The Land Grab of Bears Ear National Monument

Author: Sarah A.

Bears Ears National Monument is an area located in southeastern Utah which is sacred to at least five Native Tribes; the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah and Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and the Pueblo of Zuni. Former President Obama made it a National Monument in 2016 to protect the site, as National Monuments are lands that are protected from development by law. Each monument has its own specific restrictions, however. For Bears Ears, federal rules forbid new mining and drilling, but allows the interior department to continue to issue things such as cattle grazing leases. When Obama issued it as a National Monument, the acreage was cut down from 1.9 million acres to 1.35 million acres as a compromise that his supporters said was needed to protect 100,000 objects of archaeological significance, including grave sites, ceremonial grounds, ancient cliff dwellings, as well as their surrounding ecosystem. This acreage cut however, is not nearly as bad as the cut that current president Trump made to the site since he has been elected into office.

Trump has essentially cut down the acreage by 85%, only leaving approximately 200,000 acres left to continue to be protected. The remaining 200,000 acres of still-protected areas were divided into two noncontiguous sections, Indian Creek and Shash Jáa. The majority of the remaining 1,150,860 acres excluded from the current administration’s monument are now open for oil and gas drilling and uranium and potash mining. In fact, publicly released Interior Department emails shows that the Bears Ears map was redrawn with potential oil and gas reserves in mind. Not only would an oil or gas mine be devastating to it’s surrounding ecosystem, but it also disrupts sacred land for the nearby Natives, affecting their ceremonies, food, and archaeological and cultural sites.

When a monument is established, the managing agency has a justification for a larger budget and staff to manage the resulting increase of visitors and to increase resource protection. This is very important for a site like Bears Ears as it is a very popular destination for rock climbers and nature lovers. Since President Trump has significantly decreased protected areas at Bears Ears, much of this sacred land is subject to escalating disturbance, destruction, vandalism, looting and desecration that will rob Native American people of spiritual connections, as well as a sense of place and history. With this lack of protection to the land, it will largely disturb the Native Peoples from being able to connect to the land, connect with their ancestors, collect herbs and medicine, forage for food, gather firewood for heating and ceremonial use, and to hunt game like they still do to this day.

This is an issue for Native People as they are apart of their land, as it is apart of them. Their land is often essential to their beliefs, practices, heritage, and well-being. Bears Ears is home to more than 100,000 Native American archaeological and cultural sites, considered sacred by many tribes. Since Trump was able to revoke Bears Ears becoming a National Monument, all of these cultural and sacred artifacts will more than likely be ruined by an oil or gas mine or by tourists coming and mistreating the land due to lack of supervision and protection.

Was Trump working within his power to revoke Bears Ears becoming a National Monument?

The Antiquities Act grants the president the authority to create national monuments, but not to revoke them. For the first time ever, five Native American tribes worked together and sued the Trump administration, arguing that President Trump was attempting to abolish the Bears Ears National Monument. Several more lawsuits have since been filed by conservation, historical and outdoor industry groups. The decision to reduce Bears Ears is expected to set off a legal battle that could alter the course of American land conservation, putting dozens of other monuments at risk and possibly opening millions of preserved public acres to oil and gas extraction, mining, logging and other commercial activities.     

In an effort to free up lands for uranium mining and other extractive industries, President Trump acted well beyond the law and well beyond the Constitutional limits of his power. Although this wasn’t the first time a president has revoked a national monument, it is still very controversial as the main outcome of doing so ruins the ecosystem and Native sacred sites. 

 Often times, the government is very insensitive to Native Peoples and doesn’t understand how sacred their lands are to them and how it is directly related to their ancestors and heritage. Native Americans are constantly left fighting for what little they have left due to the careless government. For the Tribes in Bears Ears, not only was 85% of their land taken from them, but it is broken up into two sections that aren’t even close to one another. The negative affects that this has on their spiritual beliefs, hunting, heritage and cultural sites is no doubt devastating. This is not the first nor will it be the last time that Native Americans are suffering at the hands of the government. Since many Native Americans believe that they are connected to their ancestors through their land, when the government takes their land, they are stripping something away that will affect the Native Americans long term as it breaks connections from their history. When lands are less protected from the public, sources of food become scarce and meaningful artifacts become destroyed.

Author Bio: Sarah is in her third year of college at IUPUI and is majoring in Anthropology with a minor in Art History. 

Sources

An Update on Bears Ears National Monument: Tribes File Response. (2018, November 28). Retrieved from https://www.narf.org/bears-ears-update/

Gessner, D. (2018, October 16). Land Grab: Trump's Campaign Against Bears Ears National Monument. Retrieved from https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-4-september-october/feature/land-grab-trumps-campaign-against-bears-ears-national

Native American Connections. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://bearsearscoalition.org/ancestral-and-modern-day-land-users/

Popovich, N. (2017, December 08). Bears Ears National Monument Is Shrinking. Here's What Is Being Cut. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/08/climate/bears-ears-monument-trump.html

Tamez, S. (2018, December 07). This Land is Our Land: Save Bears Ears National Monument. Retrieved from https://www.narf.org/this-land-is-our-land-save-bears-ears-national-monument/