“Our religion is very much tied to the land,” said Carleton Bowekaty, a Zuni tribe councilman and co-chair of Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. The group's lobbying made the monument the first ever to be created at the behest of sovereign tribes.
“For many of my people, our day starts with prayer, and it's not just prayer for themselves or their family; it's for the entire world and, therefore, for the Earth. … If we don't have a healthy land we won't have a healthy people.”
In their fight to retain the monument — named for a particularly striking pair of buttes — the tribes enjoy the support of environmentalists, and religious environmentalists in particular.
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