President Donald Trump slashed nearly 3 million acres from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments on Monday.
The move comes over the objections of tribal nations and conservation groups.
“Today’s action threatens to destroy precious cultural places that are part of our histories and identities as Native peoples,” said Georgie Pongyesva, a Hopi tribal leader, according to a press release from the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition.
“Many assume that cultural sites have been abandoned, or refer to them as ‘ruins,’” Pongyesva continued. “These places are not abandoned, nor are they ruined. These are living landscapes for which Tribes are the original stewards, and we are the living descendants of the ancestors that left their footprints and writings on these landscapes.”
At a signing event with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Trump issued proclamations reducing the size of Bears Ears by about 91% and Grand Staircase by 90%, citing the potential for critical mineral development.
“We believe, under the Antiquities Act, it’s very clear,” said Cox. “These monument designations are supposed to be the smallest area possible to protect the antiquities. These multi-million acre monuments that are bigger than the state of Delaware certainly do not fit that designation.”
Trump said the reduction is a chance to give the land “back” to the people of Utah.
“We believe it's unlawful,” says Tim Peterson, the cultural landscapes director for the conservation nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust. “We believe the Antiquities Act is a law that was designed to protect places, not to remove places. It's tremendously unpopular with both Western voters and Utah voters.”
Trump tried shrinking the monuments during his first term, but former Pres. Joe Biden reversed the decision.
A survey commissioned by Grand Canyon Trust in 2024 shows support for keeping both monuments at the size Biden determined.
Peterson says tribal nations that consider the national monuments culturally significant weren’t properly consulted.
“That lack of consultation represents a violation of federal trust and treaty obligations to tribes,” he says.
In 2015, the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe founded the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition to protect land they consider their sacred ancestral homelands.
Meanwhile, a separate inter-tribal coalition for Grand Staircase includes representatives from the Hopi Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Navajo Nation, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Zuni Tribe.
Peterson wouldn’t say if the trust would sue to block the executive orders.
Grand Canyon Trust intervened in lawsuits involving both monuments after the first reduction in size and during a subsequent attempt by the state of Utah to reverse the Biden expansions.
Disclosure: Grand Canyon Trust is a financial supporter to KNAU.
