- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Policy and Law
More than 2 million acres that many Tribal Nations consider ancestral homelands could be reopened to mining and mineral claims after President Donald Trump ordered sweeping reductions to two Utah national monuments.
The order reduces Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from approximately 1.87 million acres to approximately 181,500 acres, while reducing Bears Ears National Monument from approximately 1.36 million acres to approximately 121,100 acres. The order also dissolves the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Commission, which was created in 2016 to guide management after the monument was established under the Antiquities Act.
Beginning 60 days after the order, the acres removed from the monuments will be available for mineral leasing, mining claims and other public land dispositions, according to the announcement.
“The Proclamations reduce these monuments to appropriate sizes that allow for common sense land use in these areas,” reads a White House-issued fact sheet. “The specific landmarks, structures, and objects of historic and scientific interest that the Antiquities Act and monuments safeguard will continue to be protected, while the surrounding lands not relevant to such protected landmarks, structures, and objects will now be available for multiple-use, sustained-yield management.”
Tribal governments and intertribal organizations condemned the action, saying it threatens ancestral homelands, cultural sites and years of collaborative stewardship with federal land managers.
“Our tribes were not informed of or asked about this decision, and that’s unacceptable,” Autumn Gillard, coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, said in a statement. “The federal government must honor its trust and treaty obligations to our tribes — it is not optional.”
The All Pueblo Council of Governors (APCG) called on the White House to rescind the proclamations and urged Congress to enact permanent statutory protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante that could not be reversed by future administrations.
The Native American Rights Fund, or NARF, which represents the Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in ongoing litigation over Bears Ears, said it will continue to challenging the monument reductions in court.
NARF said the Antiquities Act authorizes presidents to establish national monuments but does authorize presidents to abolish or substantially reduce them. The organization said tribal nations will continue working to preserve protections for Bears Ears’ cultural sites, traditional practices and subsistence uses.
“We will pursue every available legal course of action to stop these illegal attacks on Native homelands, culture and people,” NARF Deputy Director Matthew L. Campbell said. “Native communities worked for years to obtain national monument status for Bears Ears.”
APCG Chairman Joey Sanchez said the decision threatens lands that hold “the footprints, prayers, and ancestors of our people,” while calling on Congress to enact permanent protections for the monuments.
“Our connection to Bears Ears and to the wider ancestral landscape, including the Greater Chaco Region, did not begin with a proclamation and it will not end with one,” Sanchez said.
Brian Edwards contributed reporting.
