The five Tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition (BEITC) – Hopi, Navajo (Diné), Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute, and Pueblo of Zuni – released the Collaborative Land Management Plan for Bears Ears National Monument. In the plan, the Tribes laid out key goals of collaborative management, including integrating Indigenous knowledge and Native ways of knowing and giving that knowledge the same consideration as Western scientific understandings. The plan also sought to create by-laws for ongoing collaborative management, and to establish and fund a Traditional Knowledge Institute.
The plan’s release followed the cooperative agreement between BLM, the Forest Service, and the five Tribes on Jun. 10, 2022. The agreement required the agencies to “meaningfully engage with” Tribes “to inform the BLM and USFS planning process and management.” For more, see our National Monuments Tracker Page.