[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 130, 114th Congress, 2nd Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
Proclamation 9558 of December 28, 2016

Establishment of the Bears Ears National Monument

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Rising from the center of the southeastern Utah landscape and visible
from every direction are twin buttes so distinctive that in each of the
native languages of the region their name is the same: Hoon'Naqvut,
Shash Jaa, Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe, or ``Bears Ears.''
For hundreds of generations, native peoples lived in the surrounding
deep sandstone canyons, desert mesas, and meadow mountaintops, which
constitute one of the densest and most significant cul

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tural landscapes in the United States. Abundant rock art, ancient cliff
dwellings, ceremonial sites, and countless other artifacts provide an
extraordinary archaeological and cultural record that is important to us
all, but most notably the land is profoundly sacred to many Native
American tribes, including the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Navajo Nation,
Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray, Hopi Nation, and Zuni Tribe.
The area's human history is as vibrant and diverse as the ruggedly
beautiful landscape. From the earliest occupation, native peoples left
traces of their presence. Clovis people hunted among the cliffs and
canyons of Cedar Mesa as early as 13,000 years ago, leaving behind tools
and projectile points in places like the Lime Ridge Clovis Site, one of
the oldest known archaeological sites in Utah. Archaeologists believe
that these early people hunted mammoths, ground sloths, and other now-
extinct megafauna, a narrative echoed by native creation stories.
Hunters and gatherers continued to live in this region in the Archaic
Period, with sites dating as far back as 8,500 years ago.
Ancestral Puebloans followed, beginning to occupy the area at least
2,500 years ago, leaving behind items from their daily life such as
baskets, pottery, and weapons. These early farmers of Basketmaker II and
III and builders of Pueblo I, II, and III left their marks on the land.
The remains of single family dwellings, granaries, kivas, towers, and
large villages and roads linking them together reveal a complex cultural
history. ``Moki steps,'' hand and toe holds carved into steep canyon
walls by the Ancestral Puebloans, illustrate the early people's
ingenuity and perseverance and are still used today to access dwellings
along cliff walls. Other, distinct cultures have thrived here as well--
the Fremont People, Numic- and Athabaskan-speaking hunter-gatherers, and
Utes and Navajos. Resources such as the Doll House Ruin in Dark Canyon
Wilderness Area and the Moon House Ruin on Cedar Mesa allow visitors to
marvel at artistry and architecture that have withstood thousands of
seasons in this harsh climate.
The landscape is a milieu of the accessible and observable together with
the inaccessible and hidden. The area's petroglyphs and pictographs
capture the imagination with images dating back at least 5,000 years and
spanning a range of styles and traditions. From life-size ghostlike
figures that defy categorization, to the more literal depictions of
bighorn sheep, birds, and lizards, these drawings enable us to feel the
humanity of these ancient artists. The Indian Creek area contains
spectacular rock art, including hundreds of petroglyphs at Newspaper
Rock. Visitors to Bears Ears can also discover more recent rock art left
by the Ute, Navajo, and Paiute peoples. It is also the less visible
sites, however--those that supported the food gathering, subsistence and
ceremony of daily life--that tell the story of the people who lived
here. Historic remnants of Native American sheep-herding and farming are
scattered throughout the area, and pottery and Navajo hogans record the
lifeways of native peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries.
For thousands of years, humans have occupied and stewarded this land.
With respect to most of these people, their contribution to the
historical record is unknown, but some have played a more public role.
Famed Navajo headman K'aayelii was born around 1800 near the twin Bears
Ears buttes. His band used the area's remote canyons to elude capture by
the U.S. Army and avoid the fate that befell many other Navajo bands:
surrender, the Long Walk, and forced relocation to

