We’re excited you’re a part of the Bears Ears movement as we continue to make history and break barriers with our work! 

First, let’s celebrate your success this past Summer as friends and supporters like you helped to fund more of our work during our Reclaim Bears Ears Campaign which ended on August 26th. During that campaign, we raised over $13,000, which will directly support the Tribes and help them realize and develop co-management of the Bears Ears National Monument (BENM). We couldn’t have done this without your generous support. As a non-profit, we rely on your passion and kindness as donors to keep us going so that we can continue to protect and conserve BENM. 

Second, we recently celebrated another success when we released our first-of-its-kind Land Management Plan (LMP) for the BENM this past August. This historical and unique document incorporates and synthesizes inter-Tribal perspectives regarding the management of the Bears Ears region. It encompasses a novel holistic approach to management covering a diverse range of topics from protecting water sources to explaining the cultural significance of plants and more.  

This one-of-a-kind document deserves its day in the sun as its creation, use and implementation are truly breaking barriers for a new generation in conservation, land planning, and Tribal sovereignty. For that reason, we are launching a new campaign that we are calling, “The Seasons of Change: A Deep Dive into the LMP.” Through the rest of this year, we plan to highlight the Bears Ears cultural landscape section of the LMP and more fully explain how it is a positive step towards reconnecting to and protecting Bears Ears. As a part of this fundraising effort, we ask you to join together with us and defend the Bears Ears landscape by making a monetary donation to the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition (BEITC) today.  

Earth: Plants and Woodland Resources

In the LMP, the Bears Ears cultural landscape section makes a connection between nature and cultural resources. From a Native perspective, everything is interconnected and has inherent significance to ways of life and protecting the world around us.

The cultural landscape is made up of the plants and woodland resources in the monument. Plants and woodland resources are essential to the Bears Ears landscape and culturally significant to Tribes with connections to BENM. For time immemorial, plants have been used for food, herbs, medicine, oils, dyes and much more. In relation to ways we can use plants, there are cultural ties to this resource. Ethnobotany is the documentation of how plants are culturally significant. Some examples of this are how plants are used in harvesting practices, traditional ceremonies, and cooking. As referenced in the LMP, the Zuni Tribe has all their clans named from various totems that are in relation to types of plants, animals, and celestial bodies that are a part of Zuni history. In Navajo culture, there are “hanging gardens'' which exist in the monument. The gardens are made up of nineteen documented plant species and can be found near Bears Ears. 

As you can tell, plants and woodlands are imperatively important to Native culture. Every plant and woodland holds intrinsic meaning and all hold a sacred space in the ecosystem. For this reason, the LMP was created. “Through this collective process and this collective effort we’ve identified plants, sacred sites, traditional cultural properties, and in essence identified a way of life that no longer exists,” as stated by our BEITC Co-Chair and current Lieutenant Governor for the Pueblo of Zuni. At BEITC, we rely on traditional ecological knowledge to help guide our approach to care for and respect Bears Ears. In the same way, we use our LMP to help inform the monument management plan.
 

Your Support Matters!

Thank you for your continued support of the BEITC. We are appreciative of your commitment and devotion to the Bears Ears movement and this living landscape. Your contributions directly support and fund the work of the respective Tribal Nations and the BENM. Your financial support aids in the protection of all sacred sites and places on the Bears Ears landscape.

We hope we can count on you to make a donation today!

Thank you for walking with us.