Think I’m taking recent events with Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante a bit too harshly?
I may be a bit biased being a native from Utah, but the reduction of land reserved as national monuments could affect the conservation efforts made by past administrations and the preservation of culture in this area. It truly shows what the Trump Administration and politicians in office deem as important-- showing that this political move was not for the people of Utah, but for the advantage of corporations and the government in power today.
As of last Monday, the Trump administration made a political move to shrink the amount of land reserved for national monuments of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. A natural response (one that many Utahns did partake in) to this is: "What real harm is there to lose some national monuments when there are others?”
The blatant response to this is: No, you are wrong.
First of all, ever hear of the concept of conservation? The efforts that the government (until now) and environmental groups have made to preserve certain areas to not be meddled with? Is this something, in our contemporary era, that is deemed unimportant?
Honestly, if you think that this environmental issue is less important than advantageous plans the government has with corporations (and yes, this includes extraction of oil), then please take a moment to rethink these ideas. Not only is this wrong on an environmental level, but it shows a complete lack of cultural respect towards Native Americans residing in these parks.
These national parks, as well as others, contain representations of Native American culture through wall paintings and other various artifacts. Although these physical representations do hold cultural significance to Utahns and Native Americans, the land itself holds cultural significance.
In Bears Ears, that will be reduced by 80% due to Trump’s recent administrative move, a place where some Native Americans reside. By removing these lands you are meddling with the homes of these people, invading them only for the purpose to gain resources and to create jobs.
In no way will this benefit the residents of this community. By the off chance that there will be jobs available for residents, will it be fairly available to Native Americans? Or will it be for the heavily white population in the community that has already shown distaste towards Native American culture?
Utahns were advertised by Trump and politicians that these National Monuments would be given back to the people of Utah....but since when was it not part of Utah? Making Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante into National Monuments implied that the U.S. government was making an effort to preserve these lands, to have it open to the public to explore these landscapes, but to limit harmful human interactions to this area, to properly conserve these monuments in its environment and culture.
And sadly, this is only a stepping stone to the decrease, if not removal, of other National Parks. Of ones in California, more in Utah, Colorado, etc. In no way will this stop unless individuals protest against the shrinkage of national parks.
And to those that still think that this will not have an impact on them, or that this will benefit the United States in terms of resources and supplying more jobs (yes, I'm looking at you Fox News), put yourself into the perspective of these Native American tribes and to groups that wish to aid in conservation efforts. Imagine if your home, the very place that you reside in now, was to be taken away from you, disregarding your place in the community in order to benefit the government in terms of resources.
In no way are you a beneficiary.
In no way, in this recent political action to shrink national monuments, are you a beneficiary either.
