The Biden governing is using its executive powers to restore environmental protections to Bears Ears National Monument , an expansive , sacred landscape painting in Utah . The move comes four years afterformer President Donald Trump strip protectionsaway from Bears Ears , cutting back its area by 82 % .
Biden will reinstate the monument ’s 1.35 million Akko edge , the White House said on Friday . Indigenous communities arecelebrating the announcement .
“ Thank you , President Biden , for restoring Bears Ears National Monument to its original vision of trade protection by incorporating Antiquities Laws to dissuade vandalism and desecrations of our hereditary artifacts and homeland , ” Hank Stevens , a spokesperson for the Navajo Nation and co - chair of the Bears Ears Inter - Tribal Coalition , say in an emailed statement .
Photo: George Frey (Getty Images)
Biden will also restore aegis to two other monuments for which Trump slashed protections : Grand Staircase - Escalante in Utah , and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine in Rhode Island .
Why Bears Ears Matters to Tribes
Bears Ears National Monument , a rugged stretch of red rock , raetam forests , high tableland , is sanctified to nearby Indigenous nations like the Navajo Nation , Zuni , Utah Diné Bikéyah , and Hopi . Tribes have called the land home for 13,000 years .
The rocky landscape is where some Indigenous residential area first see to farm Indian corn and chip at arrowheads . Many still patronize the region to find ceremonial herbs and sand to use in art .
But the landscape painting has not always been protected . It was Indigenous - led organizing , especially by the Bears Ears Inter - Tribal Coalition and the Native - led nonprofit Utah Diné Bikéyah , thatwon Bears Ears ’ national monument designationin the first post . The radical pressure the Obama administration to add the protection for the public lands , which Obama did in December 2016 .
The designation was a tiny positive development in a centuries - prospicient history of compound force toward autochthonic multitude — one that theTrump administration callously engage back . aboriginal organizers said that by reestablish tribute , Biden is demonstrating his understanding of the enduring ancestral and ethnical connections to the land and honoring them .
Why Else Bears Ears National Monument Is Important
The reinstitution of protections for Bears Ears is n’t just important to tribal communities . Paleontologists have long noted that the land is full of fossils go steady back hundreds of millions of twelvemonth .
Last year , the Utah Geological Association loose alandmark studyshowing that the part contains a geological phonograph record of many significant outcome in the development of lifespan on our planet , including from the Middle Pennsylvanian Period , Cretaceous Period , Pleistocene , and Holocene deposits . scientist have found such admiration as thejaw of a phytosaur , an early ancestor of the crocodile that resided in the Utah sphere over 220 million yr ago , and generally marveled at therich palaeontology in the realm . Theseresearchers were truly upsetabout shrinking the memorial and opening the nation up to descent .
The general public was alsooverwhelmingly supportiveof the monument , and analysis after analytic thinking shows thatrecreation is a much bigger economic boostthan extractive industry .
What’s Next for the Monument—and Beyond
Republicans are less than thrilled about the restored protections to Bears Ears .
“ Rather than take the opportunity to build I in a divided region and institute resources and lasting protections to sacred antiquities by seeking a reciprocally beneficial and lasting legislative solution , President Biden fanned the flames of controversy and dismiss input from the communities closest to these repository , ” learn astatementsigned by Utah ’s two senator and three representative , all of whom are Republicans .
That could lead to more fighting , including potential case filed by rancher and excavation grouping . But aboriginal organizers hope to see more moves like this from the Biden giving medication , say they ’re look for him to keep to work with the Tribes to steward the kingdom , and are now calling for a comprehensive Land Management Plan can be grow for the greater Bears Ears landscape .
“ For us , the Monument never went away . We will always retrovert to these estate to manage and deal for our sacred site , amniotic fluid , and music , ” Chairman Shaun Chapoose , Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee and Bears Ears Inter - Tribal Coalition , order in an emailed assertion . “ The Monument represents a historical opportunity for the Union government activity to learn and integrate our tribal land direction practices that we develop over centuries and are want more now than ever . ”
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland , the first autochthonal soul to ever hold the post , was instrumental in convincing the giving medication to reinstate protections . Indigenous groups have been promising thatHaaland would offer a new pathforward , one that could return land and foster a unlike band of value for public resources . This could be a startle toward those goals .
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