Over 200,000 Bears Ears supporters ask BLM to halt planning
By Alastair Lee Bitsóí
More than 200,000 public comments asking the Bureau of Land Management to halt its planning process for Bears Ears National Monument have been submitted to the federal agency. Most of these public comments center on how the planning process for the monument is short sighted, particularly when the tribes of the Bears Ears region through the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and other plaintiffs like Utah Diné Bikéyah, Patagonia, and our environmental allies are in litigation to restore Bears Ears National Monument.
“Right now, the BLM is taking public comments, but how many of our comments will be upheld or honored? That’s the question I raise,” said Willie Grayeyes, board chair for Utah Diné Bikéyah. “If President Donald Trump is doing a unilateral move, why are we wasting our time submitting public comments. We are still in suit.”
The Bears Ears National Monument executive order, issued by President Obama in 2016, invited tribes to have a seat at the table to advise on land management planning decisions for the region. It is not just for one part of the government to look at it, Grayeyes added.
Last December, President Trump reduced Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent without any tribal consultation and after the monument had been designated in 2016 by President Obama as a national monument. Despite concerns that their comments will not be taken seriously, Utah Diné Bikéyah and its allies submitted public comments that opposed the BLM’s planning process for the Shash Jaa’ and Indian Creek Units of Bears Ears National Monument and. in the event that the planning process does continue to move forward, offered insight as to how the BLM should manage the area to ensure protection of all the cultural resources present there.
“How can the BLM propose a management plan for the archaeology when less than 10 percent of the land has been surveyed?” asked Honor Keeler, executive director for Utah Diné Bikéyah. “This is a human rights issue!”
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This whole “Indian tribal” thing is a plain fraud upon the United States Constitution.
It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is for politicians-state and federal-to dumb down as gullible non-Indian U.S./State citizens into believing that they-politicians-can pass statute law that regulates from the womb to the tomb the health, welfare, safety, benefits, capacities, metes and boundaries of a select group of U.S./State citizens made distinguishable from all other non-Indian U.S./State citizens because of their “Indian ancestry/race” at the same time the Constitution’s 14th Amendment’s ‘equal protection’ foreclosed the very same politicians from enacting statute law regulating from the womb to the tomb the health, welfare, safety, benefits, capacities, metes and boundaries for select group of U.S./State citizens with ‘slave ancestry/race’ all without a shred of Constitutional authority to do so. To date, no politician-state or federal-has answered this question…a question so simple, it is hard: “Where is the proclamation ratified by the voters of the United States that amends the United States Constitution to make the health, welfare, safety and benefits of a select group of U.S./State citizens distinguishable because of their Indian ancestry/race?”