RHETORIC:
While introducing an amendment to effectively block the designation of Bears Ears National Monument, Representative Chris Stewart (R-UT), claimed that the number of tribes opposing the monument matched, or even exceeded, the number of tribes supporting the monument. Rep. Stewart said:
“…There are some tribal interests who support Bears Ears, but for every one of those I can show you others, one for one or more, that do not support Bears Ears. And the tribal interests there have been vocal with me in saying their opposition to it.”
REALITY:
26 tribes with ancestral or contemporary ties to the Bears Ears region support the designation of a national monument to protect this living cultural landscape for future generations. Not a single tribe is opposing Bears Ears protections.
Tribes in support of protecting Bears Ears as a national monument include:
- Navajo Nation
- Hopi Tribe
- Ute Mountain Ute Tribe
- Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Tribe
- Hualapai Tribe
- Pueblo of Acoma
- Pueblo of Cochiti
- Pueblo of Isleta
- Pueblo of Jemez
- Pueblo of Laguna
- Pueblo of Nambe
- Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh
- Pueblo of Picuris
- Pueblo of Pojoaque
- Pueblo of Sandia
- Pueblo of San Felipe
- Pueblo of San Ildefonso
- Pueblo of Santa Ana
- Pueblo of Santa Clara
- Pueblo of Santo Domingo
- Pueblo of Taos
- Pueblo of Tesuque
- Pueblo of Ysleta Del Sur
- Pueblo of Zia
- Pueblo of Zuni
In addition to the sweeping support among tribal leaders across the southwest, the National Congress of American Indians—the nation’s oldest and largest organization of American Indians—passed a resolution “supporting the presidential proclamation of the Bears Ears National Monument”
Now, Representative Stewart is attempting to silence these voices, insinuating they either don’t matter or don’t exist. Rep. Stewart’s proposed amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill would prevent President Obama from using the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments in states throughout the West, undermining the tribe’s long fight to protect Bears Ears.
This backhanded effort to block national monuments is only the latest effort in a long line of offenses to subvert Utah’s tribes.
It is time that President Obama listened to the chorus of support and designated Bears Ears as the nation’s next national monument.