Bears Ears National Monument and the Tribes Behind It

Most news coverage of Bears Ears National Monument tells it as a fight between presidents over lines on a map. That framing leaves out the people who started the effort, why they did it, and what is actually at risk on the ground in southeastern Utah.

Bears Ears is the first national monument in the United States proposed by a coalition of tribal nations, and it remains one of the clearest tests of whether federal land management can make real room for Indigenous knowledge. This is the history, the current arrangement, and what visitors and supporters should understand before they go or speak up.

The land behind Bears Ears National Monument

The monument takes its name from a pair of buttes that rise above Cedar Mesa, visible for miles across San Juan County. The Diné name, Shash Jaa', and the Ute name, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, both refer to the bear. For the Hopi, Zuni and Ute peoples, and for the Navajo Nation, this country is not scenery. It is ancestral homeland, a place of ceremony, plant gathering and hunting, and the resting place of relatives.

The region holds an extraordinary density of cultural sites, often estimated at more than 100,000: cliff dwellings, granaries, kivas, rock art panels and burial grounds, some more than 2,000 years old. Many were left by Ancestral Puebloan communities whose descendants still live in Hopi and Zuni villages and in the Rio Grande pueblos.

For decades those sites faced looting, off-road damage and pressure from mining and drilling. Federal raids in 2009 on suspected artifact traffickers in the nearby town of Blanding exposed how deep the trade in stolen objects ran.

How five tribes made the proposal

In 2015 the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition formed with five member nations:

Hopi Tribe
Navajo Nation
Pueblo of Zuni
Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe

The coalition built on years of grassroots mapping by Utah Diné Bikéyah, a Navajo nonprofit that interviewed elders and recorded traditional uses across the area. Their proposal asked for about 1.9 million acres to be protected and, crucially, for the tribes to share in managing it. That second point was new. Most national monuments are run by federal agencies, with tribes consulted at best.

Timeline of a contested monument

Date	Event
2015	Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition forms and submits its proposal
December 2016	President Obama designates about 1.35 million acres under the Antiquities Act of 1906
December 2017	President Trump shrinks the monument by roughly 85 percent, to about 201,000 acres in two separate units
October 2021	President Biden restores the 1.35 million acre boundary
June 2022	The five tribes sign a cooperative management agreement with the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service

The 2017 reduction cut out areas such as Valley of the Gods and large parts of Cedar Mesa, opening land to mining claims. Tribes and conservation groups sued. The restoration in 2021 put those lands back, but the State of Utah and others have continued to challenge the designation in court, and the monument's future remains politically exposed.

What co-management actually means

Under the 2022 agreement, the Bears Ears Commission, made up of one elected officer from each of the five nations, works with federal managers on planning, decisions and the long-term management plan. The tribes contribute traditional knowledge about plants, water, seasonal cycles and sacred places. Federal agencies keep final legal authority but commit to working with the commission as partners.

This is a practical expression of what we discuss in traditional ecological knowledge and why it matters. Elders know which springs are failing, which areas are used for gathering medicine, and which sites should not be visited at all. That knowledge does not appear in a standard environmental review, but it shapes good land decisions.

The argument I hear most, and why it falls short

A common claim from monument opponents is that local control would protect the land better than Washington. Sometimes that argument is made sincerely, and federal agencies have certainly made poor decisions in Indian Country. But in Bears Ears, "local control" has usually meant county and state officials who favor drilling, grazing expansion and road access over cultural protection.

The tribes are local too. Navajo families live right along the monument's southern edge, and the Ute Mountain Ute community at White Mesa sits a few miles from its boundary. White Mesa also lives next to the only operating conventional uranium mill in the country, a history we cover in Uranium: The Demon Mineral. Asking who counts as local is the real question. The co-management model answers it by putting tribal nations at the table, rather than treating them as one interest group among many.

How to visit with respect

Visits to the area have grown sharply since 2016. More people means more damage, often by accident. If you go:

Do not touch rock art. Skin oils break down pigments. Even chalk or water used to "bring out" an image causes lasting harm.
Stay off walls and out of structures. A single climber on an 800 year old granary wall can collapse it.
Leave every artifact where it lies. Taking potsherds or arrowheads from federal land is a crime under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, with fines that can reach thousands of dollars.
Do not share exact locations online. Geotagged photos have led crowds and looters to fragile sites.
Stop at the Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff. Staff explain current closures and which areas tribes ask visitors to avoid.

Treat the area the way you would treat a cemetery or a place of worship, because in many places that is what it is.

How supporters can help

Support tribal organizations directly, follow the Bears Ears Commission's public statements, and comment during federal planning periods when the management plan is open for input. Learning the wider story of land, water and the communities that manage them also helps you see Bears Ears as part of a much longer struggle rather than a single news cycle.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Bears Ears National Monument important to Native tribes?

It is ancestral homeland for the Hopi, Zuni, Ute and Navajo peoples, with tens of thousands of cultural and burial sites. Tribes still use it for ceremony, hunting and gathering. It is also the first national monument proposed by a tribal coalition.

How big is Bears Ears National Monument today?

Bears Ears covers about 1.35 million acres in southeastern Utah after the 2021 restoration. In 2017 it had been reduced to roughly 201,000 acres. Its boundaries remain the subject of legal and political challenges.

Who manages Bears Ears National Monument?

The Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service manage it in cooperation with the Bears Ears Commission. The commission includes one elected officer from each of the five member tribes under a 2022 agreement.