This March, Representative Gallego became only the second congressional representative to ever attend a meeting at a Navajo Chapter House in Utah. Only Rep. John Curtis, who visited Mexican Water, Utah, in February of this year had done it before. Coincidentally, both congressional leaders have legislation that would affect Bears Ears National Monument. Rep. Gallego’s bill 4518, with 114 cosponsors, would restore and expand the Bears Ears National Monument, while Rep. Curtis’s bill HR 4532 with three cosponsors would codify the evisceration of the monument to 15 percent of its originally designated size.
Rep. Gallego recently traveled to Bears Ears to experience the place he is working to protect. He said, “The whole goal of me being out here is bringing attention to the Bears Ears National Monument, and to be able to push back on Curtis’s bill and the president’s actions. I think that a lot of people will naturally gravitate to the side of the five tribes that have historical, cultural, and religious claims to this area. But to actually see it for myself, hear about it, and actually feel what some of these members have been feeling is really important to me!”
Representative Gallego packed in a tremendous amount of activity into his one day trip to Bears Ears and was lucky because so many community activities were happening that weekend. He hiked to sacred sites, he met with tribal leaders, he congratulated prayer runners after they reached Bears Ears, and he even witnessed an all-night “Yei Bi Chei” ceremony. Rep. Gallego was also treated to the first-ever Bears Ears winter storytelling event of five Tribes in Monument Valley, Utah, and he learned about issues affecting local human health, such as uranium mining, and the un-American shortage of government services Native Americans tolerate here, with 40 percent of the Utah Navajo community lacking water and electricity at their homes. The weekend before the spring equinox marked a time when the last frost melted and spring weather finally emerged. It is a time to stretch our bodies and welcome new growth. To Navajo, this is known as the season of the Thunder and Lightning Peoples.
The representative met with runners from the Bears Ears Prayer Run Alliance, who ran over 700 miles from all directions, east, south, west and north before arriving at their final destination at the junction of Arch Canyon and Comb Wash. These runners hailed from Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Acoma, Ute, and many other Tribes and ran hundreds of miles from each of their communities and villages to bring prayers of healing and protection to the Bears Ears region. Healing was a central theme of the prayer runners, who spoke of how the red dirt, canyons, mountains, and sacred landscapes helped them overcome personal hardships and continue to fight for Bears Ears protection.
During the Sunday storytelling event, elders and wisdom keepers shared creation narratives, ceremonial practices, histories, spiritual connections, and how each of their diverse Tribes connect with ancestral lands within Bears Ears National Monument. The youth and elders from Tribes across the Southwest are not only strengthening their own Native culture through teachings and practice but are also reaching out across cultural divisions to Tribes that have not always gotten along -- to build a future where Native Americans are seen, heard, and included in the broader society.
Rep. Gallego toured Ancestral Puebloan sites, visited a sacred spring inside a cave, enjoyed sweeping views across Valley of the Gods, Cedar Mesa, and Comb Ridge which have all lost protection due to President Trump. He also saw sites where non-Native citizens from Blanding captured and imprisoned Ute people, murdered Ute Chief Posey, and then forced them to surrender their ancestral lands at Bears Ears in 1924. Unfortunately, this treatment has continued into the modern day. Utah became the last state to grant Native Americans the right to vote in 1957, and in January 2018 San Juan County was finally forced by the federal court to stop using race as the primary criteria to draw election boundaries. For the first time, Native Americans will have the chance for fair representation in November.
In regard to Bears Ears, Native Americans understand that human health and environmental health are one and the same. They know that humans cannot thrive if the land is polluted, and through cultural practice they help plants, animals, and entire regions thrive through their powers and connections. Representative Ruben Gallego also expressed his connection with special wild places through a social media post: “My fellow veterans and I visit public lands to recharge and recuperate after we come home from war. We need to protect these lands.”
Starting in 1944, uranium ore was mined in the Colorado Plateau, including around the Bears Ears region. This legacy of uranium mining, processing, and pollution has disproportionately harmed San Juan County’s Native American citizens compared with other Utahns. Water contamination, for example, is greatly affecting Ute and Diné people today, with high cancer rates and few resources to test wells or to find clean drinking water sources to protect human health. Representative Gallego saw many of these effects firsthand.
By visiting these special places and learning about the history of injustice and the healing power of place and people, Representative Gallego walked away with a greater understanding of how to help us achieve healing and rally congressional leadership to act to protect indigenous culture and sacred landscapes like Bears Ears.
Bears Ears is important; all ancestral lands are important. Every congressional district in the United States encompasses the ancestral lands of at least one Tribe. Congressional representatives should get to know the Native American Tribes in their districts and in their states. The reason for this is not only to become advocates for the preservation of Native culture but also because we need indigenous wisdom to lead us forward and teach us what they have learned firsthand through more than 10,000 years of land stewardship. Congressional and Utah leaders are failing to protect the Earth, and after 200 years of occupation of their ancestral lands it is time we ask Native people to lead the way forward.
Many thanks to Rep. Gallego for taking the time to visit and listen to the wisdom and leadership of Native Americans here in San Juan County, Utah. We ask that you help us, now, to protect Bears Ears. One way to help is to call your U.S.representative today and ask them to support Rep Gallego’s bill, H.R. 4518, and oppose Curtis’s bill, H.R. 4532. Call (877) 762-8762 and ask to speak to your representative today.