Saving Bears Ears


(Photo Credit: Tim Peterson - https://www.narf.org/cases/protecting-bears-ears-national-monument-bears-ears)



For centuries, Native Americans have struggled in fighting for their freedom, their land, and very importantly their culture. What many non-natives don’t seem to understand is the relationship the Native Americans have with the land. Their culture and their religion is land based and any impact on the land has an even greater impact on the Native people. As history shows, the Native people’s culture, language, religion, and their land has all been striped from them leaving the Native people left with nothing to connect them to their identity as a Native American. Today many Native people are fighting for their rights to their land in order to continue their cultural practices and pass on this culture to the generations to follow. They are fighting to maintain what little they have managed to save from destruction, and they are fighting to regain their culture and their sacred land.

Bears Ears National Monument, located in southeastern Utah, is just one of the many sites where Native people are fighting for their home and their sacred land. The land within Bears Ears National Monument is rich in natural resources including one particularly of interest, radioactive ore. According to Kurtis Lee’s Los Angeles Times Article, “‘This is our land’: Native Americans see Trump’s move to reduce Bears Ears monument as an assault on their culture”, located on the eastern boundary of Bears Ears sits a uranium-processing mill. Lee states that documents obtained by the Washington Post show that there was a request in 2017 for President Trump to minimize Bears Ears National Monument to gain easier access to this lands resources of ore. Since 2017 there has been an ongoing fight for Bears Ears National Monument and has resulted in President Trump signing proclamations to downsize the Bears Ears National Monument by a historical 85%.  

This jaw-dropping decrease in size of Bears Ears has a direct effect on the regions’ coalition of tribes trying to protect their land and home. The Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe, form the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. Their purpose is to protect and preserve their sacred homeland from further destruction. Kurtis Lee describes that in “2016 President Obama signed a proclamation protecting 1.35 million acres” in an attempt to preserve the Native People’s sacred land and culture (Lee). However, as mentioned prior, this is being altered by President Trump resulting in a dramatic impact on the Native people of this region.

Native Americans call this land home and have done so through many generations. It is important to maintain the sanctity of this land to protect the Native people’s culture. By dramatically diminishing the size of Bears Ears National Monument, the Native Americans will be greatly impacted and their land destroyed.  According to the case updates titled “Protecting Bears Ears National Monument”, provided by the Native American Rights Fund, tribes within the Bears Ears region call this land home and utilize it’s resources for many purposes. Native Americans still hunt and fish in the region as well as collect water, minerals, and plants regularly for many purposes including religious ceremonies and even medicine. It’s explained that the land is so sacred surrounding Bears Ears that items used in ceremonies and offerings can only be found in this region. With the dramatic cut into their land in the Bears Ears region, the Native people will lose sacred sites, burials, and resources that may prevent them from effectively conducting their cultural ceremonies and rituals. With the ore mine honing in, this land could soon be destroyed and rid of not only it’s abundant resources, but the historical sanctity this land has.

It is essential that Native Americans stand side-by-side with non-natives to protect not only Bears Ears National Monument, but so many more that are threatened as well. The Native American people and their culture hold a valuable and sacred place in America and we must work together to save their land and their culture for generations to come.  


Author: Chelsea is a senior at IUPUI where she is majoring in Anthropology. She hopes to pursue a career in archaeology after graduation.




Sources:

LaPier, R. R. (2018, August 15). How Shrinking Bears Ears Is an Attack on Native Americans' Religious Freedom. Retrieved from https://psmag.com/social-justice/shrinking-bears-ears-is-an-attack-on-religious-freedom

Lee, K. (2018, December 25). 'This is our land': Native Americans see Trump's move to reduce Bears Ears monument as an assault on their culture. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-bears-ears-20181225-htmlstory.html

NARF Stands Firm to Protect the Bears Ears National Monument. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.narf.org/cases/protecting-bears-ears-national-monument-bears-ears/

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