Tribal Nations continue to rally in the face of the rapacious Trump regime’s onslaught to reduce the Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah. On July 13, Trump by executive action ordered the drastic reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument by 90%. This means that 1.24 million acres will lose national monument protection. Within 60 days the removed lands will become vulnerable to greed-obsessed mineral leasing, mining claims and other voracious corporate land exploitation.

The stage is being set for renewed legal battles over one of Indian Country’s most sacred landscapes. Tribal Nations throughout the country support the campaign to save Bears Ears.

The main Indigenous organizations at the forefront to save the sacred monument are the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Bears Ears Youth Council and the Women of Bears Ears. The Coalition, founded in July of 2015, consists of five Tribal Nations — the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Pueblo of Zuni (Bender previously served as an attorney for the Zuni Pueblo), the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Ute Indian Tribe. The Bears Ears Youth Council is an organization whose goal is to empower the youth of the Coalition Tribes to develop and cultivate land guardianship of sacred areas. The Women of Bears Ears is an organization rooted in matrilineal leadership dedicated to protecting the 1.9 million acres of Bears Ears National Monument. In April 2021, the Women of Bears Ears posted an op-ed in the New York Times entitled “Women of Bears Ears are asking you to help save it.”

Trump’s move marks the latest episode in a years-long struggle to preserve Bears Ears, a landscape revered since time immemorial by Indigenous nations for its spiritual, cultural and historical significance.

The first designation of Bears Ears as a national monument was by President Obama issuing a Presidential Proclamation on December 26, 2016. This placed 1.35 million acres in protected status, which was less than the proposal submitted by Indigenous nations to cover 1.9 million acres in the Bears Ears region.

In December of 2017, Trump reduced the size of the Bears Ears National Monument by 85%, drastically cutting the protected area from 1.36 million acres to just 201,800 acres. This executive action opened thousands of acres of sacred Indigenous land to mining, grazing and other commercial development. This was in violation of federal law as embodied in the Antiquities Act. In October 2021, President Biden fully restored and expanded the boundaries of Bears Ears by returning to the monument 1.36 million acres.

The Tribal Nations are reaching out to environmentalists and conservationists in their efforts to save the sacred Bears Ears National Monument.

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Image: Comb Ridge Overlook Bears Ears by Bureau of Land Management. Public domain.