For Immediate Release: June 19, 2018
Contact – Alastair Lee Bitsoi: (917) 202-8308
Click on the thumbnail image below for the full size, official press release in a pdf document.
Re: Economic Development Comments on Monument Management Plans for the
Bears Ears National Monument by Utah Diné Bikéyah
Dear Mr. Porter,
In 2010, Utah Diné Bikéyah (UDB) initiated an effort to create the Bears Ears National
Monument, which we envision as a place for healing and activation of this cultural landscape
through prayer and traditional practice. Guided by an all-Native American Board of
Directors from each of the Native communities in San Juan County, Utah, UDB assists with
planning and engaging local Native citizens to ensure that cultural practices and natural
resource use by Tribes is understood in all planning efforts. We have conducted extensive
mapping of, and compilation of information about these resources, some of which has
previously been shared with BLM officials in the Washington, DC office and is available for
informing this planning effort upon request.
On December 28, 2016, President Obama issued Proclamation 9558 establishing
the Bears Ears National Monument, an area encompassing 1.35 million acres of federal lands
in southeastern Utah on Native American traditional lands. 82 Fed. Reg. 1139 (Jan. 5, 2017).
The Bears Ears National Monument that President Obama established stemmed from the
Bears Ears National Monument proposal that was submitted on October 15, 2015, by the
Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Navajo Nation, and Zuni Tribe
through the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition in collaboration with Utah Diné Bikéyah
(UDB). This proposal requested the protection of 1.9 million acres of federal lands. While
the monument ultimately created by the Proclamation encompassed a reduced 1.3 million
acres, it was nonetheless a celebrated protection for innumerable interrelated tribal cultural
resources across the Bears Ears region. It was also the first Native American-led national
monument designation in the United States.
Protecting these tribal cultural resources and the cultural landscape was the primary purpose
and original intent behind the tribes submitting the Bears Ears National Monument
proposal, and it was a key focal point of the subsequent Proclamation 9558 establishing the
Bears Ears National Monument. The Bears Ears National Monument has ancestral, historic,
and present-day ties to many southwestern tribes that not only include the Bears Ears Inter-
Tribal Coalition tribes (the Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Navajo
Nation, and Zuni Tribe) but also the 19 Pueblos and several other Tribes in the region, such
as the San Juan Southern Paiute, Kaibab Paiute, Paiute Tribe of Utah, and the Hualapai
Tribe. All of these tribes maintain an ongoing cultural presence at the Bears Ears National
Monument. In recognition of the important role the Bears Ears area serves for these tribes,
Proclamation 9558 required the establishment of an Inter-tribal Bears Ears Commission and
the creation of a tribal collaborative management plan in order to protect the rich tribal,
cultural, religious, and natural resources within the entire Bears Ears National Monument.
On December 4, 2017, President Trump issued Proclamation 9861, which illegally reduced
the National Monument by 85% or 1.1 million acres to two units within the original Bears
Ears National Monument boundaries: the Shaash Jaa’ (herein correctly spelled throughout
this document as Shash Jaa’) Unit and Indian Creek Unit. 83 Fed. Reg. 2181-83. Sixty days
later, mineral lease permitting was opened within the Bears Ears National Monument areas
not contained within the Shash Jaa’ and Indian Creek units. An expedited and unlawful
planning process was proposed on January 16, 2018, when the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) and the United States Forest Service (USFS) announced their intent to develop
Monument Management Plans (MMPs) and complete an Environmental Impact Statement
for the Shash Jaa’ and Indian Creek units. 83 Fed. Reg. 2181-83. It is inappropriate and
premature to conduct scoping sessions and plan for the illegally reduced portions of Bears
Ears National Monument before courts have the opportunity to address the legality of the
Trump Administration’s use of the Antiquities Act.
