Utah Dine Bikéyah celebrate 10th year of Bears Ears Summer Gathering

By Shandiin Vandervere
Special to the Times

WINDOW ROCK

In its 10th annual celebration, Utah Diné Bikéyah hosted over one hundred people to honor the enduring legacy of Indigenous peoples at the Bears Ears Summer Gathering.

Held at the Kagalia Guard Station Campground within the Bears Ears National Monument, this year’s gathering was centered on the theme “Walking into the Future with Our Youth and Ancestors.”

Each year the nonprofit organization welcomes Indigenous community members and others to pay homage to the sacred land widely known as Bears Ears in southern Utah. Known by surrounding tribes as Neénijí (Diné Bizaad), Meetoog Gought (Ute), Momiqu Hoyoyotota (Zuni), and many other names, this landscape has been revered for its beauty and cultural importance.

This event offers a look into the impressive collaborative efforts needed to preserve these spaces as the first national monument to be requested by Native leaders.

“As such, we must shape the agencies that manage these lands and write policies that define what protection means in Indigenous thought and action,” Utah Diné Bikéyah Executive Director Woody Lee said. “Elders understand traditional stewardship. They worry about our young people and their ability to pass traditional knowledge on to the next generation.”

The 2024 gathering included ceremonies, games, and storytelling from many community leaders, both young and old, in recognition of this year’s theme. While elders hold the foundation of their tribal history, with deep knowledge and memory, the younger generations bring fresh perspectives.

The event focused on creating a balance between the two, ensuring that Native pasts and futures are embraced equally.

Over the years, the celebrations have focused on different themes, including “Moving Forward” to signify trusting Indigenous wisdom to carry the culture into the future, and “Letting Life Speak,” acknowledging the wisdom that the landscape, the animals, and plant life on earth have to offer.

Each event also allows all those who attend an opportunity to show love for Bears Ears through prayer, ceremony, and sharing in traditional practices. Each is dedicated to furthering the nonprofit’s mission to bring healing to people and the Earth.

The weekend event, held July 19-21, was designed as a collaboration between leadership from multiple tribes, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. Each of these groups shares in the management of the national monument to ensure all resources are directed while observing Native customs and traditions. This includes food, medicine, hunting, and environmental protection.

Establishing Utah Diné Bikéyah

Utah Diné Bikéyah initially began as a central group of classmates who survived boarding school together. Each of the founding board members wanted to establish an organization that “fill(ed) a hole in tribal government and the nonprofit sector.” Among them include Willie Greyeyes, Leonard Lee, Dorothy Redhorse, Jonah Yellowman, Evangeline Gray, brothers Mark and Kenneth Maryboy, and Gavin Noyes.

The Bears Ears National Monument itself was originally given official designation on Dec. 28, 2016. Reversing President Donald Trump’s decision to allow mining and other harmful development practices, the monument’s protection of 1.36 million acres was restored by President Joe Biden in 2021.

One of this year’s speakers was former Navajo Nation Chairman Peter MacDonald Sr. Reelected in office four times, his story as a community leader also includes serving as a Navajo Code Talker during World War II and co-founding the Council of Energy Resource Tribes.

Hunting in Shash Jaa’ 

MacDonald shared some of his personal childhood memories spent hunting game in Bears Ears over 90 years ago. He also spoke of “sovereignty” and its meaning for Native nations and remembered his time in the 1930s.

“We loved each other. We visited each other. That was to me a good example of sovereignty,” MacDonald said. “We all knew each other. Respected that…. K’é was the most powerful law that we had. I saw it and I lived it when I was a young boy.”

Significance for Diné 

The area holds a special significance for the history of the surrounding tribes, particularly the Diné.

In Diné stories, Bears Ears is where Diné emerged from the earth. Even the Kagalia Guard Station Campground, where the healing celebration was hosted, is named after sheepherder K’aa’yélii, the younger brother of Chief Manuelito – recognized as one of the last Diné leaders to surrender to the forced removal from the federal government. The namesake and his family chose to hide in the canyons that are now part of Bears Ears National Monument.

For many, the Bears Ears Summer Gathering is a powerful reminder of the enduring connection between Indigenous peoples and their ancestral lands. Through the celebration of traditions, the honoring of past leaders, and the engagement of younger generations, this event reaffirms the commitment to preserving and protecting these sacred spaces for future generations.

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