On the Red Road in Salt Lake, Native Americans call on Biden to protect Bears Ears

Tribal members call on Biden to protect Bears Ears

Leaders and activists seek the protection of sacred Bears Ears landscape

© Provided by Salt Lake Tribune (Zak Podmore | The Salt Lake Tribune) Hank Stevens, Navajo Nation representative and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, sits on the trailer carrying the Lummi Nation's totem pole from Washington state to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, July 17, 2021.
Read article at MSN: https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/indigenous-leaders-call-on-biden-to-enlarge-bears-ears-national-monument-as-25-foot-totem-pole-travels-from-washington-state-to-washington-dc/ar-AAMhWzR

By Red Road to DC

Censored News

SALT LAKE, Utah —The sacred landscape of Bears Ears needs immediate protection, said members of the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe.

In an event held as part of the Red Road to DC, a cross-country tour highlighting Indigenous sacred sites at risk, area tribal members called for the restoration and expansion of protections for the original Bears Ears National Monument that were illegally removed during the Trump administration. Organizers of the Red Road tour stopped in Salt Lake City to display a totem pole by Lummi Nation carvers to highlight sacred sites at risk due to development and infrastructure projects.

"This is a historic journey where Tribes have united to create a ceremonial trail across Indigenous Nations," said Hank Stevens, Co-Chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Navajo Nation representative. "We are ecstatic for the opportunity to be a part of the Red Road Journey to Washington D.C."

Red Road to DC: For Generations to Come

July 14, 2021

Native activists begin cross-country tour to highlight at-risk sacred sites

Group says Biden must address crisis posed by development in Indian Country

Schedule July 14 -- 29, 2021

 

BELLINGHAM, Washington — Native American activists and allies from across the country today began a cross-country tour called the Red Road to DC to highlight the threats to Indigenous sacred sites. They will transport a totem pole carved by the House of Tears Carvers from Lummi Nation to each sacred site to highlight the importance of President Biden taking immediate action to protect the areas. 

 

"It is our Xa xalh Xechnging, our sacred obligation, as Lummi people, to care for our lands, waters, and all living things on Earth," said Jewell James (Lummi), master carver at House of Tears Carvers. "Each person who comes to the events at the sacred sites who lays their hands on it, is instilling it with a message and a prayer that the places Indian people pray, and collect foods and medicines, will be protected." 

 

Apache Stronghold Sacred Journey at Bears Ears

Photos and article by Steve Pavey

Apache Stronghold Sacred Journey

Censored News

BEARS EARS, Utah -- “We’ve all been touched by colonization,” says Apache spiritual leader Wendsler Nosie, Sr. The difference between us native Indians and the rest of those living in the U.S. is that we still have one foot outside the system of the colonizer through our history, religion, stories, ceremonies, and prayers.

If the Poor People’s Campaign is to have any hope of creating a National Revival with a new moral narrative, it must listen first and foremost to our native spiritual leaders. This is why in part the Stronghold Sacred Journey is making its way to DC. We must listen closely and learn from our Native brothers and sisters about the 1st Chapter of America’s history and acknowledge the lies and delusions we tell ourselves about who we think we are. We have been deceived. We do not know who we are. This nations political-economic values & system have from its beginning dehumanized us all and desecrated Mother Earth and all that is sacred.
We were told by our Diné host, Eric Descheenie, that Bears Ears has always been a place for healing, for reconciliation, for reconnecting what’s broken. We had ceremony and prayers for healing this nation. As a white man with European roots present in this circle of healing, I recognize that for this reconciliation to happen we must be willing to embrace suffering, let go of the power we hold, and tell the truth about how we embody the colonizers system of values.
It is disguised all too often in our naive efforts to still wield its power for good as allies. It will be a temptation for those of us in the Poor Peoples Campaign to make poverty into our enemy and jump to political solutions. But it requires spiritual ones which will then have political impacts. And as the originator of the first Poor Peoples Campaign, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "This revolution of values requires us to see the enemy in the evils of materialism, racism and militarism that founded this country." Our native brothers and sisters who are leading this sacred journey will not only help us see these evils more clearly, but will show us how to pray and become human again.


