"Emotions Run High Over Monument Designation In Utah"

"Battle lines over a proposed Bears Ears monument are blurred, dividing tribes and towns."

"It’s only 10 a.m. on a mid-July morning, yet the mercury in Bluff, Utah, has already topped 80 degrees, and the folks milling around the local community center seek refuge in the rare shady areas.

A row of shiny SUVs with federal government and state or county law enforcement plates lines the eastern side of the dusty, overgrown ball field that clearly hasn’t seen a ball game in quite some time. Brightly colored, hand-drawn signs jut up from the opposite fence like corn from a dryland field: “National Monument, Dooda, Dooda,” reads a yellow one, repeating the Navajo word for “no.” “PROTECT,” proclaims another, above a drawing of a bear’s head.

The buzz is in anticipation of a July 16 public hearing on a proposal from five regional tribes for a Bears Ears national monument here, intended to up protections on 1.9 million acres of federally managed canyons and mesas, land that is archaeologically rich and considered sacred to many. For three-and-a-half hours, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, flanked by other top Obama administration officials, will listen to comments in favor of a monument, against it, and everything in between. "

Jonathan Thompson reports for High Country News July 19, 2016.