Last Monday, President Trump signed two executive orders declaring the shrinkage of land of two national monuments in Utah. Bears Ears National Monument, originally created by former president Barack Obama, will be cut by over 80 percent of its original acreage, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, set up by former president Bill Clinton, will be reduced to just 40 percent.
One positive argument for the reduction of the two monuments is that the shrinking of the monuments will benefit the remaining existing parks; there is a $12 billion maintenance fund deficit in the National Park Service, which means infrastructure in parks cannot be fixed. Additionally, the reassignment of the land is aimed to benefit local economies. President Trump said, “Some people think that the natural resources should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington. And guess what: They’re wrong.”
Access to the monuments will be made easier as the restrictions on motorized vehicles have been lifted, and activities such as hunting and fishing will be allowed in the freed up land.
Not only will motorized vehicles be allowed, but the land will now be open to be extracted for natural minerals and oil. This, in theory, should benefit local communities as these projects will provide job opportunities and are often high paying — two things that could positively impact the county of San Juan, the poorest county in Utah, where the monuments are located. While it will be some time before oil rigs could appear on the terrain, the promise of the many oil fields present lingers in the minds of many.
Trump’s declarations, however, have not been met without strong opposition from many peoples and groups. While aware of the job opportunities that extraction jobs would offer, Mark Maryboy, Navajo and former county commissioner, isn’t buying into this promise of potential good that could come out of the lifting of restrictions on the national monuments. “The experience that Native Americans see in this county is discrimination,” he says. “They are the last ones to be hired for any position. Even if there’s a huge mining operation opening up, they will not be hired for that position. And they will be exposed to the toxic materials that are left on the ground or in the air.”
The Navajo tribe cherish the thousands of sacred ruins and rock art left by their ancestors in Bear Ears. Bullet holes on some of the sacred rock art cast a glaring truth about the lack of cultural sensitivity that is often shown toward the Native Americans. Maryboy says the discrimination against his people in the county of Utah where Bear Ears has been egregious, conveying, “They didn’t want to work with us. In fact, one of the county commissioners told me ‘You guys lost the war so you have no business talking about the land planning process.'”
Maryboy is not alone in showing his unhappiness with the decision. A historic coalition of five local Native American groups came together to lobby for the creation of Bears Ears, and now, University of Colorado law professor Charles Wilkinson, who advises the coalition, says, “We’ve got the documents ready to file.” Yvon Chouinard, founder and CEO of Patagonia who supports the coalition of Native American groups, says, “I’m going to sue him. It seems the only thing this administration understands is lawsuits. I think it’s a shame that only 4% of American lands are national parks. Costa Rica’s got 10%. Chile will now have way more parks than we have. We need more, not less. This government is evil and I’m not going to sit back and let evil win.” Patagonia even changed their homepage of their website to pop up as a blacked out background with the words “The President Stole Your Land” stamped across the screen. Visitors were given a list of organizations and groups that are opposed to Trump’s reduction of the monuments so that they could give their support.
Many groups are worried that the shrinking of the two Utah national monuments will serve as a gateway to a larger trend and open the door for the reduction of more national parks. For now, the uncertainty of what will happen to the land of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments lingers.
Kaylie M. • Dec 13, 2017 at 4:31 pm
I’m sorry, a national monument, landmark, area, etc. is dubbed that title so that it is protected. Once an area has been protected, one shouldn’t be able to just take away it’s importance and shove it under a rug of “it’s for the better”.
Justin English • Dec 13, 2017 at 12:17 pm
this was pretty bad tbh