BEARS EARS INTER-TRIBAL COALITION TO PRESIDENT BIDEN:
THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW
Tribes Launch National Ad Campaign Calling for Restoration and Expansion of Bears Ears National Monument
BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT, May 24, 2021 –
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition launched a national ad campaign on Sunday calling on President Biden to take immediate action to restore and expand Bears Ears National Monument.
“My bloodline and culture comes from Bears Ears, my clan migrated through that area. If your eyes are open, the evidence is everywhere. Former President Trump wanted to diminish our connection to Bears Ears but President Biden has the power to set the record straight. We trust him to get this right.”
– Clark Tenakhongva, Vice Chairman of the Hopi Tribe and Co-Chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition
“These are aboriginal ancestral lands, even before the statehood of Utah, we’ve taken care of these lands. Yet, for so many years the government’s explicit policy with the Indian Removal Act, policies that penalized speaking in our Native tongues, and the broader assimilation process all contributed to an effort to disconnect us from the land and our lifeways. This is the broader context where we find ourselves today. But now we have a new President. And President Biden has the opportunity to begin a new chapter where we are included in the management of public lands. Acknowledging our connection to these landscapes in speeches is important but involving us in the management would be restorative justice in practice.”
— Manuel Heart, Chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Member of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition
The Coalition’s 6-figure, full-page wrap in the Congressional and White House editions of the Washington Post will run on Wednesday, May 26th and Thursday, May 27th. The ad will run in the Salt Lake Tribune’s Sunday Edition.
For more information about the ad campaign, please contact:
Cassaundra Pino, Media and Community Engagement Specialist
Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition
505.835.5596 | cpino@bearsearscoalition.org
bearsearscoalition.org
AD TEXT:
Mr. President,
We are the leaders of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and represent the sovereign Indigenous nations of the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, and Zuni Tribe.
We thank you for your promise to restore the Bears Ears National Monument. Bears Ears-the region we call Honmuru, Shash Jáa, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe-is our homeland. It always has been and still is. The culture is everywhere. The canyons and forests hold many of our stories. Family gatherings, dances, and ceremonies are held at special places within Bears Ears. People go to Bears Ears to gather roots, berries, firewood, piñon nuts, weaving materials, and medicines. We go for healing. Our ancestors are buried there, and we can hear their songs and prayers on every mesa and in every canyon.
We are grateful for your Administration’s sincere commitment to honoring our cultures, acknowledging our original place in this country that is now our shared home, as well as to preserving the environment and seeking justice.
We commend the administration’s pledge to lead a new era of public lands management, where our traditional knowledge and enduring connections to the land, which have guided our stewardship over them since time immemorial, can be leveraged and acknowledged as a resource critical to the management of Bears Ears.
Our Tribes speak with one voice.
The time to act is now.
Restore and expand Bears Ears National Monument.
