Our Turn: Tribes unite to protect lands Our Turn: Here's how multiple tribes are working together to save sacred Bears Ears land.

Eric Descheenie and Alfred Lomahquahu | AZ We See It

At this month’s United Nations Conference on Climate Change, there was increased recognition for the need for all leaders to work collaboratively with indigenous peoples, the original caretakers of the earth, to solve the world’s problems.

The Indigenous Elders And Medicine Peoples Council released a statement emphasizing how, “we must work in unity to help Mother Earth heal so that she can bring back balance and harmony for all her children.”

This is exactly what Native American tribes are doing to protect our ancestral lands - the Bears Ears, beautiful forest and high plateau lands located in San Juan County, Utah. This is a place of traditional religious significance to tribes of the southwest United States.

Our people have lived in the Bears Ears country since time began. The land is a unique place where we practice religious traditional rights for the purpose of attaining or restoring health for human communities and our natural world as an interconnected and inextricable whole.

Traditional leaders depend on the preservation of these lands for healing. Yet despite this connection, this landscape remains unprotected, leading to ongoing looting and rampant destruction of the structures, artwork and grave sites. These acts literally rob Native American people of spiritual connections, as well as a sense of place and history.

In Paris, the Indigenous Elders And Medicine Peoples Council talked about the shared responsibility to “create real solutions and do something right for the future of all life.” In that vein, the five sovereign tribal governments of the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Tribe, Zuni Tribe, Hopi Tribe, and Navajo Nation delivered a formal proposal in October requesting U.S. President Barack Obama exercise his authority via the Antiquities Act to designate the Bears Ears a national monument.

Our proposal combines both Western science and Traditional Knowledge in establishing something never accomplished before; true collaborative management between the United States government and five Indian Nations. It has the potential to shape intergovernmental cooperation throughout the country and the world, as we help turn back the tide of the exploitation that injures us all.

This came from local tribal members’ years of work living in southeastern Utah. In 2012 local tribal members tried to work with local county officials and Congressional leaders to protect Bears Ears. This effort was intended to participate in the Utah Congressional Public Lands Initiative aimed at resolving some of Utah’s most challenging public land disputes, due in part to proposed development through mining and energy extraction.

After having their input routinely pushed to the side or not considered altogether, these leaders shifted their attention to neighboring tribes who also maintain traditional relationships with the Bears Ears. Responding to the injustice sustained, the people’s torch was willfully handed to our unified governments. In doing so, we evoke and elevate our people’s rights to a true government-to-government relationship, an even stage earned on the backs of our ancestors.

The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition stands with our people. Our intention is to preserve and protect our ability to heal as a people. The land must be able to provide for a healthy and satisfying life now and into the future. Our children-all of our children-depend on it.

Eric Descheenie is an adviser to the Navajo Nation president and Alfred Lomahquahu is vice chairman of the Hopi Tribe. They co-chair the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.