DECOLONIZING YOUR NEWSFEED

HOLY MOVEMENT | 4.9.21

This week, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland toured Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. It’s the homeland of our Pueblo ancestors, although to the National Park Service, the many cliff dwellings, still intact, are considered “ruins.” That’s not how I or many others see it. Whenever I’ve replenished my soul there, I hear the laughter, the scolding - the lives that no doubt lived out loud in those gorgeous mesas.

Now Haaland has entered the languishing fight to defending these lands, what a coalition of five tribes in the region has been leading for years - a holy movement.

Some may recall, how Republican Senator Mike Lee from Utah, pestered the Cabinet nominee about Bears Ears during her two-day confirmation grilling. In all his ballyhooing over whether to reverse Trump’s reduction of the monument, he even invited her to his home state to talk about it. So she did. Except when she got there, the senior senator was conspicuously nowhere to be seen.

“To me, that is a big asterisk,” said Pat Gonzales-Rogers, Executive Director of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. “We represent five tribes and they have sovereignty and they are analogous to states. If you have five state governors come in with some kind of intersectionality with respect to your state, I’m pretty sure you would have been available,” he told me.

Here’s the quick take:

• Biden promised to restore Bears Ears back to its pre-Trump reduction

• The Inter-Tribal Coalition actually wants more land, 1.9M acres protected

• State lawmakers want Congress to decide, not Biden

• And then there’s that lingering uranium issue which is really THE issue

Like her hostile hearings before the Senate Energy Committee, Haaland’s helming could be one big proxy fight over energy development. For fights over Bears Ears, it could mean total showdowns.

On the eve of Trump’s departure, tucked into the massive $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan was $75 million to create a stockpile of domestically mined uranium. Oddly, one company benefitting from the funding is the Canadian uranium mining operation, Energy Fuels, which runs the only uranium mill in the United States near Blanding, San Juan County, Utah. That’s Bears Ears country.

Zak Podmore of The Salt Lake Tribune has been doing some excellent digging. His latest has revealed how San Juan County hired military contractors as lobbyists to stoke fear about how a Bears Ears designation would decimate uranium production in America.

My favorite take from his reporting has been following the uranium lobbying money trail which he pinned on Sen. John Barrasso, the Republican from Wyoming. Remember that guy? The one who railed against Haaland for two days straight including his “I’M TALKING ABOUT THE LAW” outburst?

Again. Proxy fight, friends.

Here’s some related and recommended reading and viewing.

• Six big questions lingering about Bears Ears

• Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk’s impromptu remarks from 2016. They were so good they made it into a video

• Here’s a photo gallery of Haaland’s recent tour, looking like an REI model

• A list of all the threats on Bears Ears found at bearsearscoalition.org

• And this story from WaPo highlighting the work of Friends of Cedar Mesa

I just got back to the Southwest where the weather is warm and the Apricot tree in my front yard is blooming with the most gorgeous flowers. Fresh beginnings are here to be honored for all.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend 🌸

Jenni

THE INDIGENOUS INTERNET

INDIGENOUSLY INDEX

Total acreage President Obama proclaimed to the Bears Ears National Monument: 1.35M

Number of Native nations behind the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition: 5

Total petitions tribes made for a presidentially-declared monument before Bears Ears: 0

Total percentage that President Trump shrunk Bears Ears protections: 85%

Estimated number of dinosaur fossils in the full Grand Staircase-Escalante site: 3K

Estimated number of fossils exposed due to Trump’s cuts: 400

Exact number of months since the Coalition filed suit to protect Bears Ears: 40

Total days newly-elected Hopi Tribal Chairman was in office before suing Trump: 1

Number of Native nations that have endorsed their support for Bears Ears: 30

Total Bears Ears acreage the Coalition says is in need of protection: 1.9M

Estimated difference in acreage protections from Obama’s proclamation: .55M

Total pandemic aid secured for the“National Nuclear Security Administration”: $75M

Total pounds of annual uranium Energy Fuels produces including in SE Utah: 11.5M

Amount Energy Plus board members reportedly donated to Sen. John Barrasso: $13K

Total number of days Haaland spent in Utah: 3

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The Indigenously newsletter is produced by Jenni Monet (Laguna Pueblo)

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