Jul 14, 2026
This week, President Trump shrank two national monuments in Utah: Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante — again. And I am working with allies to defend these public lands — again. This time through America the Beautiful for All Coalition.
I have never visited these sacred lands. I hope to one day, and fear they are in danger of being destroyed by mining and other threats now that their monument protections are gone.
I am forever grateful for the lessons I learned when I was the Executive Director of Creation Justice Ministries from Indigenous leaders who are part of faith communities near these national monuments, as well as from our partners at Utah Diné Bikéyah and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. They taught me so much about how different conservation policy can look — and how different conservation results can be — when we learn from Indigenous knowledge and invest in Tribal stewardship of ancestral homelands.
Bears Ears was the first national monument designated at the request of a historic coalition of Tribal Nations: the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe of Uintah and Ouray Reservation. One of the most meaningful parts of my career was my work with Secretary Deb Haaland and the Biden Administration to restore protections for these national monuments.
President Biden's restoration of the monuments safeguarded cultural sites and added protection for one of the most significant cultural landscapes in the nation.
Trump's action to dismantle the monuments' integrity (even worse this time) defies the landmark Tribal co-stewardship framework for Grand Staircase-Escalante and a groundbreaking federal-intertribal collaborative management authority for Bears Ears.
First and foremost, please support the inter-tribal coalitions: Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition & Grand Staircase Inter-Tribal Coalition.
You can see America the Beautiful for All Coalition's statement about the July 13th monument rollback and connect with us on social media about it Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and BlueSky.
I'm grateful to be working shoulder to shoulder to restore these protections with so many organizations in our coalition leadership. Some of the groups you can take action with include Native American Rights Fund, Grand Canyon Trust, Earthjustice, The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club. League of Conservation Voters, or National Parks Conservation Association.
Do you have a story about your connection to defending Bears Ears National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, or other parts of our natural and cultural heritage? Share it in the America the Beautiful for All Coalition Story Directory!
This story was shared with permission. The storyteller maintains editorial review rights over their narrative.
