Native leaders criticize Bears Ears reductions, say consultation was ignored

Many tribal communities have spoken out against President Donald Trump's recent executive orders reducing the size of Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

Bears Ears has long been honored by Native peoples because of its cultural, spiritual and historical significance. Five tribes have ties to the monument, including the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray, Hopi Nation and Zuni Tribe.

Tribal members hunt, fish, gather and conduct ceremonies within the Bears Ears National Monument.

Following the executive order reducing Bears Ears by roughly 1.24 million acres, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition released a statement calling the decision a major setback that weakens protections for a living cultural landscape and damages the relationship between federal agencies and Tribal nations.

Emerson Hackford, a Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition youth council representative, stated that one of his biggest concerns was the lack of a federal-tribal relationship.

One of my biggest concerns is the fact that zero tribal consultation was used during this decision. In these actions, there were no tribal representatives that were contacted, and the government is supposed to have an obligation to listen to us, Hackford said.

Hackford and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition pointed to the terms established in Proclamation 10288 and the Inter-Governmental Cooperative Agreement between the Commission Tribes, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

This agreement requires the BLM and USFS to obtain input from the Commission into the development and implementation of the monument management plan.

The agreement also stated that the parties would engage regularly and frequently at the local level to coordinate Federal decision-making processes and to ensure Tribal knowledge, priorities and interests are incorporated into the management of the monument.

Autumn Powell, a PhD student at the University of Kansas and member of the Bears Ears Conservation Corp, said her biggest concern moving forward is the representation of the land including the potential for commercialization and mining.

Thats not who we are. Thats not how we should represent the planet as people. We should, you know, be on equal ground with the environment. Not above it, Powell said.

Hackford expressed similar concerns.

One of my biggest concerns about this landscape is essentially how its going to be decimated for short-term monetary gain, he said.

Trumps executive orders cite the monuments' mineral resources as an opportunity to reduce U.S. reliance on "foreign sources for these resources." The lands removed from the monument status will remain under federal ownership and will be managed primarily by the BLM.

Rep. Celeste Maloy, who is running to represent the district containing these monuments, supported the reductions, saying that Utah residents have sought them for decades.

The people in rural Utah have been asking for almost 30 years now, she said.

Maloy also stated that the monuments were too large to manage effectively.

When you have monuments that are more than a million acres, its tough to manage that size for protection. It makes more sense to manage small areas for protection, Maloy said.

However, Hackford stated that the public does not want the reductions to occur.

I think that those are intentional lies being put forth by people who understand that public interest is being undermined. Public interest does not want this, he said.

In a study conducted by Colorado College, they found that Western voters across the political spectrum support keeping the national monument designations in place.

The study, completed on June 11, 2026, stated that 89% of Western voters felt that national monument designations should be kept in place not removed. 59% of study responders stated that they should definitely be kept in place.

These responses were consistent across party lines with 81% of MAGA supporters and 94% of non-MAGA supporters voting to keep existing national monument designations.

Hackford mentioned this study when discussing public interest.

This was a small group that denied public interest and tribal sovereigntys rights. And thats the entire truth of the situation, she said.

Moving forward, both Hackford and Powell want to see changes made on the local and political level.

I would like to see a lot more politicians and lawyers going against the illegal signage of the reduction of Bears Ears, Powell said.