| Description |
In 2015, a coalition of five Native governments (the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Pueblo of Zuni) published a proposal to create Bears Ears National Monument. The proposal defined a territory of 1.9 million acres and argued that this region held historical, natural, and cultural value for Indigenous peoples. A national monument, they argued, was needed to protect the area from destruction resulting from industrial development, looting and vandalism, and irresponsible recreational use, among other threats. Although President Barack Obama designated a monument largely aligned with the coalition's proposal in 2016, President Donald Trump rolled back that decision upon his inauguration in 2017, shrinking the monument by roughly 85% and restructuring the management plan to undermine Indigenous leadership. This dissertation takes up Bears Ears as a case study for examining the relationships between settler colonialism and public participation in environmental decision-making. I call for scholars and practitioners of environmental decision-making to develop alternative processes that support, rather than undermine, Indigenous sovereignty and leadership in ancestral territories. I trace the role of settler colonialism in disputes over public lands in the American West, particularly Utah, the contemporary rhetorics that constitute environmental decision-making processes, and the work of Indigenous people to establish alternative processes that move toward decolonization. Through a critical rhetorical analysis of documents surrounding the creation of Bears Ears National Monument (such as the BEITC's proposal, presidential proclamations, and federal law), I argue that scholars and policymakers must change how we approach environmental decision-making processes if we are to participate meaningfully in efforts for decolonization. |
