by Tim Peterson, Utah Wildlands Director
On December 28, 2016, President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah. He did so with the backing of the five tribes of the Bear Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, 25 regional tribes, the National Congress of American Indians, the Utah Democratic Caucus in the state legislature, conservation groups, outdoor industry companies, recreationists, and hundreds of thousands of petition signers from around the world.
The new monument is the first of its kind, allowing for collaborative management between tribes and federal land managers. This new paradigm is not only a win for tribal sovereignty, it will allow western science and Native American traditional knowledge to blend in entirely new ways to benefit both the land and people. Traditional knowledge may be a new term to most, but it embodies the indigenous worldview, one in which the relationships between humans and the natural world are not separate, but enjoined in an affiliation of reverence, respect, and reciprocity.
Some anti-public lands politicians including Utah’s governor and congressional delegation opposed the designation, shedding crocodile tears over a “flawed process” that took “unilateral action” constituting a “land grab.” But their gnashing of teeth and rending of garments is not unique to Bears Ears – Utah politicians opposed the creation of Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Arches national parks – all of which were created under the same authority granted to presidents under the Antiquities Act of 1906, just like Bears Ears.
These same politicians will try their best to undo Bears Ears National Monument, but their path is not a straightforward one. We’ll be asking for your help to defend Bears Ears in the coming months.
In the meantime, President Obama protected an area smaller than the tribes requested, but larger than Representative Rob Bishop proposed in his failed Utah Public Lands Initiative. Many are wondering: what got protected and what was left out of the new national monument?
Protected
The monument spans 1.35 million acres, encompassing from north to south: