Bears Ears in the News: Reckoning With History

Two weeks of updates for the price of one! Here's what you may have missed on the Bears Ears beat:

Curtis holds hearing to explain, hear input on bill - San Juan Record, 2/13/18

Utah Rep. John Curtis, who represents residents of the Bears Ears region, has gotten an earful from constituents and politicians on both sides of the aisle who either love or hate his "Bears Ears bill." (The bill, which would memorialize the reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument, is explained more fully here.) The venerable San Juan Record covered a community meeting in San Juan County in which Curtis at turns explained and defended his bill before admitting it was likely as good as dead.

Rebecca RobinsonFebruary 25, 2018Antiquities Act, curtis bill, zinke, San Juan County, San Juan Record, Salt Lake Tribune, Bears Ears, Bears Ears National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Navajo, Trump, Public Lands, Conservation, Politics

The Controversy Over the Curtis Bill, Explained

When you've covered a story or beat long enough, every new development becomes interwoven with the past months or years' coverage. A familiar cast of characters reprises their roles; key themes emerge and recur.

And so it was with the recent House Natural Resources Committee hearings on HR 4532, Utah Rep. John Curtis's bill that would codify President Trump's December 2017 executive order shrinking Bears Ears National Monument. On one side: the Utah Congressional delegation, Republicans on the committee, and the San Juan County Commissioners, represented by Commissioner Rebecca Benally; on the other, elected leaders from the five sovereign tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition: The Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Zuni, and the Ute Indian Tribe.

Rebecca RobinsonFebruary 6, 2018Curtis Bill, President Trump, Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Bears Ears National Monument, Shash Jaa, Obama, Bears Ears, Utah delegation, Tribal Sovereignty, Rob Bishop, Ute, Navajo, Russell Begaye, Natural Resources Committee, Politics, Conservation

news from bears ears country