Shash Jáa — the land is still speaking. The government just stopped listening.
Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase Escalante are under attack. Land slashed, trbal councils cancelled, mining and logging contracts in place.
In the red rock country of southeastern Utah, five hours south of Salt Lake City, there is a landscape that has been home to Native peoples for more than 13,000 years. The Hopi call part of it their ancestral homeland. The Diné (Navajo Nation) calls it Shash Jáa, Bears Ears, named for the twin buttes that rise from the canyon rim like sentinels. The Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Pueblo of Zuni have equal claim and equal grief. This is not a single tribe's story. It is five nations' story, and it is older than the United States by orders of magnitude.
On July 13, 2026, President Trump signed two proclamations slashing Bears Ears National Monument from 1.36 million acres to roughly 121,000 — a 91% reduction. He did the same to neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante. Combined, nearly three million acres of protected land were stripped in a single afternoon. The proclamations take effect September 11, 2026. They open that land to mining and drilling.
This is not unprecedented. Trump did this same thing in 2017. President Biden restored both monuments in 2021. Now here we are again, with the cuts going even deeper. What makes this moment different isn't just the acreage. The proclamations also dissolved the Bears Ears Commission — the government-to-government body through which the five Tribal Nations co-managed the monument alongside the Bureau of Land Management. A landmark framework for Indigenous co-stewardship, years in the making, ended by executive signature.
The five Tribal Nations condemned it immediately. Conservation groups and tribes are already in court. The legal argument is strong, the Antiquities Act authorizes presidents to designate national monuments, not destroy them — and courts have ruled this way before. But legal processes take time, and the clock is running toward September 11.
And since July 14, 9 mining claims between the two monuments have already been filed.
And while all of this unfolded, a wildfire called the Babylon Fire — 106,000 acres — was burning inside the Bears Ears monument boundaries. The largest wildfire in the nation, burning the land being handed over.
From the Mountain West, where EMAC's designs are rooted, to the Colorado Plateau, to the valleys of the Río Napo — the same story repeats. The land holds medicine, memory, and ceremony. The people who tend it are fighting to keep it. The companies that want it are very patient. This Dispatch exists because those stories deserve more than a footnote.
What you can do — time is critical
Share this Dispatch.
The proclamations take effect September 11 — send this to someone who doesn't know the clock is running. Follow the Native American Rights Fund, Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and the Grand Canyon Trust on social media and amplify their posts directly — their voice, not summaries of it.(202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative. Tell them to vote NO on H.R. 1897. Calls matter more than emails on floor vote days — one call from a constituent is worth dozens of form letters.
Use the Coalition's letter tool
Contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support legislation protecting Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. The Wilderness Society has a pre-written action tool at wilderness.org — it takes under five minutes. Then call (202) 224-3121 and use the same language. If you're in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, or any Western state, your rep needs to hear from you specifically. Go to wilderness.org — it takes under five minutes to fill out and you can personalize your message.
Thank Your Senator(s) for Defending National Monuments, Ask Them to Cosponsor ARRWA
Thirty-seven senators signed a letter to Trump opposing the monument cuts — including Colorado's Bennet and Hickenlooper. That's worth something, and it's not enough. Contact your senators to thank them if they signed, and push them to cosponsor the America's Red Rock Wilderness Act — legislation that would protect over 8 million acres of Utah wildlands as wilderness, including land inside the monuments themselves. Go to suwa.org — it takes under five minutes to fill out and you can personalize your message.
Make a post or send an email
Have you been personally touched by exploring these incredible landscapes? Share your pictures on social media or email with your circle. Start a conversation with someone in your orbit.
Support Front Line Organizations
Donate directly to Native American Rights fund at narf.org Donate directly to the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition at bearsearscoalition.org — the five Tribal Nations are leading both the legal fight and the public advocacy. Support Earthjustice's Rocky Mountain Office, which is litigating the monument cuts at earthjustice.org. And follow Grand Canyon Trust at grandcanyontrust.org for ongoing legal updates as the September 11 effective date approaches.
Sources: The Wildernss Society · Bears Ears Coalition · Native American Rights Fund · Common Dreams · Congress.gov · whitehouse.gov. All figures current as of August 8, 2026.