BY TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS
It is time for a monumental idea. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will be in Bluff tomorrow conducting a site hearing on the Bears Ears National Monument proposal. Her presence honors the strength and dignity of tribal leadership expressed through the coalition of Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and the Mountain and Ouray Ute nations who are calling for the protection of 1.9 million acres adjacent to Canyonlands National Park in the remote region of Cedar Mesa.
The coalition of five tribes — supported by more than 20 tribes within the American Southwest and the National Congress of American Indians, comprised of more than 250 tribes — is asking the United States government to see their home ground through the lenses of traditional knowledge gleaned through relationships cultivated over time.