Copyright Steve Pavey, no portion may be used without permission.

Interior Oil and Gas Sale of Bears Ears Area Land on March 20, 2018

(Above) Maps, documents, parcels for oil and gas lease sale on March 20, 2018
https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage&currentPageId=122746

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke posted this photo of himself when he toured Bears Ears on May 11, 2017. Now, Interior e-mails reveal the land seized from Bears Ears was for the benefit of oil, gas, coal and uranium corporations, and sports hunters. Sports hunters made contact with Zinke by way of hunting with Donald Trump, Jr., in Utah.

Interior halts oil and gas sale at gateway to Yellowstone -- but still plans sale around Bears Ears boundary on March 20, 2018 unless it is halted

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The Interior Department has halted an oil and gas sale at the gateway to Yellowstone, after an outcry, but still plans to sell leases for oil and gas around Bears Ears in southeastern Utah on March 20.
The land includes pristine areas along the Green River, San Juan River and Moab.
"U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Monday he has postponed a second federal oil and gas lease sale planned for March in less than a week in response to local opposition to the possibility of drilling near national parks and monuments," Reuters reports.

"Zinke said the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will remove 17,300 acres out of the planned March 13 sale of 63,496 acres of federal land for oil and gas leases near the tourist city of Livingston, Montana, which is a gateway to the Yellowstone National Park."

"In southeastern Utah, local environmental and archaeological groups have protested a March 20 auction of around 57,000 acres near the former boundaries of the Bears Ears National Monument - reduced by 85 percent last year by President Donald Trump - that is known to contain significant cultural sites." This sale is still scheduled.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1GH36R?__twitter_impression=true

More details about the March 20, 2018 lease sale near Bears Ears boundaries -- areas of Moab, Green River, San Juan River, Utah:
https://suwa.org/conservation-groups-challenge-trump-administrations-decision-threaten-national-monuments-irreplaceable-cultural-resources-oil-gas-leasing-development/

Interior documents -- "No significant impact" with maps, data, parcels for oil and gas sale on March 20, 2018:
https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage&currentPageId=122746

Anasazi Site Toured by Zinke in Bears Ears area Targeted for Exploitation and Desecration 

The New York Times has gained access to 20,000 e-mails of the Interior, revealing that Bears Ears land was seized for the benefit of oil, gas, coal and uranium corporations, and sports hunters. The head of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife had a private dinner with Zinke in Utah, after going hunting with Donald Trump, Jr. Below is a photo posted by the Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife. Read more at Censored News about the exploitation of Bears Ears: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2018/03/interior-e-mails-reveal-interior.html

Read more: Zinke says Interior should partner with oil companies

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-03-06/zinke-says-interior-should-be-a-partner-with-oil-companies

Interior E-mails Reveal Interior Shrinking of Bears Ears was for Oil, Uranium and Sports Hunters

Sports hunters used their connection to fellow hunter Donald Trump, Jr., to lobby for the opening for more of
Bears Ears to hunters. Photo from Interior e-mails.

Interior E-mails Reveal Interior Shrinking of Bears Ears was for Oil, Uranium and Sports Hunters

Interior has land auction scheduled for Bears Ears area land on March 20, 2018, unless it is halted

