President Trump, don't decimate the Bears Ears National Monument | Sally Jewell
On Monday, we are expected to see the largest rollback of protections for public lands and waters in US history. This would be a grave mistake
In the middle of my four-day visit to south-eastern Utah in 2016, I was invited into a tipi located between the Bears Ears buttes. The Native American spiritual leaders who still collect medicinal herbs in the area were there, as were leaders from the five tribes of the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition: the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Ute and Ute Mountain Ute.
The tribes, not always known to see eye-to-eye, had united to share the importance of this region to their cultures, traditions and spiritual wellbeing. Their emotion was deep and flowing as we sat around the fire, and they expressed the importance of protecting these lands for their children and grandchildren. My job as secretary of the interior was to listen, and their message was powerful.
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