Bears Ears National Monument is a United States national monument located in San Juan County in southeastern Utah, established by President Barack Obama by presidential proclamation on December 28, 2016. The monument protects of public land surrounding the Bears Ears—a pair of buttes—and the Indian Creek corridor rock climbing area. The Native American names for the buttes have the same meaning in each of the languages represented in the region. The names are listed in the presidential proclamation as "Hoon’Naqvut, Shash Jáa [sic],Begaye, Russell; Nez, Jonathan; et al. (April 16, 2016). "Letter to Obama re Bears Ears initiative". page 1. bearsearscoalition.org. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. Retrieved May 14, 2018. "the Bears Ears Buttes (Shash Jaaʼ)" Kwiyaghatʉ Nükavachi/Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe"—all four mean "Bears Ears".
The area within the monument is largely undeveloped and contains a wide array of historic, cultural and natural resources. The monument is co-managed by the Bureau of Land Management and United States Forest Service (through the Manti-La Sal National Forest), along with a coalition of five local Native American tribes: the Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni, all of which have ancestral ties to the region.
The monument includes the area around the Bears Ears formation and adjacent land to the southeast along the Comb Ridge formation, as well as Indian Creek Canyon to the northeast. The monument also includes the Valley of the Gods to the south, the western part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest's Monticello unit, and the Dark Canyon Wilderness to the north and west.
A proclamation issued by President Donald Trump on December 4, 2017, reduced the monument by 85% to —an unprecedented and exceptionally large reduction in the history of U.S. national monuments. President Joe Biden restored the territory removed by Trump on October 8, 2021. Trump again cut out most of the monument by proclamation on July 13, 2026.
Features
The monument is named Bears Ears for a pair of buttes that rise to elevations over and , which is more than above Utah state routes 95 and 261."Bears Ears National Monument, Utah - Topographic Map". blm-egis.maps.arcgis.com. Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved May 15, 2018. The monument includes the area around the Bears Ears formation and adjacent land to the southeast along the Comb Ridge formation, as well as Indian Creek Canyon to the northeast. The monument also includes the Valley of the Gods to the south, the western part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest's Monticello unit, and the Dark Canyon Wilderness to the north and west.
Capped by Wingate Sandstone, the buttes and surroundings have long been held as sacred or significant by a number of the region's Native American tribes. Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings dated to more than 3,500 years ago have been discovered in the region, just some of the estimated 100,000 archaeological sites protected within the monument. The Comb Ridge monocline traverses the eastern portion of the monument's Shash Jáa unit."Bears Ears National Monument, Indian Creek and Shash Jáa Units map". blm.gov. Bureau of Land Management. March 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
The vast majority of the land within the national monument is federal land, though the State of Utah owns about 109,100 acres within the original monument's boundaries, while 12,600 acres are privately owned. These state-owned and privately owned lands are not part of the national monument, and will not be unless they are acquired in voluntary sales to the federal government. The designation of the monument does not affect the rights of landowners in or adjacent to the monument's boundaries to access or use their property.
Management
The monument is co-managed by the BLM and the USFS (the Monticello Unit of the Manti-La Sal National Forest), along with a coalition of five local Native American tribes—Navajo, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni—all of which have ancestral ties to the region. The establishment of a co-management program between the US Government and Tribal governments represents a monumental shift in government-tribe relations. The cooperation between tribes, tribal leaders and their governments, and the BLM/USFS with tribal governments represents a shift towards more authentic community consent-based land management. There are few other examples of co-management programs and Bears Ears has the potential to serve as a model for expanding this type of management. This program was made possible in large part by Indigenous activists advocating for their right to be involved in the decision-making process surrounding their ancestral lands. The Women of Bears Ears is one example of this advocacy. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal coalition is made up from one member of each of the five tribes. The coalition worked on a land management plan for the monument that is representative of each of the tribes interests. Each leader took the plan back to their respective tribal governments to get approval for the plan to move forward.
Robert S. McPherson, who is known for his books on Navajos and the Four Corners, described depictions of lightning, arrowheads, wind, snakes, and bears in the rock formations.
The northern part of the monument borders Canyonlands National Park, and parts also border Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and surround Natural Bridges National Monument. Of the 1.35 million acres of the original monument designation, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees 1.06 million acres and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) manages 289,000 acres. Of the 201,876 acres of the revised monument designation, the BLM oversaw approximately 169,289 acres and the USFS managed 32,587 acres."Monument Management Plans for the Indian Creek and Shash Jaa Units of Bears Ears National Monument" . blm.gov. Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
Some cultural special management areas remained within the reduced monument boundaries including the Newspaper Rock Petroglyph Panel and the Butler Wash Archaeological District National Register site, while other such areas that were no longer within monument boundaries including the Quail rock art panel, Big Westwater Ruin, the Sand Island Petroglyph Panel, and all but the last few miles of the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail.
