Tourists and looters descend on Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument as Biden mulls protections Published 3 hours ago
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Print article BLUFF, Utah - In the sandstone canyon where Vaughn Hadenfeldt once saw the bloody tracks of a mountain lion hauling off a mule deer, there are 1,000-year-old cliff dwellings decorated by rock paintings of bighorn sheep where one can still see the ancient footprint of an infant pressed into the wall. A renowned wilderness guide with decades of experience exploring the Bears Ears area, Hadenfeldt has long argued that this austere landscape teeming with archaeological and cultural treasure in southeastern Utah should be viewed as an outdoor museum. And each time he visits, more of that treasure has been looted.
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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox takes a selfie with Rep. Blake Moore, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and Sen. Mitt Romney. The group toured ancient dwellings along the Butler Wash trail at Bears Ears National Monument near Blanding on Thursday.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland met with tribal leaders as well as Utah state leaders Wednesday in San Juan County to talk about Bears Ears National Monument. They toured the monument together Thursday morning.
Haaland is visiting southern Utah this week as part of an Interior Department review of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. Former-president Donald Trump shrunk both monuments in 2017 at the behest of Utah politicians.
Navajo Nation calls on restoration of Bears Ears National Monument during Deb Haaland visit to Utah
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More than three years after the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah was drastically shrunk in size, tribal leaders and activists are hopeful that Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland would soon recommend its restoration.
Haaland is visiting the Utah monument on her first trip as the new interior secretary this week. She arrived on Wednesday for three days of meetings and hikes in the sprawling region rich in red rock canyons, cliff dwellings and numerous archeological sites.
President Joe Biden has ordered a review of the monument’s boundaries after former President Donald Trump ordered them reduced by roughly 85% in 2017.
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Former President Trump, however, later reduced the size of the monument by 85 percent, prompting backlash from environmental groups and Native tribes and praise from many state leaders long opposed to the designation.
President Biden ordered a review of the monument’s boundaries following the reduction under Trump, and on Wednesday, Haaland met with leaders from the Navajo Nation, the Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute, the Hopi Tribe and the Zuni Tribe to hear about the significance of the monument that is the ancestral home to many of the southwestern tribes.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez was among the leaders and called for a restoration of the monument’s original boundaries and a possible expansion to 1.9 million acres.
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