Even as a newly proclaimed national monument encompasses thousands of acres of sacred sites of Native American heritage, tribal leaders are shaping the future of public lands and national parks across the United States.
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, oversees the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, among other agencies, that protect America’s public lands and the infrastructure for parks and monuments.
In late 2021, Haaland swore in Charles “Chuck” Sams III, the first tribal citizen to lead the National Park Service.
Sams — who is Cayuse and Walla Walla and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation — is an incredible resource, says Haaland, because he understands the importance of connecting people to nature and making parks more inclusive.
“It is an honor to serve as the director of the National Park Service, and I thank President Biden and Secretary Haaland for trusting me with the care of one of America’s greatest gifts: our National Park System,” Sams said during his swearing-in ceremony. He plans climate resilience initiatives and pollution clean-ups for the parks, as well as improvements to their service roads, bridges, trails, and transit systems.
A U.S. Navy veteran, Sams has extensive experience working in state and tribal governments, as well as in the nonprofit fields of natural resources and management.
Protecting Cultural Landscapes
While Congress designates national parks, the president establishes national monuments by proclamation. National monuments are protected because they have important historical, cultural, or scientific attributes.
Then-President Barack Obama, on December 28, 2016, proclaimed more than 550,000 acres of red rock canyons, juniper plateaus, and stunning buttes in the heart of San Juan County, Utah, as the Bears Ears National Monument. The area encompasses sacred ceremonial sites used by members of Native American tribes, as well as recreational sites enjoyed by hikers, climbers, and rafters.
The White House describes Bears Ears as “one of the most extraordinary cultural landscapes in the United States.” The site is graced by ancient cliff dwellings of archaeological importance, large villages, and prehistoric steps carved into cliff faces; a prehistoric road system that connected the people of Bears Ears to one another and possibly to others beyond the area; and pictographs, petroglyphs, and rock inscriptions.
This year, the Five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of the Interior formalized a partnership to manage Bears Ears. The agreement ensures that decisions will be guided by, and benefit from, the expertise and historical knowledge of the tribal nations in the area.
Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning sees collaborative management as an important step. “This kind of true co-management will serve as a model for our work to honor the nation-to-nation relationship in the future,” she said.
Sams told reporters from Oregon Public Broadcasting that, for its part, the Park Service will continue to incorporate indigenous knowledge into management plans. And, he said, “we are just really excited to be able to use the investments of the American people… so that we can ensure that the parks are here for the next seven generations.”
Source: share.america.gov/By Lenore T. Adkins