Jul 14, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Haleemah Atobiloye (she/her) | Communications Strategist | (202) 350-1372 | haleemaha@cehn.org
WASHINGTON DC — In response to the illegal rollbacks to protections for Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument by Executive Order of President Trump, Shantha Ready Alonso, America The Beautiful For All Coalition Executive Director, issues the following statement:
“President Trump’s action to roll back public lands protections follows his previous significant rollbacks of protection for marine national monuments in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, making him the political leader guilty of the broadest rollback of protected areas in the world. While many of the rest of the world’s leaders are acting to address the climate and biodiversity crises, the Trump Administration is taking the United States backwards. Americans do not want this. We will fight for our communities’ access to life-sustaining nature.”
Tribal leaders from the five sovereign Tribal Nations of the Bears Ears Commission—the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Pueblo of Zuni—issued the following statements (full release here), reaffirming that their responsibility to care for Bears Ears remains unchanged and that they will continue working to protect this sacred ancestral homeland for future generations.
“Bears Ears is part of our history, our stories, and our identity. Though the Zuni Pueblo is not within Utah presently, our ancestors traveled through and lived in this region on their journey to our Middle Place, our ancestor’s footprint is everywhere across the landscape. Reducing the Monument’s protections disregards the deep cultural and spiritual connections we continue to hold. This landscape needs more care informed by Traditional Indigenous Knowledge—not less of it—and its protection should reflect the voices of those who carry its meaning forward.” – Anthony Sanchez Jr., Head Councilman of the Zuni Tribe and Co-Chair of the Bears Ears Commission
“As Diné, our connection to Bears Ears is living and ongoing. This landscape holds our prayers, our medicines, and the stories of our ancestors. Reducing protections is deeply disappointing. It threatens sacred places and disregards the Traditional Knowledge needed to care for them. We are not visitors here; we are locals, and we are still here. We will continue to stand for the defense of our homelands.” – Curtis Yanito, Navajo Nation Council Delegate and Bears Ears Commission Co-Chair
“The Bears Ears region is our homeland. Our ancestors lived, hunted, gathered, and prayed here long before boundaries were drawn. The Ute Mountain Ute people were forcefully removed from these lands, but our connection to this sacred place cannot be erased. We are deeply disappointed by the decision to dramatically reduce Bears Ears National Monument. No matter what actions the U.S. government takes, we will continue to carry our history forward, build community, and protect this landscape through our traditions and teachings.” – Gwen Cantsee, Vice Chairwoman for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Bears Ears Commissioner
“The Creator entrusted the Hopi people with the responsibility to serve as stewards of the land. A change in federal policy does not change that responsibility. Bears Ears is an essential part of Hopitutskwa, our ancestral lands. Our Motisinom and Hisatsinom traveled through and lived within this landscape, leaving place names, petroglyphs, cultural belongings and stories that continue to guide us. These connections existed long before today’s state and reservation boundaries were drawn. We are deeply disappointed that this decision was made without the meaningful government-to-government consultation the federal government had promised, particularly after the Tribal Nations spent years working collaboratively and in good faith with federal agencies. The Hopi Tribe remains ready to work government-to-government to protect this sacred landscape for our children, our grandchildren and all future generations.” – Mikah Kewanimptewa, Vice Chairman of the Hopi Tribe and Bears Ears Commissioner
“The Bears Ears landscape has always been part of our seasonal migrations, a place where our people gathered medicines, hunted game, and connected to the power of the land through ceremony. Reducing Bears Ears is deeply disappointing. This was not just an opportunity to heal from past removals, but a chance to lead with Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and protect a living cultural landscape for future generations. The Ute Indian Tribe remains committed to conserving these ancestral homelands.” – Betsy Chapoose, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation Cultural Rights and Protection Director and Designated Proxy to the Bears Ears Commission
America the Beautiful for All Steering Committee member, Kim Bailey (Executive Director, Justice Outside) said “Today's attempt to dismantle protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments is an attack not only on some of our nation's most treasured public lands, but also on the sovereignty, leadership, and enduring stewardship of the Tribal Nations who have cared for these landscapes since time immemorial. These monuments represent living cultural homelands, places of ecological significance, and spaces where future generations deserve the opportunity to connect with nature, history, and one another. We stand with Tribal leaders, local communities, and the overwhelming majority of the public in opposing these unlawful actions and affirm that the future of our public lands must be guided by Indigenous leadership, community stewardship, and a shared commitment to protecting the lands and waters that sustain us all, not by short term corporate interests.”
