A coalition of Native American tribes, frustrated with trying to work with Utah congressmen and county officials, says it will turn to President Obama to designate the Bears Ears National Monument.
Five Native American tribes pushing for a national monument in southern Utah that would protect their ancestral homelands have abandoned efforts to achieve the goal with help from U.S. congressmen Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, both Utah Republicans, saying they have "been consistently stonewalled. We have never been taken seriously."
Instead, the tribes -- Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Uinta and Ouray Ute, and Ute Mountain Ute -- say they will seek President Obama's use of the Antiquities Act to create the 1.9-million-acre monument by presidential decree.
In a letter sent Dec. 31, the tribes said their contributions to the Public Lands Initiative process overseen by the congressmen have been ignored by the San Juan County (Utah) Commission, which they were told to work with, and by the delegations themselves. Along with presenting their proposal during more than two dozen meetings in Utah, the tribes made eight trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with the representatives' staffs.
"At all of these meetings, both in the field and in Washington, D.C., we asked for comments on our proposal. Our extensive and unwavering efforts to engage in the PLI process are cataloged in great detail in Exhibit One of our proposal," read the letter, which was signed by Alfred Lomahquahu and Eric Descheenie, co-chairmen of the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition. "It was to no avail. In no instance did anyone from the Utah delegation or the PLI make a single, substantive comment, positively or negatively, on our proposal."
The proposed monument envisioned by the tribes would protect a landscape that was once their homeland, where "looting and grave robbing has been extensive, despicable, and continuous. Irresponsible mining and off-road vehicle use have torn up the ground. These and other actions have violated and despoiled our ancestors' homes and other structures."
The lands the tribes would like to see included in the monument currently are governed by entities including the National Park Service, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service.
The Bears Ears land is a unique cultural place where we visit and practice religious traditional rights for the purpose of attaining or resuming health for ourselves, human communities, and our natural world as an interconnected and inextricable whole. When we speak about health, we are not only talking about an individual, we are talking about one’s health in relation to others around us and that of the land.
Our traditional ways of ceremony using Bears Ears medicinal herbs and place, when conducted, negotiate ailing life or communities to health. Ruining the integrity of these lands forever compromises our ability to heal. Western medicine is not the only means to health, as shown in other cultures across the globe. The continuity of indigenous traditional medicine is in peril so long as lands like the Bears Ears are not protected.
Characterized by topographic diversity and striking landforms, Bears Ears ranges in elevation from 3,700 feet to more than 11,300 feet. Notable bordering features include the Colorado River on the west, the San Juan River and Navajo Nation on the south, and the White Mesa Ute Reservation on the East. The 1.9 million acres defined in the proposal area represent federally owned public lands, which are currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Forest Service, and National Park Service. Much of this land is comprised of BLM Wilderness Study Areas and Forest Service Inventoried Roadless Areas.
Comments
Or maybe they'll put it under joint management ...
Under federal control in trust for the American people and inspired by the American people, including Native Americans.
I think this can become something similar to the arrangement that has made Canyon DeChelly such a wonderful place to visit AND a winning proposition for both the people who live there and people from around the world who visit the place.
This land is **already protected** under several designations such as National Forest, National Recreation, Primitive Areas, and BLM Public Land. Making it a federal National Monument would require promotion to fund visitor centers, roads, commercial sales, a nasty public-anti-experience-campground, etc., and bring in hundreds of thousands of MORE visitors, damaging the area further. What is the common true goal? The honest smart ones want to preserve this area, and a National Monument only puts it ON THE MAP and makes it a prime target for over-use. Please simply enforce existing laws, limit ATVs, Motorhomes, and cattle leasing, etc., and this area would then be protected as best as possible. This is the very last large section of BLM Public Land in this area, and to give it up as a National Monument would ruin it's beauty. The way to protect this area is to retain it as Public Land for all to enjoy, but esignate it as Primitive, and give permits for access in order to maintain vistitor quantities but also retain free exploration. That way, misbehavior is easily pegged. National Monuments basically shut down access, experience, and preservation. (pollution and other side effects of hundreds of thousand of more visitors.) Look at Natural Bridges Nat. Monument, a stream of vehicles, added pollution, and all you can do is drive a oneway on a blacktop highway loop, can't stop, must look at minimal beauty and don't touch! Please, Native Americans, profuse apologies for Manifest Destiny, but you honestly cannot believe that more commercialism is good for this delicate and beautiful land??
Out of respect for first peoples, this needs to be done.
Unfortunately, Common Sense speaks with a lot of common sense. But CS might not be aware of the reality of southern Utah politics. As these lands are now designated, they are very exposed to political influence at local, state, and federal levels. Monument status will admittedly be a mixed blessing, but could go a long way to protect it from the likes of the San Juan County commissioners, Mike Noel and the rest of Utah's legislators, and Rob Bishop and his friends.
As long as hiking and dog/pack animal access is preserved, we will all win if mineral extraction and ranching is kept off the Cedar Mesa and its gorgeous canyons.
My thoughts exactly. All you have to do is read the official document that's been put together and it is very clear that this is the goal. The proposal would have them working hand in hand with government, which would be a first, and in my opinion, change that area for lots and lots of people.