I am writing in response to the editorial (Herald, 7/13) on Interior Secretary Jewell’s visit to Bluff, Utah to hear public comment on the proposed Bears Ears National Monument in San Juan County, Utah.
I was born and raised in San Juan County and have a connection to this land. Fate or destiny brought my ancestors here. Of over three dozen relatives, one was born in Utah and the others came from seven other states and seven other countries. All of them immigrated to Utah by covered wagon or handcart.
Over half of my relatives came to San Juan County and ten of them rest in the cemeteries of Bluff, Blanding, and Monticello. Many of them came with the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition, arriving in 1880, settling Bluff, Blanding and Monticello. They came to befriend the Native Americans with visions of a center for education and healthcare for the Natives. A visit to the schools, the University campus, and the healthcare facilities today reveals that access to education and healthcare for the Natives has improved to fulfil the hopes and dreams of those pioneers.
Today, over 50 percent of Blanding residents are Native. I live and work with them and consider them friends. We share a connection to this land, a desire to protect it, to preserve the beauty of the landscape, the sanctity of prehistoric structures, and to use the land responsibly.
We don’t need a national monument, which would do more harm than good. The lands are already managed by the federal government, with authority to limit harmful activities, prohibit irresponsible uses, and enforce existing laws that protect the land and resources. A national monument will reduce access and use and invite visitors who will unwittingly negatively impact the land. The reduction in access and use will have a devastating impact on the community as a whole as the economy suffers and out migration creates a cycle that erodes the community, the economy, the school system, and the way of life of the people who live here.
We say No, Doodah, Koch, to the national monument, and Yes to protecting the land.
Jeremy Lyman
Blanding, Utah