Ancient Buildings Cut From Bears Ears National Monument

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Tim Peterson by Tim Peterson, Utah Wildlands Director

When President Trump traveled to Utah last month to carve up Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments, he attempted to unprotect cliff dwellings contructed by some of Utah’s earliest inhabitants.

Hand and toe holds carved into steep canyon walls by the Ancestral Puebloans illustrate the early people’s ingenuity and perseverance and are still used today to access structures built with stone and adobe mortar into the walls of cliffs to provide shelter and protection, and to store grains and seeds.
 
“The Hopis don’t see ruins as being quote abandoned, because the spiritual people still reside there,” says former Director of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, Leigh Kuwanwisiwma. “It’s still in our memory. It’s still in our ceremonies. So we don’t see the ruins as just being cultural resources, they were a part of our lives. Grandmothers were there. Kids were there. Everything was very vibrant.”
 

When Trump took a hatchet to Bears Ears National Monument’s original boundaries on December 4, 2017, many of these structures found themselves suddenly outside the monument. Here’s a look at just a few of the sites Trump wants stripped of national monument protections:

cliff dwelling cedar mesaStructure in western Cedar Mesa canyons stripped of monument protection, Bears Ears. JONATHAN BAILEY

Western Cedar Mesa Canyons Cliff Dwelling, Bears Ears, photo by Jonathan Bailey.Western Cedar Mesa canyons cliff dwelling stripped of monument protection, Bears Ears. JONATHAN BAILEY


Cliff dwelling, Forest Service lands, cut from Bears Ears National Monument
Cliff structure on Forest Service lands stripped of monument protection, Bears Ears.


Cliff dwelling, Fish Creek, cut from Bears Ears National Monument, photo by Jonathan Bailey

Cliff structure near Fish Creek, stripped of monument protection, Bears EarsJONATHAN BAILEY


Cliff dwelling, Forest Service lands, cut from Bears Ears National Monument, photo by Jonathan Bailey

Granary on Forest Service lands stripped of monument protection, Bears Ears. JONATHAN BAILEY


Cliff dwelling, Allen Canyon area, cut from Bears Ears National Monument

Cliff structure in the Allen Canyon area, stripped of monument protection, Bears Ears. 


Not only are these structures and dwellings objects of historic and scientific interest — precisely the kinds of objects the Antiquities Act of 1906 seeks to protect within national monuments — they are vital links to the past and the cultures of the tribes whose ancestors called the Bears Ears region home.

“The cultural resources here, the petroglyphs, the structures, all of this, is evidence of the Native people who lived in and passed through Bears Ears” says Zuni elder Octavius Seowtewa. “This cultural information is important for all Native people…if this information is lost, it’s lost forever.”

The Native American tribes who petitioned for Bears Ears to be protected as a national monument to begin with, the Grand Canyon Trust, and others are suing President Trump to protect ancient buildings like these and restore national monument protections to the over 1 million acres excised from the monument.

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