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On Thursday, May 30, 2019 the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative hosted the Fifth Annual Graduate Student Conference at the Memorial Union. \u00a0The keynote speakers for the afternoon session of the conference were Rebecca Robinson and Stephen Strom, the authors of the ethno-photographic book Voices from Bear Ears: Seeking Common Ground on Sacred Land<\/em>. \u00a0Robinson is an anthropologist, journalist, and storyteller, and Strom a retired astrophysicist and lifelong photographer. \u00a0They are also family.\u00a0 Strom is Robinson\u2019s grandfather, and this familial collaboration resulted in the book that was published by The University of Arizona Press in 2018.<\/p>\n Voices from Bears Ears <\/em>was a project created with the purpose of giving a voice to a group of Native American peoples that were trying to protect their ancestral and sacred lands from the financial exploration of mining and other resource extracting companies, such as oil. \u00a0The Bears Ears landscape in San Juan County, which is located in southeastern Utah, is the ancestral home and sacred lands of the Navajo, the Hopi, the Northern Ute, and the Zuni tribes.\u00a0 This culturally and spiritually rich landscape became more widely known throughout the U.S. in late 2016, at the end of President Barack Obama\u2019s presidency, when 1.35 million acres of public lands were designated by the president as the Bear Ears National Monument.<\/p>\n Bears Ears is full of indigenous history and is of unsurpassed natural beauty. However,\u00a0it is also full of controversy.\u00a0 This is especially so after current President Donald Trump reduced the area of the National Monument by eighty five percent in December of 2017. \u00a0This reduction was welcomed by those who opposed the monument in the first place, and opposed by those who, for a long time, had fought for the protection that would inherently come from the National Monument designation.<\/p>\n Robinson and Strom sought to give voices to those on both sides of the argument. \u00a0On one side, the five Native American tribes that formed a coalition to actively and aggressively push for the creation of the monument, thus protecting their ancestral and sacred lands. \u00a0On the other, those who devoutly speak of their Mormon heritage, and of their right over the land which was settled by their pioneer ancestors under divine guidance.<\/p>\n During the presentation, Robinson and Strom shared with the audience stunning photographs of Bears Ears, along with recordings from the Native American tribal coalition leaders. One of the recordings was of a Navajo activist named Mark Maryboy, who became involved in local and state politics, and was the first Native American to ever hold an elected office in the State of Utah. \u00a0Maryboy entered politics, according to Robinson, in order to better help the local Native populations in their economical struggles after the collapse of uranium mining in San Juan Country, but who was also instrumental in securing the protection of Bear Ears.\u00a0 Maryboy was also part of a local organization of Native American tribes that mapped all of the historical and sacred sites in the area, thus creating a map of those sites that ended up being used by the Obama administration as the boundaries for the 1.35-million-acre national monument.<\/p>\n Robinson and Strom also shared the voice of Phil Lyman, a white European man, and local Mormon business owner. \u00a0Lyman was one of the most vocal oppositionists toBear Ears.\u00a0 He was a Utah State representative who entered the political world in order to share more amply his views about Bears Ears, and to oppose the interference of the federal government on local matters. \u00a0According to Robinson and Strom, a substantial amount of tension existed between local white Europeans and the Federal Government since most of the land in that area is public land managed by the Federal Government.\u00a0 To persons like Phil Lyman, Robinson explained, the designation of the national monument at Bears Ears was yet another example of Federal interference in local land matters and was seen by Lyman, and his supporters, as an enormous \u201cland grab\u201d that has increased tensions in the area. \u00a0However, despite this strong opposition to Federal interference in the creation of the national monument, Lyman admitted that the national monument status of Bear Ears would end up, in the long run, generating the much-needed economical boost that the area desperately needs.<\/p>\n The presenters concluded by sharing the voices of two more individuals that were interviewed for the book, a local white European rancher and a Native American administrator for the coalition of five tribes. \u00a0Both persons showed admiration for the land, with the rancher -who had been living in the region all her life – siding with the Native Americans, and going a step further by wanting the land to be designated a wilderness area, which would completely close it off to human interactions. \u00a0However, she understood that such a designation was far-fetched but felt that a compromise was going to be needed so that all sides in the debate would have at least a part of what they wanted.\u00a0 Robinson did point out that regardless of which side a person is on, people on both sides shared a reverence for the land, and an overarching theme that Bears Ears was who they were.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Thursday, May 30, 2019 the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative hosted the Fifth Annual Graduate Student Conference at the Memorial Union. \u00a0The keynote speakers for the afternoon session of the conference were Rebecca Robinson and Stephen Strom, the authors of the ethno-photographic book Voices from Bear Ears: Seeking Common Ground on Sacred Land. \u00a0Robinson… Continue reading