Bayles letter to Energy Advisor

Dear Brian Deese, Senior Energy Advisor

The residents of San Juan County, which include the Navajo and Ute tribes, strongly oppose the designation of a Bears Ears National Monument as proposed by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. Emotion aside, there are lawful, valid reasons why we oppose this monument. The proposal itself is severely deficient and requests actions by the President that are contrary to law.

The BEIT Coalition claims that they are “local by residence to the Four Corners Country.” However, the “Four Corners Country” is not an institutional entity that creates law and policies that govern land use – it’s simply a region. Members of the Coalition are not residents of San Juan County. They are not even residents of Utah. They do not have legal jurisdiction over the Bears Ears area, and by claiming they are “local” via Four Corners Country they are trying to move an already established goal post and define their OWN goal post of what it means to be “local”. That’s fine, they have the right to believe and express how they feel. However, that does not give them actual rights to the land; only political bodies can make policy decisions about this land. “Four Corners Country” is not a citizen, or even a member, of any of those actual functioning jurisdictional entities. The proposal itself disregards no less than 18 land use planning efforts. A non-government organization such as the Coalition should never have the power to trump sovereign State rights, nor duly elected officials, no matter how much money they have been given from outside special interest groups.

Local tribes realize that their own tribal leaders have been bought out by outside special interest groups. Recently, the Ute tribe from White Mesa – one community that will be directly affected by this monument – voted out three of their representatives who are a part of the Coalition. The community was never made aware that a Bears Ears monument was even being discussed and subsequently, they never had the chance to voice their opposition until recently. Evidence of this is provided in the following video with a comment made by Suzette Morris, a Ute resident of White Mesa, to Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, former Ute Mountain Ute Chairwoman, at a recent tribal meeting in White Mesa, Utah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa_TyQzLKiI.

In the proposal, the Coalition makes claims of “rampant looting” and “grave robbing” and states that “more than a dozen serious looting cases were reported between May 2014 and April 2015.” However, those claims were never cited, much less verified. In fact, those claims are in stark contrast with reports from local law enforcement, the US DOI briefing on looting activities, and the BLM.

The most important point, albeit upsetting and downright disturbing, that I want to address is the dishonesty that the Coalition has shown since day one. They claim that the seeds of their proposal were planted and nourished by local Navajos, when in reality, it was in fact environmental groups that planted the seeds of this monument into the soil of these tribes. In 2014 a meeting of the Conservation Lands Foundation was held in San Francisco where board members discussed the progress of what was then known as the “Cedar Mesa campaign” (later it would be known as the Bears Ears proposal). Chairman Ed Norton was quoted in official minutes questioning if their group was “hitching our success to the Navajo and if so what would happen if we separate from them or disagree with them. Without the support of the Navajo Nation, the White House probably would not act; currently we are relying on the success of our Navajo partners.”  

The Coalition does not have the local tribes’ best interest in mind. They proved that by ignoring the entire Aneth Chapter of the Navajo Nation by submitting the chapter's 2010 resolution in support of the monument as part of their October 2015 official proposal, when in fact the chapter rescinded in August of 2015 and officially announced their opposition to the monument.

Many surveys have been generated regarding public opinion on the proposed monument. The one that the Coalition most often promotes claims “55% of Utahns support a Bears Ears National Monument.” This poll in particular was conducted by Mike Matz from Pew Charitable Trusts organization. It should be noted that Matz headed the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA-one of the major financial proponents for the monument) from 1993-2000.  He used Public Opinion Strategies and the Benenson Strategy Group whose motto is “BSG is a strategic research consultancy that marries language expertise with innovative research to frame choices so that your brand is the only answer.” http://www.sltrib.com/news/4224034-155/poll-most-utahns-favor-a-bears. The poll included a phone survey of only 600 registered voters in Utah, yet not one San Juan County resident nor one Native American, was surveyed. Those two populations are the ones that will be most affected by this monument. http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/analysis/2016/08/11/new-poll-utahans-support-protections-for-bears-ears-area.

These are just a few of the reasons that locals, myself included, are so against this proposed monument. If it was the right thing to do, there would be at least some support from local Navajos, Utes, Anglos, and Hispanics alike - but there is not. If you want this land to continue being protected, because it is protected by BLM, Forest Service, and the good stewards of San Juan, please work with local county residents and elected officials.