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Bosque Redondo. Another renowned 19th century Navajo leader, ``Hastiin
Ch'ihaajin'' Manuelito, was also born near the Bears Ears.
The area's cultural importance to Native American tribes continues to
this day. As they have for generations, these tribes and their members
come here for ceremonies and to visit sacred sites. Throughout the
region, many landscape features, such as Comb Ridge, the San Juan River,
and Cedar Mesa, are closely tied to native stories of creation, danger,
protection, and healing. The towering spires in the Valley of the Gods
are sacred to the Navajo, representing ancient Navajo warriors frozen in
stone. Traditions of hunting, fishing, gathering, and wood cutting are
still practiced by tribal members, as is collection of medicinal and
ceremonial plants, edible herbs, and materials for crafting items like
baskets and footwear. The traditional ecological knowledge amassed by
the Native Americans whose ancestors inhabited this region, passed down
from generation to generation, offers critical insight into the historic
and scientific significance of the area. Such knowledge is, itself, a
resource to be protected and used in understanding and managing this
landscape sustainably for generations to come.
Euro-Americans first explored the Bears Ears area during the 18th
century, and Mormon settlers followed in the late 19th century. The San
Juan Mission expedition traversed this rugged country in 1880 on their
journey to establish a new settlement in what is now Bluff, Utah. To
ease the passage of wagons over the slick rock slopes and through the
canyonlands, the settlers smoothed sections of the rock surface and
constructed dugways and other features still visible along their route,
known as the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail. Cabins, corrals, trails, and carved
inscriptions in the rock reveal the lives of ranchers, prospectors, and
early archaeologists. Cattle rustlers and other outlaws created a
convoluted trail network known as the Outlaw Trail, said to be used by
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These outlaws took advantage of the
area's network of canyons, including the aptly-named Hideout Canyon, to
avoid detection.
The area's stunning geology, from sharp pinnacles to broad mesas,
labyrinthine canyons to solitary hoodoos, and verdant hanging gardens to
bare stone arches and natural bridges, provides vital insights to
geologists. In the east, the Abajo Mountains tower, reaching elevations
of more than 11,000 feet. A long geologic history is documented in the
colorful rock layers visible in the area's canyons.
For long periods over 300 million years ago, these lands were inundated
by tropical seas and hosted thriving coral reefs. These seas infused the
area's black rock shale with salts as they receded. Later, the lands
were bucked upwards multiple times by the Monument Upwarp, and near-
volcanoes punched up through the rock, leaving their marks on the
landscape without reaching the surface. In the sandstone of Cedar Mesa,
fossil evidence has revealed large, mammal-like reptiles that burrowed
into the sand to survive the blistering heat of the end of the Permian
Period, when the region was dominated by a seaside desert. Later, in the
Late Triassic Period more than 200 million years ago, seasonal monsoons
flooded an ancient river system that fed a vast desert here.
The paleontological resources in the Bears Ears area are among the
richest and most significant in the United States, and protection of
this area will provide important opportunities for further
archaeological

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and paleontological study. Many sites, such as Arch Canyon, are teeming
with fossils, and research conducted in the Bears Ears area is revealing
new insights into the transition of vertebrate life from reptiles to
mammals and from sea to land. Numerous ray-finned fish fossils from the
Permian Period have been discovered, along with other late Paleozoic Era
fossils, including giant amphibians, synapsid reptiles, and important
plant fossils. Fossilized traces of marine and aquatic creatures such as
clams, crayfish, fish, and aquatic reptiles have been found in Indian
Creek's Chinle Formation, dating to the Triassic Period, and phytosaur
and dinosaur fossils from the same period have been found along Comb
Ridge. Paleontologists have identified new species of plant-eating
crocodile-like reptiles and mass graves of lumbering sauropods, along
with metoposaurus, crocodiles, and other dinosaur fossils. Fossilized
trackways of early tetrapods can be seen in the Valley of the Gods and
in Indian Creek, where paleontologists have also discovered exceptional
examples of fossilized ferns, horsetails, and cycads. The Chinle
Formation and the Wingate, Kayenta, and Navajo Formations above it
provide one of the best continuous rock records of the Triassic-Jurassic
transition in the world, crucial to understanding how dinosaurs
dominated terrestrial ecosystems and how our mammalian ancestors
evolved. In Pleistocene Epoch sediments, scientists have found traces of
mammoths, short-faced bears, ground sloths, primates, and camels.
From earth to sky, the region is unsurpassed in wonders. The star-filled
nights and natural quiet of the Bears Ears area transport visitors to an
earlier eon. 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.
Communities have depended on the resources of the region for hundreds of
generations. Understanding the important role of the green highlands in
providing habitat for subsistence plants and animals, as well as
capturing and filtering water from passing storms, the Navajo refer to
such places as ``Nahodishgish,'' or places to be left alone. Local
communities seeking to protect the mountains for their watershed values
have long recognized the importance of the Bears Ears' headwaters.
Wildfires, both natural and human-set, have shaped and maintained
forests and grasslands of this area for millennia. Ranchers have relied
on the forests and grasslands of the region for ages, and hunters come
from across the globe for a chance at a bull elk or other big game.
Today, ecological restoration through the careful use of wildfire and
management of grazing and timber is working to restore and maintain the
health of these vital watersheds and grasslands.
The diversity of the soils and microenvironments in the Bears Ears area
provide habitat for a wide variety of vegetation. The highest
elevations, in the Elk Ridge area of the Manti-La Sal National Forest,
contain pockets of ancient Engelmann spruce, ponderosa pine, aspen, and
subalpine fir. Mesa tops include pinyon-juniper woodlands along with big
sagebrush, low sage, blackbrush, rabbitbrush, bitterbrush, four-wing
saltbush, shadscale, winterfat, Utah serviceberry, western chokecherry,
hackberry, barberry, cliff rose, and greasewood. Canyons contain diverse
vegetation ranging from yucca and cacti such as prickly pear, claret
cup, and Whipple's fishhook to mountain mahogany, ponderosa pine, alder,
sagebrush, birch, dogwood, and Gambel's oak, along with

