The Bears Ears Cultural Landscape is an ancestral and sacred area for many Tribes. For the five Tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition (BEITC), this area is still used for medicine, ceremony, wood harvesting, subsistence hunting and gathering, and prayer. Despite recent changes to the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument (BENM), the Coalition continues to make efforts to safeguard this landscape in partnership with federal agencies as well as independently.
Climate resiliency in the Bears Ears region requires planning and managing with many future generations in mind. This includes the collaborative creation of a drought management plan and the development of Tribally-defined water quality standards that protect water not only for traditional and cultural use by the people, but also for the needs of non-human relatives and the land. Biodiversity protection includes identification of culturally important indicator species for adaptive management of multiple uses on the landscape and the protection and consideration of these species in all management decisions.
The Bears Ears Cultural Landscape is home to the among the most dense concentration of ancestral places in the United States. This region has well over 100,000 ancestral sites in some of the best preserved conditions stretching back as far as 11,000 B.C.E. Ancestors and community members continue to utilize this area for medicinal and cultural collection, ceremony, wood harvesting, subsistence hunting and gathering, and prayer.
BEITC supports the Tribes of the Coalition as they provide traditional knowledge and management guidance to federal agency partners and other conservation groups in the area. Capacity of the Tribes is limited, however, and key BEITC staff activities include hosting several forums for the Tribes and other partners, including federal agencies, NGOs, special interest groups, and more, to come together and discuss pressing concerns for the region. These opportunities help to overcome barriers and bottlenecks of information and participation of and by the Tribes. Additionally, the Coalition staff facilitate long-term landscape planning documents and research, host community educational events, and run intergenerational and culturally focused programming on and off the landscape, preparing young leaders to use their voice when it comes to ancestral homeland advocacy and management.