America the Beautiful for All Steering Committee member, Teresa Martinez (Executive Director, Continental Divide Trail Coalition) said “The Continental Divide Trail traverses some of the most spectacular public lands, including two national monuments. The Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument is a source of pride for Coloradans, celebrating the history of the 10th Mountain Division and a stunning portion of the Continental Divide landscape. On the Continental Divide Trail through El Malpais National Monument, hikers experience a richly diverse volcanic landscape and a rich, longstanding cultural legacy.
We know firsthand how important these protected places are to our communities, outdoor recreation economies, and the way of life of so many Americans. The Trump administration's latest aggressive attack on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments flies in the face of public opinion, with recent polling demonstrating that 91% of all voters from eight western states agree that existing national monument designations should be kept in place.
The Continental Divide Trail Coalition stands alongside organizations from across the country and calls for all elected officials from states along the Continental Divide to stand up for the values of our Western communities and speak out against these rollbacks. We must all come together to fight to preserve national monuments and all public lands for future generations.”
America the Beautiful for All Co-Chair, Mark Magaña (Founding President and CEO of GreenLatinos) said, “This is an attack on rural, Indigenous and Hispanic/ Latino communities whose past and present is now vulnerable to mining and other destructive activities with more than 90% of the national monument area protections eviscerated. 250 years ago, members of the Domínguez-Escalante Expedition party became the first immigrants to see the redrock, rivers and forests of the region that would become Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We can see these places as they were then only because local communities had the foresight to protect them for future generations. When President Trump signed these executive orders, Tribe officials were not invited. Representatives of the Bears Ears Commission and Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition were not there. GreenLatinos iterates to this administration and Utah’s electeds: listen to Tribes.”
America the Beautiful for All Steering Committee member Pat Gonzales-Rogers (Lecturer and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, Yale School of the Environment and Yale Center for Environmental Justice) said, “Reducing the Bears Ears is a direct assault on both tribal sovereignty and our shared public heritage, cutting deep against the will of the vast majority of Americans. For Tribes, this isn't about redrawn lines on a map; it is a devastating blow to the protection of ancestral lands, sacred and living cultural sites that have been guarded and treasured since time immemorial. It robs the American public of the right to experience and honor these pristine landscapes. This profound reduction of the monument by the administration is willfully ignoring the clear consensus of the people they are supposed to serve, choosing instead to act against the public interest to dismantle a vanguard model of land management and a discernable exercise of Tribal sovereignty.”
America the Beautiful for All Wildlife Workgroup Colead Dr. Jewel Tomasula (National Policy Director, Endangered Species Coalition) said, “When we lose protected habitat, we lose species. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante safeguard some of the most important remaining habitat for imperiled wildlife in the Southwest, including federally protected birds like the Southwestern willow flycatcher, rare plants, and countless native species that depend on large, connected landscapes. The Trump administration’s plan for these monuments puts threatened and endangered species at greater risk while ignoring both science and overwhelming public support for conservation.”
Background
Bears Ears National Monument was established by presidential proclamation of Barack Obama in 2016; Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established by presidential proclamation of Bill Clinton in 1996. These monuments respectively protect 1.36 and 1.9 million acres of public land in southern Utah that is sacred to numerous Tribal Nations.
In 2017, President Trump signed an executive order dismantling protections for these national monuments, in addition to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Bears Ears National Monument’s protected area was reduced by 85 percent and replaced with smaller noncontiguous national monument units. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s protected area was reduced by nearly half. Leaving more than one million acres of public land containing unique archeological sites, irreplaceable cultural sites and critical flora and fauna vulnerable to mining claims and other destructive activities. This executive action was met with litigation asserting that the President does not have executive authority to reduce national monument protections–federal courts have yet to rule on the legality of this authority.
In 2021, by two presidential proclamations, President Biden not only restored the original Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument area, but also restored and added about 12,00 acres of public land protection at Bears Ears National Monument. Since then, both national monuments have complete and formal resource management plans supported by the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition and the Bears Ears Commission for the respective national monuments of interest, as well as millions nationwide. A challenge to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument management plan through use of the Congressional Review Act failed in 2026.
###
About: The America the Beautiful for All Coalition, 300+ organizations strong, is the broadest convergence the modern conservation movement has seen: a center of gravity where conservation, environmental justice, and public health meet. We follow the leadership of, and define our priorities with, the communities living closest to the lands, waters, and wildlife under threat.