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occasional stands of aspen. Grasses and herbaceous species such as
bluegrass, bluestem, giant ryegrass, ricegrass, needle and thread,
yarrow, common mallow, balsamroot, low larkspur, horsetail, and
peppergrass also grow here, as well as pinnate spring parsley, Navajo
penstemon, Canyonlands lomatium, and the Abajo daisy.
Tucked into winding canyons are vibrant riparian communities
characterized by Fremont cottonwood, western sandbar willow, yellow
willow, and box elder. Numerous seeps provide year-round water and
support delicate hanging gardens, moisture-loving plants, and relict
species such as Douglas fir. A few populations of the rare Kachina
daisy, endemic to the Colorado Plateau, hide in shaded seeps and alcoves
of the area's canyons. A genetically distinct population of Kachina
daisy was also found on Elk Ridge. The alcove columbine and cave
primrose, also regionally endemic, grow in seeps and hanging gardens in
the Bears Ears landscape. Wildflowers such as beardtongue, evening
primrose, aster, Indian paintbrush, yellow and purple beeflower,
straight bladderpod, Durango tumble mustard, scarlet gilia, globe
mallow, sand verbena, sego lily, cliffrose, sacred datura, monkey
flower, sunflower, prince's plume, hedgehog cactus, and columbine, bring
bursts of color to the landscape.
The diverse vegetation and topography of the Bears Ears area, in turn,
support a variety of wildlife species. Mule deer and elk range on the
mesas and near canyon heads, which provide crucial habitat for both
species. The Cedar Mesa landscape is home to bighorn sheep which were
once abundant but still live in Indian Creek, and in the canyons north
of the San Juan River. Small mammals such as desert cottontail, black-
tailed jackrabbit, prairie dog, Botta's pocket gopher, white-tailed
antelope squirrel, Colorado chipmunk, canyon mouse, deer mouse, pinyon
mouse, and desert woodrat, as well as Utah's only population of Abert's
tassel-eared squirrels, find shelter and sustenance in the landscape's
canyons and uplands. Rare shrews, including a variant of Merriam's shrew
and the dwarf shrew can be found in this area.
Carnivores, including badger, coyote, striped skunk, ringtail, gray fox,
bobcat, and the occasional mountain lion, all hunt here, while
porcupines use their sharp quills and climbing abilities to escape these
predators. Oral histories from the Ute describe the historic presence of
bison, antelope, and abundant bighorn sheep, which are also depicted in
ancient rock art. Black bear pass through the area but are rarely seen,
though they are common in the oral histories and legends of this region,
including those of the Navajo.
Consistent sources of water in a dry landscape draw diverse wildlife
species to the area's riparian habitats, including an array of amphibian
species such as tiger salamander, red-spotted toad, Woodhouse's toad,
canyon tree frog, Great Basin spadefoot, and northern leopard frog. Even
the most sharp-eyed visitors probably will not catch a glimpse of the
secretive Utah night lizard. Other reptiles in the area include the
sagebrush lizard, eastern fence lizard, tree lizard, side-blotched
lizard, plateau striped whiptail, western rattlesnake, night snake,
striped whipsnake, and gopher snake.
Raptors such as the golden eagle, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, northern
harrier, northern goshawk, red-tailed hawk, ferruginous hawk, American
kestrel, flammulated owl, and great horned owl hunt their prey on the
mesa tops with deadly speed and accuracy. The largest contig

