❝ An unprecedented coalition of Native American tribes has come together to protect these lands. They include members of the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and Ute Indian Tribe…The proposed Public Lands Initiative (PLI) would appropriate 26 percent of Ute reservation lands and would favor mining interests over land conservation.
❝ A poll conducted in May 2016 found that 71 percent of Utah voters support the Bears Ears national monument – and oppose the land grab PLI. Support was widespread across geographic regions, age, gender and political party affiliation. The Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and Washington Post have all come out in support of the national monument.
❝ Standing Rock has brought together 200 tribes, many sending representatives to the protest site from faraway states. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Many of the Native Americans who have come here speak of a spiritual reawakening taking place.” Their next battleground may be in southeastern Utah.
Maybe it’s time for Anglos to get off their collective rusty dusties and join with Native American folk to fight back against more destruction of natural beauty in the name of profit.
Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz says he’ll withdraw a bill ordering the Interior Secretary to sell off more than 3.3 million acres of federally owned public land in 10 Western states. The Idaho Statesman’s Rocky Barker calls the turnaround “remarkable.” http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/letters-from-the-west/article130291054.html
Monumental case pits tribes against Trump : Meet the top-notch Native American attorneys who will soon argue the most consequential public-lands case in a generation, one that could determine the limits of presidential authority on much of America’s wild estate. https://www.outsideonline.com/2295271/tribes-v-donald-trump