** Trump's damaging impact on Indian Country
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Thursday, December 17, 2020
Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tours Bears Ears Natiional Monument before recommending it be dramatically reduced | Interior Department ([link removed])

When Donald Trump took office four years ago, he carried with him a long track record ([link removed]) of disparaging Native Americans and clashing with tribes. While tribal nations were initially hopeful ([link removed]) they could work with Trump, Indigenous lawyers and tribal officials describe being cast aside by his administration amidst a "total onslaught" of environmental rollbacks, according to a retrospective by High Country News. ([link removed])

The list of decisions and policies impacting Indian Country is long, including failing to provide adequate assistance to tribal nations being disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, illegally shrinking Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, and blasting a border wall through burial sites and land sacred to the Tohono O'odham Nation. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez summed it up ([link removed]) : "Tribes have been pushed aside by this administration."

The vast majority of these decisions were overseen by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who established a shameful track record of his own ([link removed]) , including advancing drilling around Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, illegally revoking ([link removed]) a tribe's entire reservation in Massachusetts, and threatening to withhold funding ([link removed]) for one South Dakota tribe's police force after it instituted checkpoints to evaluate visitors for coronavirus.

“This administration’s record is one of repeated failures for Native communities,” said ([link removed]) Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico. “The truth is the White House is actively undermining Tribal sovereignty across the country and mishandling a once-in-a-century pandemic that is disproportionately hurting Native communities.”
Quick hits


** Interior Secretary David Bernhardt tests positive for coronavirus
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Washington Post ([link removed]) | Bloomberg ([link removed]) | Huffington Post ([link removed])


** Trump's damaging impact on Indian Country
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High Country News ([link removed])


** New Patagonia CEO plans to keep up climate, public lands fights
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Bloomberg ([link removed])


** Colorado drillers rush to secure permits before new environmental safeguards take effect
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Denver Post ([link removed])


** Colorado county adopts half-mile setback for new oil and gas wells
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Colorado Public Radio ([link removed])


** New Mexico regulators release mobile app to track oil and gas pollution
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Carlsbad Current-Argus ([link removed])


** Montana regulators set water pollution limits to reign in Canadian mine waste
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Missoula Current ([link removed])
Quote of the day
The total onslaught of federal rule rollbacks under environmental laws was like nothing we’ve ever seen. It was dizzying. It resulted in not only a weakening of substantive environmental protection, but was also a real attack on public participation and access to information."
—Gussie Lord ([link removed]) , managing attorney of tribal partnerships at Earthjustice
Picture this

The Green River winds through Desolation Canyon in Utah
Photo by Bob Wick | Bureau of Land Management ([link removed])

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