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uous critical habitat for the threatened Mexican spotted owl is on the
Manti-La Sal National Forest. Other bird species found in the area
include Merriam's turkey, Williamson's sapsucker, common nighthawk,
white-throated swift, ash-throated flycatcher, violet-green swallow,
cliff swallow, mourning dove, pinyon jay, sagebrush sparrow, canyon
towhee, rock wren, sage thrasher, and the endangered southwestern willow
flycatcher.
As the skies darken in the evenings, visitors may catch a glimpse of
some the area's at least 15 species of bats, including the big free-
tailed bat, pallid bat, Townsend's big-eared bat, spotted bat, and
silver-haired bat. Tinajas, rock depressions filled with rainwater,
provide habitat for many specialized aquatic species, including pothole
beetles and freshwater shrimp. Eucosma navajoensis, an endemic moth that
has only been described near Valley of the Gods, is unique to this area.
Protection of the Bears Ears area will preserve its cultural,
prehistoric, and historic legacy and maintain its diverse array of
natural and scientific resources, ensuring that the prehistoric,
historic, and scientific values of this area remain for the benefit of
all Americans. The Bears Ears area has been proposed for protection by
members of Congress, Secretaries of the Interior, State and tribal
leaders, and local conservationists for at least 80 years. The area
contains numerous objects of historic and of scientific interest, and it
provides world class outdoor recreation opportunities, including rock
climbing, hunting, hiking, backpacking, canyoneering, whitewater
rafting, mountain biking, and horseback riding. Because visitors travel
from near and far, these lands support a growing travel and tourism
sector that is a source of economic opportunity for the region.
WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code (known as the
``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the President, in his discretion, to
declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and
prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific
interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the
Federal Government to be national monuments, and to reserve as a part
thereof parcels of land, the limits of which shall be confined to the
smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the
objects to be protected;
WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve the objects of
scientific and historic interest on the Bears Ears lands;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by the authority vested in me by section 320301 of title 54,
United States Code, hereby proclaim the objects identified above that
are situated upon lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by
the Federal Government to be the Bears Ears National Monument (monument)
and, for the purpose of protecting those objects, reserve as part
thereof all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the
Federal Government within the boundaries described on the accompanying
map, which is attached to and forms a part of this proclamation. These
reserved Federal lands and interests in lands encompass approximately
1.35 million acres. The boundaries described on the accompanying map are
confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and
management of the objects to be protected.
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of the
monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of

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entry, location, selection, sale, or other disposition under the public
land laws or laws applicable to the U.S. Forest Service, from location,
entry, and patent under the mining laws, and from disposition under all
laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing, other than by exchange
that furthers the protective purposes of the monument.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid existing rights,
including valid existing water rights. If the Federal Government
acquires ownership or control of any lands or interests in lands that it
did not previously own or control within the boundaries described on the
accompanying map, such lands and interests in lands shall be reserved as
a part of the monument, and objects identified above that are situated
upon those lands and interests in lands shall be part of the monument,
upon acquisition of ownership or control by the Federal Government.
The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior
(Secretaries) shall manage the monument through the U.S. Forest Service
(USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), pursuant to their
respective applicable legal authorities, to implement the purposes of
this proclamation. The USFS shall manage that portion of the monument
within the boundaries of the National Forest System (NFS), and the BLM
shall manage the remainder of the monument. The lands administered by
the USFS shall be managed as part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest.
The lands administered by the BLM shall be managed as a unit of the
National Landscape Conservation System, pursuant to applicable legal
authorities.
For purposes of protecting and restoring the objects identified above,
the Secretaries shall jointly prepare a management plan for the monument
and shall promulgate such regulations for its management as they deem
appropriate. The Secretaries, through the USFS and the BLM, shall
consult with other Federal land management agencies in the local area,
including the National Park Service, in developing the management plan.
In promulgating any management rules and regulations governing the NFS
lands within the monument and developing the management plan, the
Secretary of Agriculture, through the USFS, shall consult with the
Secretary of the Interior through the BLM. The Secretaries shall provide
for maximum public involvement in the development of that plan
including, but not limited to, consultation with federally recognized
tribes and State and local governments. In the development and
implementation of the management plan, the Secretaries shall maximize
opportunities, pursuant to applicable legal authorities, for shared
resources, operational efficiency, and cooperation.
The Secretaries, through the BLM and USFS, shall establish an advisory
committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) to
provide information and advice regarding the development of the
management plan and, as appropriate, management of the monument. This
advisory committee shall consist of a fair and balanced representation
of interested stakeholders, including State and local governments,
tribes, recreational users, local business owners, and private
landowners.
In recognition of the importance of tribal participation to the care and
management of the objects identified above, and to ensure that
management decisions affecting the monument reflect tribal expertise and
traditional and historical knowledge, a Bears Ears Commission (Commis