History There are over 100,000 archaeological sites protected within the monument. The buttes and surroundings have long been held as sacred or significant by a number of the region's Native American tribes. In their proposal to have Bears Ears designated as a national monument, the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition (BEITC) described the on the southeastern Utah canyonlands Colorado Plateau as ancestral land. Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition is a partnership of the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Zuni Governments The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) described the Bears Ears as "the most significant unprotected cultural landscape in the U.S."
As early as 13,000 years ago, Clovis people, who are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous cultures of the Americas,"As such, contemporary Native Americans are effectively direct descendants of the people who made and used Clovis tools and buried this child. In agreement with previous archaeological and genetic studies."David R. Starbuck, The Archeology of New Hampshire: Exploring 10,000 Years in the Granite State, UPNE, 2006, p. 25.Sharon Bigley, "Ancient native boy's genome reignites debate over first Americans" , Reuters, 12 February 2014 hunted in Cedar Mesa, most of which is now included in the Bears Ears National Monument. Their tools, including the "Clovis points", have been found there. One of the oldest known archaeological sites with Clovis tools in Utah is Lime Ridge Clovis Site.
Following the Clovis people—at least 2,500 years ago—Ancestral Puebloans began to occupy the Bears Ears area. They left behind "baskets, pottery, and weapons". These are the ancestors of the Hopi and Zuni people who "moved from foraging to farming about 3,500 years ago". Archaeological sites of prehistoric American southwestern culture dating 3,000 to 2,000 ago, contained a large number of baskets used for storage of corn and for burial. The pre-Ancestral Puebloans culture became known as the Basketmaker culture. The next period, the Pueblo I Period, began about AD 500, followed by Pueblo II and III. The "complex cultural history" of these early farmers is visible in the remains of "single family dwellings, granaries, kivas, towers, and large villages and roads linking them together".
Along Comb Ridge ()Linford, Laurence D. Navajo Places: History, Legend, Landscape, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, UT 2000—a one-mile wide and 80-mile long "dramatic geologic fold" with some of the best-preserved cliff dwellings—Ancestral Puebloans lived in the "alcoves and grew corn" from about AD 900 to 1350. They relied heavily on domesticated corn, beans, and squash and a domesticated breed of turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). In the Pueblo II period, they "construct[ed] reservoirs, checkdams, and farming terraces in an effort to capture and conserve water for agricultural use." By c. 1250, the San Juan home of the Ancient Puebloans was "one of the most populous parts of North America."
Between the "mid-1200s and 1285" "nearly 30,000 people disappeared" from the San Juan region and resettled in the Rio Grande area of New Mexico and Arizona. They suddenly walked away from their home, leaving behind cooking pots and baskets. A 2015 article in Nature called it "one of the greatest vanishing acts documented in human history" in which the San Juan region "became almost instantly a ghost land." A "monster drought" destabilized the region in the 1200s, and Mesa Verde became overcrowded. When a second drought hit in the late 1200s, the mass exodus began.
Archaeologists and the Hopi "trace Hopi ancestry to the Ancestral Pueblo people, whom the Hopi call Hisatsinom meaning "our ancestors". "The Hopi had always considered the land occupied by their ancestors to be theirs: bounded by the junction of the San Juan and Colorado rivers in the north, the Arizona-New Mexico state line in the east, the Mogollon and Zuni rim on the south and the San Francisco peaks to the west."
The Zunis, who are descendants of both the Ancestral Pueblo and Mogollon, inhabited the deserts of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Colorado "for a very long time". They "started irrigated cultivation of corn" 3,000 years ago. They have been in their "present location for up to 4,000 years".
In the early 16th century, Native American ancestral lands, now called Four Corners, was claimed by Spain as part of New Spain.
In 1848, the land was purchased from Mexico as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In the 1860s the Navajos were forced to leave their ancestral lands in what became known as the long walk to Fort Sumner. However, many Utah Navajos were able to stay in southern Utah by hiding in canyons. The history of these Navajo "differs somewhat from that of other Navajos due to years of their interactions with Utes and Paiutes as well as Mormon and non-Mormon settlers, ranchers, and traders".
In the 1880s, John N. Macomb and Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden published maps and descriptions of the ridge. In 1880, 230 Mormon pioneers—the San Juan Mission expedition—followed the -Hole in the Rock Trail" down "Cedar Mesa to reach Bluff, Utah where they established the first Mormon settlement in Bluff in southeastern Utah.
In the 1930s, the area that is now Bears Ears National Monument, was included in an unsuccessful proposal to establish an Escalante National Monument of .