The Ute Tribe is part of a joint effort of tribes supporting the Bears Ears National Monument. After U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke visited Utah following President Trump’s executive order to review national monuments, a 15-day comment period was opened for the Bear Ears National Monument. On Thursday, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition announced that 685,000 comments were submitted to the Department of the Interior in support of their cause. “Our sovereign nations spoke with one voice in support of the Bears Ears National Monument,” stated Carleton Bowekaty, Coalition Co-Chair. The Ute Tribe is one of five sovereign tribal nations on the coalition. The comments and original proposal can be found on bearsearscoalition.org. The state of Utah and local leadership in eastern Utah have largely supported President Trump’s executive order to review national monuments and as a whole had opposed President Obama’s designation of Bears Ears as a national monument.
