Celebration planned for Bears Ears … but not everyone’s happy
Navajo Times | File, Donovan Quintero Twilight falls over the Bear's Ears national monument in winter 2017.
PAGE
The Obama administration trumpeted its track record in collaborating with Native American tribes Monday, buffing the administration’s legacy after last week’s controversial decision to protect sacred tribal lands by designating a new national monument in southeastern Utah.
Now, Utah Diné Bikéyah, a nonprofit organization, will be hosting a victory celebration on Saturday, Jan. 7, at the Welcome Center in Tsébii’ndzisgaii-Oljato, Utah, where more than 300 people are expected to attend, according to Kenneth Maryboy, UDB board member and president-elect of the Mexican Water Chapter.
The Bears Ears National Monument will cover 1.35 million acres in San Juan County, the White House announced on Dec. 28, 2016.
“Protection of this area will provide important opportunities for further archaeological and paleontological study,” President Barack Obama stated in a nine-page proclamation in which he explains why he finds the land worth protecting.
Bears Ears – named for twin buttes that poke above the horizon – will protect a diverse southwestern landscape, including red rock formations, piñon-juniper mesas, 12,000-foot-high mountain peaks, secluded sandstone canyons, not to mention more than 100,000 Native archeological and culture sites.
Despite its vast cultural significance and the importance attached to it by so many, Bears Ears has long been threatened. Congressional funding shortages for the management of cultural resources by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service left it vulnerable to looting and vandalism.
To read the full article, pick up your copy of the Navajo Times at your nearest newsstand Thursday mornings!
Are you a digital subscriber? Read the most recent three weeks of stories by logging in to your online account.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow