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| Friends of Cedar Mesa provides visitors its version of what needs to happen in Bears Ears country at the renovated Silver Dollar Bar in Bluff, Utah. (Field Studio/University of Utah) |
(Portions of this have been submitted for publication in the October edition of the Canyon Country Zephyr.)
By Bill Keshlear
On the road home from Monument Valley recently I stopped in at Friends of Cedar Mesa’s Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff, Utah, its home base.
It’s housed in a nondescript former bar renovated by the nonprofit on the main drag through town, between the upscale Desert Rose Resort, Recapture Lodge, a smattering of restaurants and gas stations, and a re-creation for tourists of historical Fort Bluff.
I wanted to find out what kind of information people get when they just walk in off the street. Does it align with information from other visitor’s centers in the area? Is the information presented as one viewpoint among many on how to preserve sacred archeological artifacts and unique geological formations? Or only Friends' point of view?
Friends’ mission is about protecting those sacred archeological artifacts from a variety of threats, including tens of thousands of visitors who have descended upon the area over the past couple of years thanks in part to publicity generated by nonprofits such as Friends in attempts to protect those sacred archeological artifacts. The hordes are expected to just keep coming. Fodor’s, the popular travel guide publisher, ranked Bears Ears at the top of its list of recommended places to visit in 2019.
The reincarnated Silver Dollar Bar is an effective brick-and-mortar platform for Friends’ environmental advocacy. Displays are museum-quality. Volunteers brim with the enthusiasm of true believers. It’s a labor of love.
I came away from the brief stopover there with a clearer but depressing sense of how difficult it will be to bring together opposing sides in the hoo-ha over the monument.
I expected the docents to trot out standard pro-monument talking points about fears of imminent oil and gas development and other fictions. And the one I talked to did. Although there’s a remote possibility of drilling within the pre-Trump boundaries of Bears Ears, it’s mostly a Big Bogey driving outrage and donations.
In the wide-ranging conversation, the docent at Friends’ Education Center also said San Juan Mormons drew county districts to stifle Navajo representation in public offices
She was mistaken. It was another Big Bogey, this one routinely invoked to characterize county officials and residents.
I explained that the county drew the lines under the supervision of the federal government in the mid-1980s.
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| Gail Johnson was interviewed by KSL-TV in 2014. (KSL) |
In an article published by Monte Wells in his Petroglyph, Gail Johnson, who was county clerk at the time, wrote:
"These historical facts are documented in county records and federal court records. Under the direction of the DOJ, the county did everything required to comply with the Voting Rights Act. There was no political or racial gerrymandering. If that were the case, then the DOJ and the federal judge were party to it." ...
"Again, documents show that the original San Juan County commission districts were created to comply with a federal court order. These districts were created to give more opportunity to American Indian residents for political participation in county government. These districts were created with the assistance and endorsement of the Navajo leadership.
"It is unfortunate that misinformation by some has lead to divisiveness IN this county and misperceptions of this county. Historically the average county resident, American Indian and non-American Indian, get along well with other county residents on a day-to-day person-to-person basis regardless of race or politics. There isn't perfection, but in general there is respect. There is cooperation. There is personal service. There are friendships. There are shared grandchildren. And, there are good people."
Johnson also mentions more recent events:
In
the October 24, 2011 commission meeting, Commissioners Phil Lyman and
Kenneth Maryboy agreed to form a redistricting committee to look at the
2010 census data to recommend any changes to the commission districts.
Commissioner Bruce Adams was not present. That committee reported on
November 14, 2011. Two rural areas east of Monticello (Cedar Point and
Ucolo) were moved from District 1 to District 2 to put populations back
into balance. Thus not disrupting a lot of residents and preserving
community interests as had been done previously. Commissioner Kenneth
Maryboy opposed this action preferring a complete redistricting of the
county using census blocks rather than voting precincts.
The
Navajo Nation filed suit against San Juan County two months later in
January 2012 alleging that the county commission districts were
unconstitutional.
An account of the federal government’s control over San Juan County beginning in 1984 also was written by University of Utah professor Dan McCool, who was hired by the Navajo Nation at $300 per hour to bolster its landmark voting rights case. It's a withering attack on San Juan County but consistent with Johnson's account of events 34 years ago. It begins on page 162.
The docent at Friends' Education Center said she'd never heard any of this.
She also said President Trump’s decision to reduce the size of Bears Ears was “illegal.” I told her Trump had broken no law. Other presidents had shrunk monuments. “Well, not as much,” she said. Among pro-President Obama monument activists, there’s a certainty regarding the outcome of federal litigation to overturn Trump’s proclamation. But it could go either way. The liberal-learning Brookings Institution suggests Trump has the power to do what he did. The outcome of next year's presidential election could be decisive.
Shouldn’t Friends be expected to cherry-pick here and there to promote its political agenda? Shouldn't information from its "education center" be taken with a grain of salt? After all it’s an activist group at the forefront of a hot-button and expensive national environmental campaign.
(Friends' Executive Director Josh Ewing responds to questions about information the organization offers visitors to the Education Center in a longer version of this submitted for publication in the October edition of the Canyon Country Zephyr.)
The organization's tactics include threats of drawn-out litigation.
Here are Ewing's comments regarding the Bureau of Land Management's oil and gas sale held earlier this month:
“We don’t think that’s appropriate for America’s most dense archaeological area to be completely leased with no planning and no tribal input and at odds with all the data we have from that area. We will do whatever we can to get the government to reconsider its bad decision, including litigation as necessary.”
Ewing seemed to be talking about a vast area west of Canyons of the Ancients, north of Hovenweep, and east of Bears Ears national monuments that was OK'd for oil and gas development in the BLM Monticello Field Office's 2008 Resource Management Plan – the document that determines what will open up for leasing and under what conditions. The 2015 plan updated under Obama's administration of BLM, however, raised concerns: "The RMP does not fully protect significant cultural and paleontological resources through special designations. ... Nomination of the most significant sites to the National Register of Historic Places and additional road inventories in the field office would help remedy these shortfalls."
Tribal input – required by the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act and the National Historical Preservation Act – was sought from several dozen tribes and tribal coalitions. (See EA, pages 46-49).
On November 5, 2018, the BLM sent invitations to participate in government-to-government consultations to: The Confederated Tribes of the Goshute, The Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation, The Hopi Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Navajo Nation, Navajo Nation – Oljato Chapter, Navajo Nation – Red Mesa Chapter, Navajo Utah Commission, Ohkay Owingeh, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, All Pueblo Council of Governors, Pueblo of Acoma, Pueblo of Cochiti, Pueblo of Isleta, Pueblo of Jemez, Pueblo of Kewa, Pueblo of Laguna, Pueblo of Nambe, Pueblo of Picuris, Pueblo of Pojoaque, Pueblo of San Felipe, Pueblo of San Ildefonso, Pueblo of Sandia, Pueblo of Santa Ana, Pueblo of Santa Clara, Pueblo of Taos, Pueblo of Tesuque, Pueblo of Zia, Pueblo of Zuni, Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, Southern Ute Tribe, Uintah and Ouray Ute Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, White Mesa Ute (See Scribd document above, page 46).
The Pueblo of Acoma directed Chestnut Law Offices, out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to respond to the proposed sale. The lawyers demanded the agency defer it. Their rationale was 3,000 words, more or less.
Apparently, the Pueblo's lawyers weren't too familiar with the protest process.
Here's BLM's response:
"These are comments on the NHPA (National Historical Preservation Act) process which has a separate comment period. ... There are no comments specific to the EA to respond to." (EA, page 130)
Ouch!