Tens of thousands ‘overwhelmingly support’ using Indigenous knowledge to manage Bears Ears

The Valley of the Gods within the Bears Ears National Monument. (Tim Peterson LightHawk/Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition)

Five Native American tribes are joining the federal government in looking over tens of thousands of public comments on the future of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

The three-month public comment period ended on June 11, and more than 20,000 people submitted responses, according to the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.

The public comments “overwhelmingly supported the use of traditional Indigenous knowledge in the management of the monument,” the coalition said in a news release on Wednesday.

The tribally informed co-management plan for the national monument is the first of its kind in U.S. history.

BLM looks to emphasize indigenous knowledge with newly unveiled Bears Ears management plan

The plan is a collaborative approach between the federal government and tribes on how to steward Bears Ears, which can include tribal ancestral history and ideas for protections through land conservation and traditional education.

People from the Zuni Pueblo, Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Mountain Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray each have their own cultural and spiritual connections to the land, and say it is a sacred site. The five tribes signed the land management deal in June 2021.

With public comment over, the five tribes acting through the Bears Ears Commission, along with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, will review the comments and figure out how to incorporate them into the final management plan.

President Joe Biden fully restored the Bears Ears monument in October 2021 after the Trump administration cut it by nearly 2 million acres.

In 2023 a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit by Arizona lawmakers that sought to reverse Biden’s proclamation.

Part of the impetus for the area being designated a national monument was to protect it from future uranium mining, like the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints near the Grand Canyon National Monument.

Biden’s executive action came after the head of the National Park Service said in March 2022 the federal government would make greater efforts to include Native American tribes in decisions involving federal lands.

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