Even so, the subject of Economic Development is an important one that Utah Diné Bikéyah
(UDB) has dedicated significant effort to over the past 5 years. The original Bears Ears
National Monument has been a central component of our culturally-rooted economic
development planning. Just last night, we had a meeting with traditional basketmakers who
harvest materials from Bears Ears and shared their vision for a future that includes their
land-use and economic needs. Basketmakers, firewood collectors, herbalists, medicine men
and women, spiritual leaders, hunters, cultural tour guides, elected officials, and elders are all
looking to the BLM and future land plans to finally include their voices and needs. UDB has
collected video, oral statements, and site specific information critical to planning. UDB
would like the opportunity to share this and other information it has collected with the BLM
to assist with the MMP planning process, if it is to move forward, but has not been able to
do so to date. We have offered many times this past year, but these meetings have not been
scheduled.
America has thrived by engaging people representing diverse cultures in our economy. We
have enjoyed immense benefit from the blending of cultures and traditions from all over the
world. Sadly, we have mostly ignored the wisdom of Native Americans whose traditions and
cultures evolved on this land. That wisdom should be included in the process of planning
the future of public lands in southeastern Utah.
Since San Juan County is the only county in Utah that fits the U.S. Census definition of
persistent poverty, the initial planning work should evaluate the potential economic costs
and benefits of the original monument designation. One thing is certain: business as usual
will not reduce poverty or correct the severe shortage of employment opportunities in San
Juan County.
The original Bears Ears National Monument offered abundant opportunities to establish
locally owned business and reduce the reliance on corporations located far from Utah. Local
business ownership provides alternatives to the disruptive boom and bust episodes of the
resource extractive based economy. San Juan County’s economy could be diversified and
stabilized by restoring the original monument boundaries.
The original monument designation would have allowed significant progress in alleviating
the shortage of local employment opportunities. It held out the promise of creating greater
economic equity across the County’s dehumanizing racial divide, and it would have reduced
the out-migration of young people seeking employment elsewhere.
San Juan County struggles to fund adequate infrastructure and schools. Residents living
adjacent to Blanding in the Westwater community, as well as hundreds of other San Juan
County families, do not have access to electricity or running water—conditions that most
Americans find alarming. The original monument designation was of sufficient scale to be a
catalyst for resolving the County’s serious social and economic justice issues.
The BLM is a significant employer in San Juan County. UDB would like to see a process of
community engagement to determine whether the Bears Ears visitor center should be
located in Bluff, White Mesa, Mexican Hat, Blanding or other community. We also
recommend that a great majority of new jobs that may arise if funding is adequately
increased go to citizens who have the Native American cultural background to engage
tourists and carry out law enforcement, monitoring, restoration, planning, as well as the
highest level administrative positions. SJC is 53% Native American and local Native
Americans know more about the Bears Ears landscape than anyone given our deep ancestral
ties.
It is important to understand that neither public nor private resources have impacted the
economic lives of Native communities in SJC at any level comparable to other communities
in the United States. Therefore, traditional economic patterns are still intact and interact
freely with the post-colonial economy. It is important that the BLM understand the depth of
the ties of this traditional economy to the Bears Ears landscape and ensure that management
planning decisions do not negatively affect these old systems, even as new economic
opportunities are pursued. Parts of the traditional economy are not monetized or are
minimally so, such as art resources, home heating through firewood, and ceremonially
healing using traditional foods and medicines.
San Juan County is full of traditional artists, healers, historians (story tellers), and elders who
hold deep ties and vast knowledge for this landscape. How will they be engaged in this
planning effort given the lack of effort and outreach by the Department of Interior in past
planning efforts? What will happen if extractive industries apply for permits to drill or mine
the formerly protected national monument? Will traditional cultural activities be protected,
or will our cultures be allowed to erode in exchange for monetary gain? Other BLM field
offices in Utah have leased traditional pinyon pine nut gathering regions to non-Native
commercial enterprises. Will this plan protect our gathering areas inside and outside of the
new national monument boundaries? How about medicinal herb collection?
