A strong majority of Utah voters favor reinstating federal protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, according to a recent statewide survey released ahead of a key federal deadline that officially opens former monument acreage to commercial mining claims.
The survey, which was conducted by the research firm New Bridge Strategy and commissioned by the Grand Canyon Trust, reveals that 66 percent of registered voters in Utah believe comprehensive land protections should be restored across the entire footprint of both national monuments.
The research also found overwhelming public support for Indigenous stewardship of sensitive landscapes. Roughly 82 percent of respondents in the state indicated that Native American tribes should have an influential voice and a strong leadership role in the ongoing management of public lands that feature sacred and culturally significant locations.
Public pushback has intensified following a presidential proclamation issued by President Trump on July 13. The executive order slashed the protected boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 90 percent, effectively lifting conservation rules and making the newly excluded public acreage available for mining and other commercial developments.
Before the executive order took effect, the two vast southwestern monuments encompassed more than 3 million acres of protected canyons, plateaus, and forests. The presidential action reduced the combined protected area to approximately 303,000 acres, drawing sharp condemnation from regional tribes, environmental organizations, and local community members.
The administration’s decision also dismantled an inter-tribal coalition of Native American leaders that had guided the cooperative management of the landscape for four years. The removal of tribal co-management stripped sovereign Indigenous nations of their formal administrative partnership over the public territory.
The affected landscapes hold deep ancestral and religious significance for several regional Indigenous communities. Among the sovereign nations with longstanding ties to the territory are the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, the Ute Indian Tribe, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
Spanning thousands of years of human history, the region is home to countless cultural resources, including ancient cliff dwellings, ancestral villages, petroglyphs, rock art, and active ceremonial grounds. Tribal citizens continue to utilize the surrounding landscape for traditional cultural practices, such as hunting and harvesting native medicinal plants.
Speaking at a Wednesday press conference called to announce the survey findings, Davina Smith-Idjesa, a Diné leader and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, emphasized that the monuments represent far more than geographical boundaries delineated on a map. She characterized the landscape as a sacred space, an outdoor place of worship, a pharmacy for medicinal plants, and a vital pantry sustaining living traditions.
Smith-Idjesa stated that the polling data illustrates widespread public understanding of the critical need for tribal nations to be centrally involved in co-managing their ancestral territories. She noted that regardless of varying views held by elected politicians, the results reflect strong public consensus within Utah that tribal nations must retain a meaningful, permanent role in determining the fate of the lands.
Autumn Gillard, a descendant of the Cedar Band of Paiutes and coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, also addressed attendees at the briefing. Gillard stressed that responsible land administration requires safeguarding historical trails, early homesteads, community sites, and architectural structures to ensure future generations remain connected to their ancestors' heritage.
Gillard added that these cultural landmarks merit robust protection alongside Indigenous heritage sites. She pointed out that tribal connections to the landscape span thousands of years and remain vibrant through Indigenous languages, oral traditions, plant knowledge, ceremonial gatherings, and enduring communal stewardship.
The survey results arrive just as private energy and extraction companies prepare to stake claims on the excised lands, which officially open for new mining submissions on Friday, Sept. 11. Although various mining firms began filing paperwork immediately after the July proclamation was issued, federal guidelines render all claims submitted prior to Friday invalid.
Voter sentiment in Utah remains broadly skeptical of transferring control over federal territory to the private sector. The New Bridge Strategy poll revealed that 81 percent of voters across the state oppose the outright sale or transfer of public lands to private corporate interests.
The prospect of renewed industrial activity comes at a time when the country is positioned on the brink of another uranium boom. For local Native communities, the potential resumption of extraction activities presents direct threats not only to sacred cultural sites, but also to public health and daily survival.
Tribal communities in the American Southwest continue to suffer from the lingering effects of the country's first uranium boom, which lasted from the 1940s through the 1970s. Extensive mining operations conducted on and near Native lands exposed thousands of residents to hazardous radioactive materials, triggering widespread cases of respiratory conditions, kidney disease, and various cancers, while leaving persistent uranium contamination in local groundwater supplies.
Smith-Idjesa shared her personal experiences of growing up in Monument Valley, where she tended sheep alongside her grandparents and drank well water fed by runoff that was later discovered to be contaminated with uranium. She recalled suffering from chronic headaches, witnessing mutated livestock, and watching peers succumb to fatal cancers linked to radiation exposure in a community that had been left entirely uninformed about the severe environmental dangers.
(0)