Outdoor retailer Patagonia joined a coalition of Indigenous and environmental groups suing the Trump administration on Wednesday over its decision this summer to massively shrink two national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. The suits seek to revive 2017 litigation challenging the first Trump administration’s attempts to shrink the monuments, arguing that President Trump lacks the legal authority to downsize the protected lands. The original suits were put on hold when the Biden administration reversed course from Trump and expanded the monuments.
Patagonia argues that the Antiquities Act, which gave Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton the power to create Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, respectively, contains no power to undo a monument designation. The Independent has contacted the White House, Interior Department and Justice Department for comment. A variety of Indigenous peoples consider the lands within both monuments sacred.
Bears Ears was the first national monument created at the request of Native American nations, after the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe and the Pueblo of Zuni successfully petitioned the Obama administration. It was also the first national monument in U.S. history to be co-managed by Native American nations themselves, considered a watershed moment after centuries of the U.S. government dispossessing Indigenous peoples. Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, as well as the state’s congressional delegation, supported the Trump administration’s move to shrink the monuments.
The Trump administration and its allies have argued that the Utah lands contain important resources and that past Democratic administrations exceeded the intended scope of the Antiquities Act. Cox said at a July signing ceremony for the changes. At least nine mining claims have been filed on lands that were protected until the Trump administration policy shift this summer.
Patagonia argues the Trump administration decision around the Utah lands is part of a larger attack on the environment that has seen the White House cancel renewables projects and attempt to pull back on regulating greenhouse gases. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
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