Article by Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The New York Times reports that oil was the reason for the shrinking of Bears Ears. The article also reveals Interior meetings with a uranium company, Energy Fuels Resources, concerning uranium at Bears Ears.
The 20,000 Interior e-mails also reveal the interest in available coal at Grand Staircase Escalante and natural gas at the Canyon of the Ancients.
Further, Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke planned a private dinner with the head of a sportsmen group, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, a connection made possible by Donald Trump, Jr., who went hunting with the head of the sportsmen's group in Utah. 
Sportsmen were lobbying the Interior for hunts of the free roaming bison, elk, big horn sheep, cougar, black bear, and more, in the Bears Ears area.
The e-mails also reveal the sarcastic attitude of the head of the Bureau of Reclamation toward Native Americans, as shown below, one of 20,000 e-mails which the New York Times gained access to.
The statements from Native American Nations opposing the shrinkage of Bears Ears and destruction are included in these e-mails.
One e-mail points out how little Zinke knows about Indian Tribes, after Zinke suggested Tribes become corporations.
The e-mails also show motorcyclists contacting the Interior, eager to gain access to back trails.
(Below) Interior Sec. Zinke posted this photo during his visit to Bears Ears, as the Interior prepared to open more areas for exploiters. Hunters contacted Zinke after hunting with Donald Trump Jr, according to e-mails. The Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife continued to support Zinke in November, when Zinke promoted big game hunts in this news release.
.

New York Times -- Oil was central in decision to shrink Bears Ears, internal e-mails show

By Eric Lipton and Lisa Friedman
March 2, 2018
WASHINGTON — Even before President Trump officially opened his high-profile review last spring of federal lands protected as national monuments, the Department of Interior was focused on the potential for oil and gas exploration at a protected Utah site, internal agency documents show.The debate started as early as March 2017, when an aide to Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, asked a senior Interior Department official to consider shrinking Bears Ears National Monument in the southeastern corner of the state. Under a longstanding program in Utah, oil and natural gas deposits within the boundaries of the monument could have been used to raise revenue for public schools had the land not been under federal protection. Read article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/climate/bears-ears-national-monument.html

(Below) The Bureau of Reclamation's sarcastic comments about Indian Tribes, from E-mails in New York Times article:
Alan Mikkelsen is the Bureau of Reclamation's Deputy Commissioner.

ACCESS Interior E-mails and Documents here:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4391967-National-Monuments-a-Look-at-the-Debate-From.html#document/

Shrinking Bears Ears National Monument: Inside the Interior Department Decision

The New York Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request for copies of documents related to the decision by the Trump administration's Department of Interior to shrink two National Monuments, a special category of federal lands intended to protect them from development. The Times received 25,000 pages of documents, but only after it filed a lawsuit in federal court. Here are a few of the key ones.

Objections from Utah Delegation Even Before Bears Ears Created 

Utah State Board of Education Objected Too, Citing Mineral Rights 

Indian Tribe Supported Creating Bears Ears 

An Early Look by Trump Era Interior: Metals and Fossil Fuels at Bears Ears 

Interior Notices Patagonia/Google videos re Bears Ears 

Intervention by Sen Orrin Hatch's Office 

Hatch's Office: This New Boundry Would Exclude "All Known Minerals Conflicts" 

One of Many Efforts by Outdoor Industry to Intervene 

Minerals Review at Bears Ears, Examined Again 

Indian Tribes Call for Bears Ears to be Left as Is 

Hunting Group Intervenes Too, With Photos of Kills  

Interior Department Official Criticizes Indian Tribes 

Formal Review of National Monuments Begins 

Zinke Travels to Utah, Discusses Concerns with State Officials 

Zinke Schedule to Visit Bears Ears 

More Questions about Mines and Impact of National Monuments 

Staff Report on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument 

Coal Potential at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument 

Staff Report on Bears Ears  

Current and Former National Park Service Employees Voice Their Opinion p.138

White House Decides to Keep Interior Memo Justifying Move to Shrink Monuments Private 

"To be remembered" National Wildlife Federation 

Natural Gas Production at Canyons of the Ancients 

FYI to Interior Bosses: Outside Magazine on National Monuments Debate 

Energy Fuels Resources Meeting Details  

Indian Tribes Repeat Support for Maintaining Monument 

Motorcyclists Welcome Access to More Federal Lands  

Below: Zinke's private dinner with sports hunter organization's head, after hunting with Donald Trump, Jr. in Utah.

Read more:

Donald Trump Jr. and his Utah hunter buddy, all part of the shrinking of Bears Ears for the exploiters. http://kutv.com/news/local/utah-sportsman-hunts-with-trumps-sons-calls-them-authentic-blue-collar-kids