Protect Ancestral Homelands and Sacred Places. Tell the Interior Department to Establish Tribal Co-Stewardship of Bears Ears National Monument Now

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Protect Ancestral Homelands and Sacred Places. Tell the Interior Department to Establish Tribal Co-Stewardship of Bears Ears National Monument Now

As the first national monument proposed by a coalition of Tribal Nations, Bears Ears gained protections under the Obama administration but lost protections under the Trump administration.

The five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission (BEC) -- Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Zuni Tribe -- are among the many Tribal Nations with deep cultural connections to the entire Bears Ears landscape.

They helped win the reinstatement of protections under President Biden, who restored the original designation and re-established the BEC as collaborative managers of these sacred lands and waters.

In an unprecedented collaborative process, the BEC worked directly with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to develop a draft resource management plan for the monument, which has just been released.

This new resource management proposal signifies a pivotal shift in federal-Tribal relations and the approach to Tribally-informed management.

Specifically, the Bears Ears Commission is calling for implementation of Alternative E as outlined in the draft resource management plan. Alternative E would set a new standard for Tribal sovereignty and sustainable management of public lands, but we need to advocate for its adoption before the final decision is made -- and the deadline is fast approaching.

Please read the text of our official comment in support of this critical plan below and then sign on by adding your name now.

Official Comment Full Text:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit a comment on the draft resource management plan for the Bears Ears National Monument. The lands, waters, and resources of the Monument deserve to be sustainably managed. Incorporating Traditional Indigenous Knowledge (TIK) and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into the management plan is critical to protect the biodiversity and health of the Monument for generations to come.

The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service must ensure that Alternative E, the preferred alternative, becomes the final resource management plan for the Bears Ears National Monument. Alternative E represents a sustainable and collaborative land and resource management that:

Upholds the sovereignty of the Tribes and honors Indigenous peoples’ personal, traditional, and cultural connections to land.
Reflects time-tested best practices for land management passed down over centuries from the original, and ongoing, stewards of this land.
Protects the habitat, wildlife, and resource biodiversity.
Responsibly manages access and use of the Monument in a way that allows current and future visitors to recreate, hunt, and fish, while also responding to the needs and health of the land.

It’s time to align our standards for managing public lands with time-tested practices.

Sincerely,