Tribal leaders praise restoration of Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears monuments

Tribal leaders in the Southwest and across the country are ecstatic at the news that President Joe Biden signed proclamations fully restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments that were both cut into by the previous administration by nearly 2 million acres total.

“The president’s protection of these three national monuments is among a series of steps the administration has taken to restore protections to some of America’s most cherished lands and waters, many of which are sacred to Tribal Nations,” the White House said in a statement.

The area has traditional ties to Pueblo and Navajo communities. In 2016, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition — comprised of the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Zuni Tribe — petitioned President Barack Obama to protect the site, only to see President Trump reverse the decision and reduce the area by 85% less than a year later. 

In a statement, the coalition said Biden is moving in the right direction. “President Biden will be recognizing the deep and enduring ancestral and cultural connections that Tribes have to this landscape and taking a step toward honoring his commitment to Indigenous People by acknowledging their original place in this country that is now our shared home.”

In June, Biden sent Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to tour the area with stakeholders in southern Utah. She recommended Biden use the Antiquities Act to enlarge the monuments. According to the White House, new Bears Ears will actually be larger than the original region Obama designated. 

Haaland praised Biden for the move.

“I am proud to stand with President Biden in restoring these monuments and fulfilling his commitment to the American people,” Haaland said. “The historical connection between Indigenous peoples and Bears Ears is undeniable.”

Haaland’s recommendation is considered a “watershed” moment by Indigenous leaders in New Mexico. 

“You’re starting to see the stewardship and the conservation that many of our tribal communities and Indigenous peoples have have had for millennia be turned into policy, good public policy that will support not just the wishes of tribal communities but generations of Americans to come,” said Keegan King, a board member with the conservation group New Mexico Wild. 

King (Acoma) noted the living history that connects the tribes that exist within New Mexico, expanding across much of the Four Corners area, including Bears Ears. 

“These places are still remembered in our songs, our ceremonies, our prayers, and so it’s very important that that living connection remains vital and that we sustain that connection to these places. There are burial grounds here, there are pilgrimage sites,” King said. “These are places that we still have names for and that we still visit and journey to, and that our traditional communities still, still invoke in our ceremonies and our prayers.”

Tribal leadership with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition said the decision creates a historic opportunity. 

“The monument represents a historic opportunity for the federal government to learn and incorporate our tribal land management practices,” Ute Indian Tribe Business Chairman Shaun Chapoose said, “practices that we developed over centuries and are needed more now than ever. We battled for this monument because it matters.”

Hopi Tribe vice chairman Clark W. Tenakhongva thanked Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “for upholding your commitment to restore Honmuru, which is the birthplace of many Hopi and other Native peoples,” he said. “Though this action, the history of our people, our culture and religion will be preserved for future generations.”