The best way to save sacred land?

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The best way to save sacred land?

‘The issue is whether the monument is the right vehicle’
Utah state legislators and their staff lead the way for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and others in the distance Monday through Bears Ears National Monument near Blanding, Utah.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, stops to meet Hank Stevens, Navajo Mountain Chapter President, at the Butler Wash Indian Ruins trailhead on Monday near Blanding, Utah.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, second from right, is joined by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, right, during a press conference Monday at the Butler Wash trailhead within Bears Ears National Monument near Blanding, Utah.

The best way to save sacred land?

Utah state legislators and their staff lead the way for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and others in the distance Monday through Bears Ears National Monument near Blanding, Utah.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, stops to meet Hank Stevens, Navajo Mountain Chapter President, at the Butler Wash Indian Ruins trailhead on Monday near Blanding, Utah.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, second from right, is joined by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, right, during a press conference Monday at the Butler Wash trailhead within Bears Ears National Monument near Blanding, Utah.
Ute Mountain Ute response

Regina Whiteskunk, of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, lobbied for the monument, and her tribe is one of five that are part of a Native American advisory committee established to help manage cultural sites.
In an interview with The Journal, she said it is disappointing to see the new administration potentially working against it, and feels a monument is the right balance of protection and public access.
“The Bears Ears are the indigenous homelands for Native Americans, and we advocated for its protection and continued access for all people,” she said. “We approached it from a healing standpoint. Rescinding the monument takes us 10 steps back, and says the Native American voice is not important.”
She dismisses the claim that current laws are adequate to protect cultural sites, saying looting and vandalism continued to be a real problem.
“A lot of history for Native Americans is out on the land, we can’t always go to a library to access our past, for us it is written on canyon walls and is in the dwellings that are still there,” she said.
The Journal

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