When President Donald Trump essentiallyerasedthe Bears Ears National Monument in Utah , Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkeemphasizedthat the move had nothing to do with oil and gas . Turns out , he was dwell . Surprised ? Yeah , me neither .
The New York TimesreportedFriday that oil and gun exploration had , well , a lot to do with the administration ’s determination toshrinkthe monument from 1.35 million acres to a simple 201,000 acres . The Times made this discovery through a public records request lawsuit that resulted in the release of a spile ofinternal documentsrelated to the monument ’s denomination under former President Barack Obama and its subsequent annulment under Trump .
These included an e-mail showing that Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch ’s federal agency asked the Interior Department back in March 2017 to redraw the Bears Ears boundaries so that they do not include oil- and accelerator pedal - filled earth . In that email , a Hatch auxiliary , Ed Cox , wrote to an Interior Department official , Downey Magallanes , that the unexampled suggest boundaries “ would resolve all known mineral conflicts . ”
This map was nearly identical to what the Trump administration decide to cut from this part of Bears Ears .
Supporters of the monument , specially Native Americans , have always been concernedthat this decision had to do with industry interests to mine and take out resources from the land , which is considered consecrated to nearby tribal nations and is habitation tomore than 100,000cultural and archaeological site .
The revelation that the determination to shrivel Bears Ears did have something to do with fossil oil and gas is kinda ’ ironical because , well , Zinkesaid thisto The Salt Lake Tribune in December :
“ I ’ve heard this argument about Bears Ears ’ oil and natural gas ; that ’s a villainous argument . There are no petroleum and gas resources that anyone has account in Bears Ears . It really is about multiple use and multiple use is graze , timber management , recreation , being able to apply in some place four - bicycle cause . ”
Whatever you say , pal . Zinke ’s situation responded to Earther ’s request for remark by authorship , in an email , that Zinke accept “ the views of a miscellany of concerned parties ” into consideration when hit his recommendation to shrivel the monument . OK , then .
The Utah state government tell The Times that the sales event of mineral rights on trust lands serve fund its public school , which is true . Sales throughout the state have resulted in more than $ 1.7 billion state revenue , reports The New York Times . The thing is , the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration , which oversees these land , also told The Times the federal government downsized the Bears Ears National Monument much more than it had request .
“ manifestly they were attend at fact other than the one we had raised , we assume , ” said John Andrews , the establishment ’s associate director , to The Times .
“ It ’s direful that one letter to the secretary of Interior was more significant and more significant than these 2 million voices , ” suppose Cassandra Begay , the tribal liaison for PANDOS , a Utah - based Native - function organization that has been organizing around the Bears Ears controversy , to Earther , in reference to the communications between Hatch ’s office and the Interior Department .
Begay , who met Zinke in an sticky exchange last year wherehe told herto “ be courteous , ” was n’t surprised at all by this word — but she is disappointed and concerned for the land . “ Some thing like Bears Ears National Monument should be give alone , ” she severalize Earther .
Tribal country — like the Navajo , the Hopi , the Zuni , the Ute Indian Tribe , and the Ute Mountain Indian Tribe — still frequent the land for its other natural treasures : wildlife to hunt , berries to consume , and herbs to gather .
“ [ This land ] is our church , ” Begay said . “ It ’s our medicine storage locker . It ’s our market . ”
When former President Barack Obama point the memorial in 2016 , it did n’t include all the land tribes want to protect , but it was still a significant chunk . Now , the Bureau of Land Management hasapprovedtwo U mine expansions in Utah — one of which seat decently next to where the home monument once live but not on the specify land itself .
Meanwhile , state repp are presently tryingto exemptUtah from the Antiquities Act so that there is never another Bears Ears . With that , Begay offer some last thoughts .
“ I think Zinke needs to take his own advice — and be nice . ”
ryan zinkeUtah
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