Later this week, the Democratic led House Natural Resources Committee will hold its first hearing on how President Trump misused executive authority to revoke Bears Ears National Monument. The committee will discuss how and why Trump decided to take action against the first national monument ever proposed by American Indian tribes, turning it into the first national monument ever erased by executive proclamation.
When President Obama designated Bears Ears, he described it as "one of the most significant cultural landscapes in the United States." Tribes, conservationists, and much of the public agreed. The House committee will investigate why, given the rich natural, historic, and archeological resources in Bears Ears, Trump undermined its protected status. The hearings will shed light on the real reasons for Trump's gutting of the monument, which have nothing to do with protecting an iconic landscape. They will hear, for example, how Energy Fuels, a Canadian uranium mining company with mineral interests in Bears Ears, with top Department of the Interior officials in early 2017, months before Trump's proclamation was written.
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