Interior secretary tours contested Utah monument
BLANDING, Utah — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said sacred tribal lands he toured Monday in America’s newest and most hotly contested monument should be preserved, but he questioned whether the monument designation was the right way to do it.
Zinke’s aerial and ground tour of the Bears Ears National Monument was part of a review ordered by President Trump to determine if 27 monuments were properly established.
The review includes sites in California: Berryessa Snow Mountain, Carrizo Plain, Giant Sequoia, Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and San Gabriel Mountains.
Zinke spent the day getting familiar with the 1.3-million acre swath of southern Utah with red rock plateaus, cliffs and canyons on land considered sacred to tribes. His tour guide was Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, one of several Republican leaders in the state who oppose Bears Ears National Monument.
Zinke said he wants to make sure Native American culture is preserved but cautioned that not all tribal members share the same opinion about the monument designated by President Barack Obama near the end of his term.
“Of course, the legacy and what I’ve seen should be preserved,” Zinke said, “The issue is whether the monument is the right vehicle.”
Herbert, Sen. Orrin Hatch and the rest of the all-GOP Utah congressional delegation consider the monument creation by Obama an unnecessary layer of federal control that will hurt local economies by closing the area to new energy development. They also say it isn’t the best way to protect the land.
In Blanding, with a population of 3,400 people, two large banners read, “#RescindBearsEars,” reflecting the popular sentiment among residents.
But Bears Ears supporters made their voices heard too. They believe the monument adds vital protections to tribal lands where members perform ceremonies, collect herbs and wood for medicinal and spiritual purposes, and do healing rituals.
The monument review is rooted in the belief of Trump and other critics that a law signed by President Theodore Roosevelt allowing presidents to declare monuments has been improperly used to protect wide expanses of lands instead of places with particular historical or archaeological value.