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sion) is hereby established to provide guidance and recommendations on
the development and implementation of management plans and on management
of the monument. The Commission shall consist of one elected officer
each from the Hopi Nation, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute
Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray, and Zuni Tribe, designated by the
officers' respective tribes. The Commission may adopt such procedures as
it deems necessary to govern its activities, so that it may effectively
partner with the Federal agencies by making continuing contributions to
inform decisions regarding the management of the monument.
The Secretaries shall meaningfully engage the Commission or, should the
Commission no longer exist, the tribal governments through some other
entity composed of elected tribal government officers (comparable
entity), in the development of the management plan and to inform
subsequent management of the monument. To that end, in developing or
revising the management plan, the Secretaries shall carefully and fully
consider integrating the traditional and historical knowledge and
special expertise of the Commission or comparable entity. If the
Secretaries decide not to incorporate specific recommendations submitted
to them in writing by the Commission or comparable entity, they will
provide the Commission or comparable entity with a written explanation
of their reasoning. The management plan shall also set forth parameters
for continued meaningful engagement with the Commission or comparable
entity in implementation of the management plan.
To further the protective purposes of the monument, the Secretary of the
Interior shall explore entering into a memorandum of understanding with
the State that would set forth terms, pursuant to applicable laws and
regulations, for an exchange of land currently owned by the State of
Utah and administered by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands
Administration within the boundary of the monument for land of
approximately equal value managed by the BLM outside the boundary of the
monument. The Secretary of the Interior shall report to the President by
January 19, 2017, regarding the potential for such an exchange.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to interfere with the
operation or maintenance, or the replacement or modification within the
current authorization boundary, of existing utility, pipeline, or
telecommunications facilities located within the monument in a manner
consistent with the care and management of the objects identified above.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish the
rights or jurisdiction of any Indian tribe. The Secretaries shall, to
the maximum extent permitted by law and in consultation with Indian
tribes, ensure the protection of Indian sacred sites and traditional
cultural properties in the monument and provide access by members of
Indian tribes for traditional cultural and customary uses, consistent
with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (42 U.S.C. 1996) and
Executive Order 13007 of May 24, 1996 (Indian Sacred Sites), including
collection of medicines, berries and other vegetation, forest products,
and firewood for personal noncommercial use in a manner consistent with
the care and management of the objects identified above.

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For purposes of protecting and restoring the objects identified above,
the Secretaries shall prepare a transportation plan that designates the
roads and trails where motorized and non-motorized mechanized vehicle
use will be allowed. Except for emergency or authorized administrative
purposes, motorized and non-motorized mechanized vehicle use shall be
allowed only on roads and trails designated for such use, consistent
with the care and management of such objects. Any additional roads or
trails designated for motorized vehicle use must be for the purposes of
public safety or protection of such objects.
Laws, regulations, and policies followed by USFS or BLM in issuing and
administering grazing permits or leases on lands under their
jurisdiction shall continue to apply with regard to the lands in the
monument to ensure the ongoing consistency with the care and management
of the objects identified above.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish the
jurisdiction of the State of Utah, including its jurisdiction and
authority with respect to fish and wildlife management.
Nothing in this proclamation shall preclude low-level overflights of
military aircraft, the designation of new units of special use airspace,
or the use or establishment of military flight training routes over the
lands reserved by this proclamation consistent with the care and
management of the objects identified above.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to alter the authority
or responsibility of any party with respect to emergency response
activities within the monument, including wildland fire response.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing
withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the monument shall
be the dominant reservation.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate,
injure, destroy, or remove any feature of the monument and not to locate
or settle upon any of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day
of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-
first.
BARACK OBAMA


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