Bears Ears
T HE WA R ON P U BLIC L A NDS:
by
Will Fricker
WRIT 1122: Rhetoric & Academic Writing | Professor Megan Kelly
ALTHOUGH BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT WAS only established in 2016, its history runs far deeper for the indigenous tribes that reside there. The Hopi and Zuni tribes can trace their origin in the area to at least 2,500 years ago, when the Ancestral Puebloans, their ancestors, began settling there. Since then, these tribes and others, including the Navajo, consider the land sacred, using it for worship, crafting intricate petroglyphs, and creating traditional Navajo hogans. As a result, over 100,000 Native American archaeological and cultural sites can be found in Bears Ears (“Native American�). Not only has Bears Ears provided value too great to count for these Native Americans, but it has also created a great deal of value in the monetary sense. More recently, Bears Ears National Monument has been a major contributor to the local economy, providing over $1 billion in ecosystem service benefits yearly and hosting over 91,000 people per year for its multitude of outdoor recreation activities, such as hiking, rock climbing, and rafting (Philbrick). Clearly, this land is extremely sacred, beautiful, and beneficial to the Native Americans and outdoor recreators across the country; thus, it deserves protection through national monument status. However, in a devastating move, President Trump ordered an 85% reduction in the size of the national monument on December 4, 2017, opening it up for oil drilling and VOLUME 9
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