The assault on Chaco Canyon, Bears Ears, and other sacred lands is a blatant continuation of America’s centuries-long campaign against Native people.

On July 13, 2026, the Trump Administrationannounced that it would be cutting a cumulative 3.23 million acres from Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monument, reducing the former to a mere 181,500 acres and the latter to approximately 121,000 acres. Under theumbrella of “common sense land use,” which aims to prioritize the resources on or beneath the land, over its cultural or natural significance, the White House wants to open these sacred sites to massive logging, mining, and of c…