Native American tribes including the Navajo and Hopi have formed a coalition to protect a national monument in southern Utah against potential oil and gas drilling plans by the Trump Administration.
Several tribes consider Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument culturally significant and want to make sure they’re part of its management.
Six tribes formed the coalition after new Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced plans to review all public lands that were previously protected against oil, gas and critical mineral extraction.
"Opening them up to the possibility of energy development and the dismantling of a sacred cultural resource," said Autumn Gillard, cultural resource manager for Paiute Indian tribe of Utah.
Burgum’s order, titled Unleashing American Energy, doesn’t name the monument but it specifies withdrawn public lands. President Trump shrank the monument’s size in his first term; a decision President Joe Biden later reversed.
"Kind of watching what is happening within the current administration, it is a high probability that that topic will be coming down the pipeline soon," Gillard said.
The Trump administration’s blueprint Project 2025 decried the monument’s designation by President Clinton.
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