Heller not listening to constituents on public lands: Douglas

Fawn Douglas | Reno Gazette-Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Tribes: 'Ready to fight' to protect Bears Ears A coalition of five tribes that spent years pushing for the creation of Bears Ears National Monument said Monday it will wage a legal battle over President Trump's plan to reduce the protected area by 85 percent. (Dec. 4)

As an advocate for Indigenous and public lands, I was appalled to see Sen. Dean Heller is proposing a bill that would remove congressional protection from wilderness study areas, sites that protect Nevada’s beautiful, remote wilderness.

Sen. Heller wants to remove this critical designation from important sites in rural counties across Nevada. He has found pieces of federal land that amount to tiny percentages of entire counties that he wants to give back to the state. What this really means is that the land will no longer be accessible to all members of the public, and will instead be opened up for private development for things like mining and oil and gas leasing that will pollute land, air and water. This will remove access for Indigenous Nevadans to visit nearby ancestral lands.

This attack on public lands shows us what the senator really thinks about maintaining open access to all public lands where Nevadans can pray, recreate or visit for their cultural and historical significance. Just like he fails to heed Indigenous voices in the protection for public lands, he has failed to understand what the majority of his constituents want.

That’s because Sen. Heller has avoided meeting with concerned constituents. He has not held a public, in-person town hall in many months, though he continues to attend invitation-only events for his donors and even campaigned with President Trump — the worst president for public lands by far — in a rare visit to Southern Nevada.

At this point, I don’t know why I’m even surprised. Reviewing Sen. Heller’s record on the issue, this is just his latest attack on Nevada’s open spaces and National Monuments.

Sen. Heller opposed the designation of Gold Butte National Monument, in contrast with the 71 percent of Nevadans and two tribal governments who supported the designation. He later “applauded” the Trump administration’s unprecedented, rushed, sham review of our National Monuments and later “welcomed” Secretary Ryan Zinke’s unnecessary recommendation to cut sensitive areas out of Gold Butte’s protection.

We have yet to hear the Trump administration’s final plan for Gold Butte. But we already know what happened to ancestral Indigenous lands in Utah: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments were gutted, with significant portions opened for development. Mining claims have been staked in what used to be protected land in Bears Ears — in what many generations ago was Indigenous land, places to sacred to Native tribes.

Not to mention that in 2017, Sen. Heller introduced in Congress a bill that would have curtailed the president’s ability to protect cultural, scientific, or historic treasures through the Antiquities Act, which has been used for over a century by presidents of both parties with strong support from Native communities to protect sites such as the Grand Canyon.

And let’s not forget that in 2014 Sen. Heller also emboldened Cliven Bundy and his supporters by calling them “patriots,” despite their armed occupation of federal lands that were once part of the Moapa River Indian Reservation and hold special significance to Paiute communities. Cliven Bundy’s son, Ryan Bundy, is now running for governor of Nevada, after multiple courts failed to prosecute them for their crimes.

Time and time again, Sen. Heller has demonstrated that he either doesn’t care or won’t listen to what the communities he serves want. He does not heed Indigenous pleas or consult with tribal leaders. He takes his cues from the Trump administration and the right-wing extremists who threaten our lands.

Proposing to remove protection from wilderness study areas confirms that Sen. Heller is determined to make it as difficult to access public lands as it is to access him. Nevadans are tired of this, and we won’t forget it.

Fawn Douglas is an Indigenous artist-advocate for public lands. She is also a member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe and has roots in the Moapa Paiute, Cheyenne, Pawnee and Creek Nations. She teaches American Indian- Indigenous Studies Introduction at UNLV.