Salt Lake City Tribune
(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are published for discussion purposes only.)
In seeking to create and, now, preserve the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, leaders of the Navajo Nation have held the clear moral high ground.
Centuries of connection to the land and a reverence for its natural beauty, silence and aura have won for the tribe, and its many allies among other native nations, the support of environmentalists, the outdoor recreation industry and, late last year, President Barack Obama.
Now, of course, the 1.35 million-acre monument is threatened by President Donald Trump, who has apparently yielded to the voices that claim ownership of the landscape for the come-latelys and for the extractive economy that values land only for the money it can generate.
