New national monument in Utah and Nevada protects sacred lands

(The Christian Science Monitor) When President Obama established new national monuments in Utah and Nevada, he noted that the area is “profoundly sacred” for the Ute, Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni peoples.

At the start of his proclamation in late December protecting 1.35 million acres of land in the Four Corners region of southeastern Utah, Obama also called the distinctive twin buttes that dominate the landscape—Bears Ears in English—by their names in native languages: Hoon’Naqvut, Shash Jáa, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe.

“The star-filled nights and natural quiet of the Bears Ears area transport visitors to an earlier eon,” Obama said. “Against an absolutely black night sky, our galaxy and others more distant leap into view. As one of the most intact and least roaded areas in the contiguous United States, Bears Ears has that rare and arresting quality of deafening silence.”