Pollen Nation Magazine

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New, very sad map.

On July 13, 2026, President Trump slashed Bears Ears National Monument by 91% and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 90%. Here's what the boundaries look like.

🔎 Read more at grandcanyontrust.org/blog/trump-tries-to-slash-bears-ears-and-grand-staircase-again/

Navajo Nation Council opposes the reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Members of the 25th Navajo Nation Council expressed strong opposition following President Donald Trump's decision to significantly reduce the boundaries of the Bears Ears National Monument, located in Utah, through an executive order. His action also reduced the size of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

The President's executive orders reduce the Bears Ears National Monument by approximately 91 percent and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument by approximately 90 percent.

In 2017, the 23rd Navajo Nation Council unanimously supported a proclamation issued by former President Barack Obama, which established the Bears Ears National Monument. The land designation was reduced by President Trump during his first term and reversed by President Joe Biden.

Speaker Crystalyne Curley said the reductions create risks for landscapes that hold cultural, spiritual, and historical significance for the Navajo people and other tribes.

"These lands are not simply public lands. They are sacred places that preserve our history, our identity, and the teachings passed down through generations," Speaker Curley said. "The Navajo Nation has long advocated for the protection of Bears Ears through meaningful consultation and stewardship. We oppose actions that weaken those protections and diminish the voices of tribes in managing these culturally significant landscapes."

Council Delegate Curtis Yanito has voiced strong support for protecting the national monuments and preserving the current Resource Management Plan, recognizing the importance of tribal consultation, co stewardship, and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge in the management of culturally significant lands.

Delegate Yanito said the Council remains committed to working with tribal partners to protect sacred sites, archaeological resources, wildlife habitat, and landscapes that continue to hold cultural and spiritual importance for future generations.

"The federal government has a trust responsibility to consult with tribal nations and to honor our voices when decisions affect our ancestral homelands," Delegate Yanito said. "The Navajo Nation will continue advocating for meaningful government to government consultation and the protection of these irreplaceable cultural landscapes."

The Navajo Nation Council stands with tribal nations and partners in supporting the continued protection and stewardship of the Bears Ears National Monument.

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Save the Confluence families pursue sacred site legislation - Save the Confluence From defense to permanence: Why Save the Confluence now supports sacred site legislation

The executive pen is set to slash protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments at 4:30 PM Eastern today.

While state politicians spin this as a victory against "federal overreach," the real driving force is corporate interest. Shrinking these boundaries opens up pristine, critical ecosystems to the toxic legacy of yellowcake uranium extraction—a industry move founder Jacqueline Keeler investigated extensively for High Country News and Mother Jones.

But there is a deeper ideological war at play. This rollback aligns directly with a new White House directive targeting the Smithsonian Institution, attempting to censor public education on the history of colonization and "stolen land."

If the state can legislate the reality of environmental and colonial dispossession out of public view, it makes dismantling sovereign tribal protections on the ground look like standard "land management."

Jacqueline's latest piece breaks down the intersection of corporate extraction, political maneuvering, and the fight for permanent ecological and cultural preservation:
https://open.substack.com/pub/jacquelinekeeler/p/the-erasure-strategy-why-the-white?r=1dfuy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

The Erasure Strategy: Why the White House Attacks on the Smithsonian and Bears Ears are the Same War Utah politicians celebrate as the executive pen prepares to slash our monuments this afternoon—while the administration works to erase the history of how they got the land in the first place.

Attention citizens of the Navajo Nation, we are sharing this presentation by the Office of Navajo Government Development, if this interests you please consider attending!

https://open.substack.com/pub/jacquelinekeeler/p/redacted-billionaires-and-the-seeding?r=1dfuy&utm_medium=ios

Redacted Billionaires and the Seeding of Zorro Ranch on Native Land I woke up this morning thinking about the “American Story”—that grand, violent fiction we are all forced to inhabit.