A National Monument should be an honor to an area, not a punishment – and it should not be done TO the residents, but rather WITH the residents. I am attaching a copy of a conversation I had with a Navajo man who is a life-long resident of Bluff, Utah. Whether Bears Ears becomes a monument or not, the U.S. Department of Interior, the Council on Environmental Quality, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the President of the United States himself needs to see that the Bears Ears National Monument proposal is nothing but a Trojan Horse that will undoubtedly destroy this area.

Jami Bayles

Returning To My Ancestral Homeland . . .by Janet Wilcox

I get it.  I can understand the connection that members of the Arizona Coalition tribes have with the land within the proposed Bears Ears National Monument. The ancient lands of the Anasazi are part of their heritage with thousands of those sites located south of the mountains, in the Cedar Mesa area. Archaeologists continue to speculate why they left this area. Perhaps survival was their primary goal, perhaps drought, or visions of a better place.  However, this important land is only a small part of the expansive 1.9 million acres they are asking for.

I also understand why descendants of early Mormon converts make pilgrimages to Nauvoo, the scene of both miraculous and horrific events in the history of early LDS church members.  Over 20,000 members were driven by mobs from a land they hoped would be a safe haven in Illinois. Their leaders were killed, and pioneers suffered terribly from the harshness of the emigration to Utah. Thus Nauvoo became a sacred and significant site to these people.

Caernarfon Castle in N. Wales with Bowen relatives,
Geraint and Zonia

When we traveled to Wales and Scotland in 2001 to visit the ancient lands of my forebearers, I felt a connection also; a reverence for the land, and a keen interest in the history of those countries and people.  I visited a little 300-year-old cottage of my third great grandfather in Wales, which was still being used.  I saw the battlefield where William Wallace and Robert de Bruce led the Scottish resistance against the British for land and freedom 700 years ago.  I felt connected and proud of them for their desperate fight for their lands, which they eventually won.

We visited the coal mines of Wales where several of my ancestors had to work in order to put food on the table.  I was saddened by the beautiful canyons filled with refuse from the coal mines; slate piles as high as the canyon walls.  Many of my ancestors died in those mines.  Working conditions were atrocious, but those were times when survival was paramount, not niceties.  Eventually. conditions in Wales forced them to seek a better life in a new country, and they left, eventually ending up in Malad, Idaho, my birthplace.  Like the Ancient Ones, they too sought a better place to live, a refuge from an unfriendly environment and a better life.

What I don’t get.  The early Celtic culture goes back to approximately 1200 BC, about the same era as the early basket makers of the Four Corners area.  There has been a huge evolution within both cultures over the past 3000 plus years.  Even understanding that commonality, I still cannot picture myself, or any other transplanted descendent of either group, presumptuously claiming they now have the right to go back to said homeland and demand that changes be made on how they are managing the land. This is what is happening in San Juan County, as tribal members from Arizona and Colorado, are clamoring to have 1.9 million acres made into a National Monument to “protect their lands.” They are petitioning President Obama to designate yet another National Monument, to put in his trophy case of public acquisitions.

We are going to Wales again next month. Should we form a coalition of descendants and propose a National Monument?  After all, I will be traveling with a large group who have a vested interest in those ancestral lands dating back centuries.  NO, we would never consider such an “outlandish” action.  Those beautiful Welsh lands are now either owned or used by others. Centuries have passed since we had a stake in them. This is their land now. We do not have the right to usurp their authority, or tell them how to protect and care for the land.  Neither you nor I may like the results of some of the things done in our ancestral homelands, but once your ancestors and mine left, they were no longer stewards of the land.  They gave up that right when they left. If I really love my ancestry and I want to protect the land, I will use my resources to HELP the local stewards make changes, not demand they turn management over to me.

Scottish custom of piping in the haggis.
Glasgow, Scotland 2001

What we can do is come and visit often; enjoy the beauty of the land, leave it better than we find it, and be appreciative guests on their public lands.  We will not vandalize, nor denigrate their lifestyle, religion, or bring up the sins of their fathers. We will celebrate the joy of being there in the land of our fathers. We may even have ceremonies and spiritual experiences while we are in Wales.  And I say to the Coalition tribes, come to Bears Ears and do likewise. Be a good guest. Get to know the people in this “foreign country.”  Learn and share with them. 

 Don’t come as an enemy in the night, with deception and ill will in your heart.  Mother Earth will bless all those who approach this land with "ho'zho' '" in their heart as well as in their actions.