Native American Heritage Month offers all Americans the opportunity to recognize and honor tribes who understood the value of wilderness long before European Americans ever laid eyes on bison or redwoods—or, indeed, decided to call certain places “wilderness.”

A number of the national monuments, parks and other sites we cherish contain major historical and cultural resources connected to these tribes. In many cases, the land that surrounds them might not have remained in good condition without the Antiquities Act, a law passed in 1906 that allowed presidents to protect natural and cultural sites as national monuments. The Antiquities Act was first signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt and has been used on a bipartisan basis by 16 presidents since then (including President Barack Obama). It is likely that some of these special places would have been obscured by development—or demolished entirely—without this law and the strong movement to preserve public lands that it exemplifies.

Right now, treasured landscapes like Utah's Bears Ears and Nevada's Gold Butte are in desperate need of similar attention. Home to countless important Native American archaeological and cultural sites, they have recently fallen prey to vandalism, reckless off-road vehicle use and other destructive behavior.

In November, let's take a look at some places that preserve traces of Native American culture that are hundreds (or even thousands) of years old, and think of the spots that still need to be protected.