UDB has partnered with the University of Utah on a multi-year National Science
Foundation grant to study current and traditional firewood collection practices of Ute and
Navajo communities. Preliminary reports are available upon request to incorporate into this
BLM planning process.
The Four Corners potato (Solanum jamesii) has been harvested in Utah for 11,000 years and
was recently “re-discovered” as a cultivated crop by University of Utah and U.S. Department
of Agriculture researchers. This species has multiple populations within Bears Ears National
Monument that require special management to ensure persistence. And as food plant, it has
large economic potential to serve high-end culinary markets around the U.S., in addition to
strengthening Native communities that bring its traditions home. This summer many Tribes
will likely be ceremonially repatriating this potato back into their communities with the aim
of farming it after more than a century of absence due to negative impacts from
colonization. UDB is wondering how is the BLM currently managing this high value plant
species, and how will you ensure that the nearly 11,000 years of use and subsequent
cultivation by Pueblo people and other Tribes are not lost? UDB and the University of Utah
have several grants already (and more planned) that will help us understand this amazing
potato and its potential to create jobs in Native communities. Letters of support from Tribes
and organizations regarding their desire to bring this potato to market are available on
request.
New fossil quarries were also discovered in Bears Ears since the proclamation of the national
monument by President Obama. UDB is helping the BLM, academic researchers, and the
public understand the significant role of these resources to Tribes. Discussions are underway
about how to offer tours and build a paleo economy for people to learn about this history.
Native American running culture in the southwest is very significant and many Native trail
runners are already flocking to Bears Ears. What will be the impact to runners, including to
their health, if resources such as land, air, and water diminish under the new plan?
UDB has been planning to help build a Native Wisdom and Culture Center since 2013 to
advance traditional knowledge research, provide elder and youth community spaces, and
provide tourism resources. What is the impact on our plans under the current BLM planning
process?
The White Mesa community of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Mexican Water and Oljato
Chapter Houses of the Navajo Nation are all involved in community-led economic
development discussions around Bears Ears National Monument. Will the BLM incorporate
their recommendations into this planning effort? If so, how should these communities
deliver and obtain information while so much uncertainty exists about the future of the
national monument?
The redistricting of County Commission election boundaries this year may change the future
economic development priorities of the State of Utah and SJC. Past plans scarcely included
the perspectives of the Native American majority of the County (see 2008 SJC Master Plan,
and UDB’s critique of this plan, available on request). What will the BLM do moving
forward to address the discriminatory actions and the lack of consideration of local Native
American citizens? For example, oil and gas drilling and uranium mining have poisoned our
people and contaminated our reservation lands. Bears Ears has been protected from these
impacts due to Native occupation of these lands through the 1960s. We want to ensure that
our cultural ties are not destroyed in this area, as these corporations have done to our own
lands. What will the BLM do to secure our future in regards to our right to be included in
planning, and our the human rights we hold to access our traditional springs, burial grounds,
hunting and gathering areas, and sacred sites? Please include an analysis of the impacts this
planning will have on our indigenous rights as defined in the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the US has endorsed.
Conclusion
Utah Diné Bikéyah objects to the diminishment of the Bears Ears National
Monument by 85% percent and its division into two units—the Shash Jaa’ unit and the
Indian Creek unit—because it fails to account for the entire cultural
landscape and the hundreds of thousands of
historic and cultural resources that will be negatively impacted, as well as current and future
economic opportunities tied to the original Bears Ears boundaries. In addition, we object to
expedited monument management planning process, given that the legality of Proclamation
9861 is currently being challenged in court.
In the event that BLM moves forward in this planning process, we request that all of the
economic ties of the five Tribes involved in UDB as well as the ten Native American
communities in San Juan County be fully understood prior to a decision. We hope that the
above comments, and subsequent interactions with the BLM help to inform the management
planning process.
Sincerely,
Gavin Noyes
Executive Director
Utah Diné Bikéyah
www.utahdinebikeyah