President Donald Trump drastically cut the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah on Monday, opening vast tracts of land containing valuable coal and uranium deposits to corporate exploitation. This executive action, taken under the Antiquities Act, reduced each monument by approximately 90%. The move directly benefits state officials and mining interests eager to develop these natural resources.
The southern Utah lands, sacred to many Native American nations, hold significant coal and uranium deposits. State officials have long sought to make these resources available for development. Trump, speaking at a White House event, claimed, “They took the land from the people quite honestly. We’re giving it back.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox echoed this sentiment, stating, “This is a big day for Utah,” and asserting that monument designations should be the “smallest area as possible to protect the antiquities.”
The State's Role in Resource Extraction
The monument designations, established by Democratic predecessors, provided sweeping protections against drilling, mining, and new construction. President Bill Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument 30 years ago in 1996. President Barack Obama established Bears Ears National Monument 10 years ago in 2016. The 1906 Antiquities Act grants presidents the authority to protect historic, archaeological, or culturally important sites.
Trump's proclamations on Monday reduced the combined area of the two monuments from over 3.2 million acres, or 13 million hectares, to less than 303,000 acres, or 123,000 hectares. This represents a greater reduction than during his first term, when Grand Staircase-Escalante was left at 1 million acres and Bears Ears at 213,000 acres. Proponents of Trump’s action argue that the protective boundaries were too extensive, hindering the mining of “critical minerals.”
This action aligns with a broader Republican strategy to reshape the management of taxpayer-owned lands in Western states. Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans have consistently pushed to expand drilling, mining, and logging on public lands. They've also worked to remove protections for imperiled species and roll back conservation rules. Trump's Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated last year that federal officials would review and redraw monument boundaries to expand U.S. energy production.
Indigenous Resistance and the Commons
Bears Ears was the first national monument created at the direct request of tribal nations. Its designation honored five regional tribes: Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute, and Uintah-Ouray Ute. The area, home to hundreds of thousands of culturally and scientifically significant objects, is jointly managed by an agreement between these tribal nations and federal agencies.
Davina Smith-Idjesa, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, expressed profound disappointment. She called the move “heartbreaking,” accusing federal officials of neglecting their legal duty to consult with affected tribal nations. Smith-Idjesa emphasized the land’s deep cultural significance, stating, “From a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is not simply a piece of federal public land. This is a living cultural site that holds our histories, our ceremonies, our traditional foods and medicines and our ancestors’ footprints.”
Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico criticized the executive action, calling it “another chapter in this administration’s war on the West.” He added that Trump was “turning the Antiquities Act on its head.” However, such criticisms often fail to address the underlying capitalist drive for resource extraction that persists across administrations. While President Joe Biden has designated or expanded over a dozen monuments and aims to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, these efforts remain subject to reversal by future administrations prioritizing capital accumulation.
Some Republicans have attempted outright sales or transfers of federal lands to states or other entities. These efforts, including a push by some GOP House lawmakers and a proposal by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to sell over 3,200 square miles, or 8,300 square kilometers, of federal lands, have largely faced bipartisan opposition or failed to pass. The U.S. Supreme Court last year rejected a lawsuit from Utah officials seeking to wrest control of vast public land areas from federal authority. Despite these setbacks, the current administration continues to facilitate the privatization of collective resources through executive action.