President Obama Designates 2 National Monuments In Southwest

The proclamation has earned the president both praise and scorn. Instead, the group said, locals should be celebrating.

“His name and signature will perish in the wind and set with the sun forever”, said Suzie Johnson, a Native American. Prior to the Bears Ears designation Donaldson and the SILTA trustees asked department of interior officials to consider a land exchange or monetary compensation.

But despite Obama’s designation, the battle over Bears Ears may be far from over, as Reyes outlined in his statement the steps that would be taken by Utah Republicans on several levels to combat the monument. Harry Reid pushed for the Gold Butte monument.

Besides protecting the land for Native American tribes, the move will also protect the wildlife and archaeologically important sites found within the monuments.

In his last few weeks in office, President Obama has designated national monuments in both Utah and Nevada, in a move celebrated by Native American tribes as well as conservationists. I thank the holy mountains, Mother Earth, Father Sky, the holy mountains and sacred waters.

“We have always looked to Bears Ears as a place of refuge“, Begaye said.

Obama established the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean in September.

While some cheer the monument, others are protesting it.

But don’t let that distract you from the immediate facts at hand, which is that the new monuments are breathtaking.

May the president keep using his pen and the power of the Antiquities Act before we lose such opportunities for the next four years, maybe eight, maybe even longer.

Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said a sitting president can not reverse a previous president’s national monument designations. “But they will not ignore us in the future!” But no previous president has ever tried to terminate a national monument, according to National Geographic, and while Congress could attempt to reduce the size of or funding for either monument, “representatives might be reluctant to be seen as undoing protections for majestic landscapes”.

Desert and canyon landscapes in the West are among the most majestic in America, and Mr. Obama has cited cultural treasures as a pretext for consecrating 1.3 million acres in.

The use of this land by Native Americans is somewhat restricted when compared with the other newly formed national monument. It’s inside the western boundary.

“I can’t feel my toes, I can’t feel my fingers and I can’t feel my face, but my heart is on fire because of this crowd”, said Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer J. Cox. He said this could prevent the state from selling mineral leasing rights or discourage ranchers who would otherwise pay to graze on trust lands.

The Waco Mammoth Site became a national monument in 2015. At Thursday’s rally, they spoke one-after-another, assuring angry residents that they would not stand for the monument.

The attorney general added, “The courtroom is not our only option”.

“We’ll keep up this fight”, House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, told the crowd.

Disagreement over Nevada’s federal lands is what brought the Bundy family – whose ranch is just next to the new Gold Butte National Monument – into the public eye in 2014, leading to a widely-publicized armed standoff with the Bureau of Land Management.