítla, an area of great cultural and ecological significance in the Medicine Lake Highlands.

The proposal requested that Sáttítla—the Pit River Nation’s traditional name for the upper elevations of the Medicine Lake Highlands—be designated as a national monument under the Antiquities Act.  New projects involving industrial activities that cause environmental damage would be banned on about 200,005 acres of land managed by the US Forest Service.

On January 14, 2025, President Joe Biden signed an official proclamation designating the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in Northern California.

Add your name to the growing list of people supporting the national monument protections that have been put in place for important cultural, sacred, and traditional lands known as Sáttítla.

Medicine Lake Highlands Little Mount Hoffman 2024

Medicine Lake Highlands - view from Little Mount Hoffman

source: Nick Joslin

Questions about Sáttítla and National Monument Designation

Do national monuments allow agencies access to fight wildfires and other natural disasters?
Fire agencies like CAL FIRE, the US Forest Service, and local entities retain their full existing authority and ability to fight wildfires in national monuments. Further, designating new national monuments can potentially help reduce the risk of wildfire by increasing agency staff and funding to patrol for new wildfire ignitions, increasing enforcement of fire rules, reducing new high-risk development, and restoring forests. For example, Berryessa Snow Mountain and Mojave Trails National Monuments each have a designated Bureau of Land Management (BLM) staff member to help manage these lands.

Are recreational activities permitted in national monuments?
National monuments protect public lands and waters and help enhance access to nature so that current and future generations can enjoy outdoor recreation. Depending on the activities available in the area and the monument’s management plan, permitted activities may include hiking, camping, picnicking, hunting, fishing, horseback riding, climbing, and riding motorized vehicles on appropriate and designated routes. Most national monuments also allow dogs.
The management of these areas takes into consideration local priorities that may include assessing opportunities to improve quiet recreational access, preserving Tribal culture and religious activities, and promoting cooperative conservation and management opportunities to enhance and restore wildlife habitat and corridors. Historically, monuments can also help bring in additional resources for recreation management and improve visitor experience.

Protect Medicine Lake Highlands Statements by Pit River Tribe
source: Pit River Nation – video duration: 11 minutes, 26 seconds

Little Medicine Lake Modoc County

Little Medicine Lake

source: Nick Joslin

Medicine Lake Flyover Eco Tour August 2024
source: Eco-Flight : video duration: 48 seconds

Medicine Lake and Lava Beds Flyover Eco Tour August 2024
source: Eco-Flight : video duration: 1 minute, 3 seconds

Sáttítla from the sky 2024

Sáttítla View From Airplane 2024

source: Eco-Flight video

Our Historical Involvement with Medicine Lake Highlands

Environmental and Cultural Significance
Located 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta, the remote and spectacular Medicine Lake Highlands encompass California’s most diverse volcanic fields on the continent’s largest shield volcano and huge source of water.

The azure waters of Medicine Lake lie embedded in this 500,000-year sculpture of volcanic fury, with its striking variety of lava flows, clear lakes, mountains of glass-like obsidian, white pumice, dark boulders, and silver-green mountain hemlock. The area’s clear skies are home to eagles, goshawks, and rare bats. Tall forests shelter spotted owls, Sierra martens, Pacific fishers, and sensitive plants. The biological integrity of the Highlands is essential to habitat connectivity in the region.

For ten thousand years this landscape has been a place of traditional spiritual practice to the Ahjumawi (Pit River) and Modoc, as well as to more distant tribes. In Native American creation stories, this landscape is a living scripture, and today they continue their prayer, vision questing, healing, and subsistence practices in the Highlands. The National Register of Historic Places has designated a 113-square-mile Medicine Lake Highlands Traditional Cultural District in 1999 and 2005 that recognizes the cultural significance of the area.

A huge water resource for California

The Medicine Lake Volcano is an enormous pristine hydrological recharge and storage area for California’s water supply. It captures and discharges over 1.2 million acre-feet of snowmelt annually, emerging as the Fall River Springs, the largest spring system in the state, which sustains a world-class trout fishery before it flows into Shasta Lake Reservoir and the Sacramento River,[1] serving millions of Californians downstream.

A recent hydrogeological study identified significant data gaps and outdated baseline information pointing to the need for extensive scientific studies in order to protect this major groundwater resource.

“The Medicine Lake Aquifer provides an enormous free reservoir of pristine drinking water to the State of California that is always available and that buffers drought and surplus resources for farms and cities throughout the state,” said Dr. Robert Curry, the registered hydrogeologist who authored the study.

Industrial development threats and challenges

Since 1997, the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center and our Native American and environmental allies have been battling multinational geothermal corporations to assure that polluting industrial geothermal energy development with associated hydraulic fracturing, acid leaching and habitat fragmentation will not get a foothold on this sacred ground.

Stanford Environmental Law Clinic has worked with us through administrative and court challenges, bringing a 2010 victory in the 9th Circuit Court that resulted in retraction of some of the lease extensions and called for a new environmental review. Our second court case successfully disputed the remaining lease extensions in 2019.

Taking the campaign to the state and national levels

We have initiated forming an Alliance of statewide and national organizations who are helping us raise the visibility of the importance of permanently protecting the area, while we continue fostering our close regional partnerships that include Stanford Law Clinic, the Pit River Nation, Native Coalition, and Trout Unlimited.

With the Pit River Nation rightfully taking the lead on the Sáttítla National Monument designation, we at the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center continue our lead role in the environmental field by supporting the Tribe and advocating not only for the Sáttítla National Monument, but also for an Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW) designation for the Medicine Lake Volcanic Basin/Fall River Springs hydrologic system. This designation would add a significant layer of protection for these pristine waters and benefit communities who rely on the million-plus acre-feet of pure water that supplies a world-class trout fishery and millions of water users downstream.


[1] Dr. Robert R. Curry. California’s Water Future: Hydrological Report on the Risks to the Medicine Lake Volcano Aquifers Associated with Geothermal Development, March 2014.

Save Medicine Lake!
Help Keep Medicine Lake Wild
legacy video source: Medicine River Media : video duration: 20 minutes, 44 seconds