❝ 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
Tourists and looters descend on Bears Ears as Biden mulls protections : Interior Secretary Haaland visits Utah monument amid controversy over whether to restore boundaries shrunk by Trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/08/bears-ears-haaland/
U.S. interior secretary looks to restore Utah monuments slashed by Trump https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-interior-monuments-idUSKBN2BV1D3
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has advised President Biden to restore sweeping environmental protections to three major national monuments that had been stripped away by former President Donald J. Trump.
In a report sent to the White House earlier this month that has not been made public, Ms. Haaland recommended that Mr. Biden reinstate the original boundaries, which included millions of acres at Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante, two rugged and pristine expanses in Utah defined by red rock canyons, rich wildlife and archaeological treasures. (NYT June 15, 2021) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/climate/bears-ears-biden-haaland.html
Energy developers and uranium miners want to drill and mine on land that used to be part of Bears Ears National Monument, even as President Joe Biden is reviewing the monument for expansion.
Utah-based conservation groups say since January, oil and gas companies have nominated over 40,000 acres of land inside the original monument boundaries for drilling.
“This is more [oil and gas nominations] than throughout the Trump years” according to Steve Bloch, an attorney with the group (KUER/NPR University of Utah, June 1, 2021)
https://www.kuer.org/health-science-environment/2021-06-01/energy-developers-and-uranium-miners-eye-land-near-bears-ears-national-monument