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Navajo Advocacy Group Says Zinke Did Not Hear All Native Perspectives on Bears Ears

Austin Cope
/
KSJD News

Though Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met for one hour with tribal leaders on the Bears Ears Commission during his visit to Utah, some tribal members felt excluded from discussions about the Bears Ears National Monument.

 

 

 

In a release, pro-monument advocacy group Utah Diné Bikeyah said the secretary did not respond to its chair Willie Grayeyes’ request for a meeting.

 

Grayeyes called the meeting with the Bears Ears Commission a “tip of the hat”, and said it did not go into enough depth for the secretary to fully understand the issues.

 

Zinke spent several hours with other non-Native environment groups and the bulk of his time  with monument opponents from San Juan County and the State of Utah, before traveling to Kanab to review the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument. 

Austin Cope is a former Morning Edition host for KSJD and now produces work on a freelance basis for the station. He grew up in Cortez and hosted a show on KSJD when he was 10 years old. After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2010, he lived in Belgium, Ohio, Spain, northern Wyoming, and Himachal Pradesh, India before returning to the Cortez area. He has a degree in Politics from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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