President Trump Slashes Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments for a Second Time

Bears Ears National Monument. Photo by Tim Peterson

President Trump Slashes Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments for a Second Time

The move also defies Intertribal collaborative management at Bears Ears and an Intertribal shared stewardship framework at Grand Staircase-Escalante

For Diné people, this land shapes our way of life. In Diné communities from Navajo Mountain to Aneth, families continue sacred traditions of prayer, harvest medicine gathering, and ceremony. Bears Ears (Shash Jaa’) holds our ancestors’ footsteps and our children’s future. This decision dishonors generations of care and weakens the unity we’ve built to safeguard Bears Ears for everyone.”  --Davina Smith–Idjesa, Dine'

Press statement, Censored News, July 13, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, President Trump attempted to virtually eliminate Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, cutting their boundaries by, combined, almost three million acres. This is a major escalation of unlawful actions taken in his first administration in 2017, when he attempted to cut boundaries for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 87% and 45%, respectively. Protections for both monuments were restored by President Biden in 2021.

Today’s action threatens our public lands and public access by paving the way for new mining and exploitation by corporate polluters in some of our most beloved natural and cultural landscapes. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are a part of a larger cultural landscape — an interconnected Indigenous homeland that has been stewarded by Native Americans since time immemorial.   

This is a major escalation of his actions from nine years ago. The proclamations today virtually abolish the two monuments.  President Trump’s unlawful and unprecedented 2017 actions were immediately challenged by Tribes and conservation and outdoor business groups in federal court, and those lawsuits are still pending.

Dishonoring the sovereignty of Native Nations and the federal government’s duty of Tribal consultation, President Trump’s actions today also defied a landmark Tribal co-stewardship framework for Grand Staircase-Escalante and historic federal and intertribal collaborative management authority for Bears Ears.

The cuts occur as the 106,000 acre Babylon Fire burning inside Bears Ears became the largest wildfire in the nation. 

Today’s attempt to eviscerate the monuments comes in stark opposition to the wishes of Western voters and the public at large. Polling of voters in seven Western states found that support for keeping existing national monument designations in place has increased from 88 percent in 2025 to 91 percent in 2026. Additional polling found that Utah voters support keeping Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante as national monuments by 71 and 74 percent, respectively.

Polling also found that 89 percent of Utah voters agree it is important that Native American Tribes have a strong role in managing their ancestral lands, and 4 in 5 voters say they favor keeping the cooperative management agreement between Tribes and public land managers in place for Bears Ears.

Local, regional, and national groups that support the protection of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments issued the following statements.

Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition - Davina Smith–Idjesa, Co-Chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Representative for the Navajo Nation

“For Diné people, this land shapes our way of life. In Diné communities from Navajo Mountain to Aneth, families continue sacred traditions of prayer, harvest medicine gathering, and ceremony. Bears Ears (Shash Jaa’) holds our ancestors’ footsteps and our children’s future. This decision dishonors generations of care and weakens the unity we’ve built to safeguard Bears Ears for everyone.” 

Grand Staircase Inter-Tribal Coalition - Autumn Gillard, Coordinator of the Grand Staircase Inter-Tribal Coalition and Representative for the Southern Paiute

“Our Tribes were not informed of or asked about this decision, and that’s unacceptable. The federal government must honor its Trust and Treaty obligations to our Tribes — it is not optional. Today’s action is a direct strike against the federal government’s duty to consult with Tribes. It also profoundly disrespects our intergenerational Traditional Knowledge by destroying a framework for Tribal co-stewardship over our ancestral lands in which we invested years of effort. Today’s action cannot stand. 

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument holds thousands of years of Southern Paiute cultural history as well as ancestral history and ties for our relative tribes. It is through our strong connection to the land that we can maintain our spiritual and religious beliefs and practices. Areas like Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are known for their deep cultural connection to Nuwu holistic conservation traditions. In Southern Paiute teachings, we are taught from infancy that we are the stewards of these lands, which must be protected and preserved for future generations.”

Utah Diné Bikéyah - Mark Maryboy, Founder and Board Member Emeritus
“On behalf of Utah Diné Bikéyah we are reaching out to every Tribe and non-profit to stand together to provide protection for the earth not only at Bears Ears, but on public land throughout the world. In 2017, President Trump acted illegally in reducing National Monument protections and tried to divide our five Tribes by renaming “Bear Ears” to the Navajo-only name; “Shash Jaa.” Just like today, this is both illegal and an attempt to anger and divide us across Tribal Nations. We know the history of Bears Ears where we as Native Americans have been separated and murdered for 250 years, and we will not fall into this trap again.”

A’Nuche - Deena Ute, Executive Director
“As Americans, we need to recognize how much the Earth means to all of us. The reality is Bears Ears is for everyone. It is protected to benefit us all regardless of the color of our skin, or who we are. The current administration is not thinking of us as Americans, only of themselves. But how much more will they tear the veins open of our mother earth to extract money? And will they ever be satisfied? These lands are our ancestors, our home, our foods, our medicines, and our places of worship and should be held in trust as a national monument.”