Utah Congressman Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, took his committee on the road today, holding a field hearing in New Mexico titled “Tribal Prosperity and Self-Determination through Energy Development.”
The irony of Rep. Bishop presenting himself as a protector of tribal sovereignty should be lost on no one: the congressman’s landmark legislation, the Utah Public Lands Initiative (or PLI), has been widely panned for undermining tribal sovereignty and ignoring the will of local tribal governments. Pitched to the public as a “grand bargain” that would balance land conservation and land use across southern Utah, Bishop’s bill is little more than another hyper-partisan piece of legislation that stands no chance of becoming law.
There’s ample analysis of the many problems with Rep. Bishop’s PLI (for example: here, here, here, and here). Among its most damning shortcomings is how the bill and its primary sponsors—Utah Rep. Bishop and Rep. Jason Chaffetz—have neglected input from the sovereign tribal governments.
Here are just a few of the many statements made by tribal government officials concerning the Utah Public Lands Initiative:
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Councilwoman Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk (1/22/2016):
Our strenuous efforts to participate in the PLI have been consistently stonewalled. We have never been taken seriously.
Six members of the Ute Business Committee (9/17/2016):
In the next few weeks, Utah Congressmen Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz will attempt to push through the U.S. House of Representatives the first Indian land grab in over 100 years. The actions of Bishop and Chaffetz would seek to divest the Ute Indian Tribe of their ancestral homelands and rekindle failed policies of tribal land dispossession that have had a devastating and lasting impact upon tribal nations for the past century.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Davis Filfred (9/22/2016):
Members of the Utah delegation have demonstrated their lack of respect for Tribal leaders and Tribal concerns. They have supported an investigation of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition by the state legislature, [and] ignored the sovereign authority of Coalition member governments.
Rep. Bishop has a dismal track record when it comes to respecting tribal sovereignty. I don’t think anyone would argue that there’s significant room to improve cooperation and coordination between the U.S. government and sovereign tribal governments. These are important discussions that we must be having.
But Rep. Bishop’s recent actions raise major questions about whether he takes these challenges seriously or is just paying them lip service.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore