Barack Obama is pictured on the left, alongside a landscape view of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah on the right. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
The national monument in Bears Ears was declared in December 2016 by then US President Barack Obama, who set aside an estimated area of 1.35 million acres of federal land in southeastern Utah. Obama invoked the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create the monument, thus placing management responsibility with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service. Obama’s administration’s December 2016 fact sheet noted that efforts to protect the region traced back at least to 1936 and involved tribal leaders, members of Congress, local officials and conservation groups.
This declaration was for the purpose of protecting an area with immense cultural heritage value for the indigenous peoples. The decision came after decades of efforts by tribal communities, conservationists, and other advocates to secure federal protection for the region, which remains sacred to several Indigenous tribes. The campaign for protection had developed over many years. An important development followed when five tribal governments formed the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and proposed protecting a wider landscape.
On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump signed a document shrinking the Bears Ears area by about 1.15 million acres, which represents more than 85% of the original landmass covered under the title awarded by Obama. The revised boundaries also included around 11,200 acres that had not been there in Obama’s original monument. On October 8, 2021, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation restoring the boundaries established under Obama while retaining the approximately 11,200 acres included in Trump’s 2017 designation. The restored monument covered approximately 1.36 million acres.
One distinctive feature of the designation was the establishment of the Bears Ears Commission. This was made up of representatives of the participating tribal nations. The commission was intended to provide advice and recommendations to the government agencies, bringing their tribal expertise and knowledge into management decisions. The Obama administration’s fact sheet identified this arrangement as a way to incorporate tribal knowledge into the monument’s management. The designation soon turned into a source of political and legal controversy. The five tribal nations that had sought the designation, alongside other organisations, challenged the reduction in court, arguing that the president lacked authority to remove lands. In addition, Biden’s action reinstated the Bears Ears Commission’s composition and function, including representatives of the tribes who were supposed to advise federal agencies.