Historic Agreement Makes Sure Natives Have Their Equal Say (and It’s Good for the Climate, Too!)

The United States signed a historic agreement with five Native American Nations to co-manage Utah’s National Monument, where tribes are seen as equals and experts to better protect the natural landscape and save the cultural traditions associated with it.

The agreement between the federal government and the tribes reads as follow: “Develop opportunities to engage Tribal youth in the culture and traditions of the Bears Ears, as well as the protection and management of the monument to cultivate a shared understanding of the monument’s context and a shared stewardship for its resources.”

This co-management agreement, for the Bears Ears National Monument, was signed by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and the Five Tribes of the Intertribal Coalition – the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Zuni Tribe, and the Ute Indian Tribe. First Nations’ cultural traditions can play an important role in adapting land management to a rapidly changing climate as the National Monument faces its worst drought in 1,200 years.