Protection of Public Lands in Utah: Assemblage Map
Oil and Gas
There is Uranium in Southern Utah, especially in the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase. The area has more than 11 billion tons of coal plus oil, gas and other minerals.
Utah Politicians have opened the doors wide to Oil and gas companies. Further more they have done this without setting regulations and “without listening to Native Americans.”
Energy Dominance
As soon as the Wealthiest companies and people in the world realized that they could use public lands, they wanted to exploit them. These articles explain the value of oil, gas and uranium.
Brewer, R. (2004). Conservancy: The land trust movement in America. Hanover,
Dillon, R. (2008). Green groups blast plan for lease sale on federal lands in Utah. The Oil Daily,
Native Voices
The director and author uses ethos to show how Native American and Indigenous tribes are affected when public land is sold.
Smith, Laura. "The Quiet Politics and Gentle Literary Activism behind the Battle for Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument."
Public Trust Feature Film:The Fight for America’s Public Lands. A Patagoina Film by Byars, D and Rubingh, Ed
Grassroots and Native American Activism
Native Americans have been forced to become activist as they fight for their land.
A group of Utah tribes submitted a proposal for Bears Ears National Monument to the Obama administration in 2015
Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Escalade Stair Case National Monument hold cultural and spiritual value to the Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, Ute, and Paiute tribes.
The land is filled with petroglyphs and over 200,00 sacred Native American Sites. The Ute tribe has said that the area is their "Library of Congress." This will forever be lost if the land is destroyed because of mining practices.
The Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act was established in 1906 and says that "Congress delegated to the president, in his discretion, the power to protect “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest” that are on federal lands and reserve and withdraw lands into federal ownership, “confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected."
Both President Clinton and Obama have established land in Southeast Utah as National Monuments. President Clinton, in 1996 designated 1.7 million acres as Grand Escalate National Monument who was followed by President Obama (proclamation 9558 (Dec. 28, 2016). when he established 1.35 million acres as Bears Ears National Monuments
This allows the president to “invoke Congress’ authority to designate federal public land at the president’s option entirely.Past president, since 1906, have used this to declare National Monuments. Until President Trump decided to cut the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Escalante. He is the first president to rescinded a proclaimed monument.
President Trump and his administration used the AntiquitiesAct along with the land clause to...
On December 4, 2017, the Trump administration issued a presidential proclamation that cut Bears Ears to 85% of its the original size and Grand Escalade to about half of its original size.
Although the Antiquities Act was mentioned in almost all of the literature I read These two sources from the American Bar Association, explain the legality of how and why the Trump administration can get rid of National Monuments.
Bears Ears National Monument: Unprecedented surveys of boundary lines and Executive Authority by Kathryn A. Tipple
The missing piece: Presidential action on monuments highlights congressional abdication of responsibility: Lawson Fite
