A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
Bears Ears was created in part to protect many sacred and historical sites, such as this procession panel on Comb Ridge. The site may show an ancient Native American community from around A.D. 760–800. Facebook photo.
A group of Native American workers from the South West Conservation Corps shore up a dangerously eroded ruin in one of the Cave Towers in Bears Ears. Facebook photo.
A hiker thinks twice before attempting to climb down old Moki steps once used to access the ruins now called the Eagle's Nest in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. The ruins are anywhere from 800 to 2,000 years old. Moki steps can be found all over the American Southwest and were carved by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples and other related cultures. Facebook photo.
President Donald Trump's move to shrink two large national monuments in Utah triggered another round of outrage among Native American leaders and activists who vow to fight in court to preserve protections for lands they consider sacred.
Trump's announcement means it would reduce the 1.35-million acre Bears Ears National Monument to only 201,397 acres totaling an 85% reduction. President Barack Obama created Bears Ears National Monument in late 2016. Trump also said he would cut the 1.88-million acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to just 997,490 acres, this national monument was designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996, reducing it by half. The new proclamations will split up both monuments into several smaller ones.
Environmental and conservation groups and a group of tribes joined the battle Monday and began filing lawsuits that ensure that Trump's announcement is not the final chapter of the years-long public lands battle. The court cases are likely to drag on for years, maybe even into a new presidency.
United States Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke as long argued and rallied for reduction of the monuments. Soon after Bears Ears announcement, Zinke announced two proposed reductions to Oregon and California's Cascade-Siskiyou and Nevada's Gold Butte national monuments by small amounts. Zinke is also recommending Trump change management plans for six other monuments, allowing for additional grazing, ranching, fishing, hunting, and other activities in those locations.
The moves earned him cheers from Republican leaders in Utah who lobbied him to undo protections they considered overly broad. Conservation groups called it the largest elimination of protected land in American history.
The lawsuit, the first against Trump's decision to shrink the monument, comes at the same time that a group of environmental and conservation organizations sued Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for dramatically shrinking Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
That lawsuit, which comprises The Wilderness Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and seven other groups as plaintiffs, argues that Trump's decision to reduce the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante was "unlawful" and "exceeds his authority under the US Constitution and the Antiquities Act." On Monday, Earthjustice filed the first of several expected lawsuits, calling the reduction of Grand Staircase-Escalante an abuse of the president's power that jeopardizes an area full of dinosaur fossils. Some of the fossils sit on a plateau that is home to one of the country's largest known coal reserves, which could now be open to mining. Earthjustice is representing eight conservation groups.
The Navajo Nation was one of five tribes that formed a coalition that spent years lobbying Obama to protect Bears Ears, home to ancient cliff dwellings and an estimated 100,000 archaeological sites. Native Americans visit the area to perform ceremonies, collect herbs and wood for medicinal and spiritual purposes, and do healing rituals.
The lawsuit from the coalition of the Hopi, Ute Indian, Ute Mountain Ute, Zuni tribes and Navajo Nation was filed late Monday night.
Trump's decision marks the first time in a half-century that a president has undone these types of land protections.
Trump's move followed months of lobbying by Utah's mostly Republican officials who said the two monuments closed off the area to energy development and other access.
The move comes a week after tribal leaders decried Trump for using the name of a historical Native American figure as a slur.
On Nov. 27, Trump used a White House event honoring Navajo Code Talkers to take a political jab at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat he has derisively nicknamed "Pocahontas" for her claim to have Native American heritage.
"It's just another slap in the face for a lot of us, a lot of our Native American brothers and sisters," Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathan Nez said. "To see that happen a week ago, with disparaging remarks, and now this."
Trump also overrode tribal objections to approve the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.
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