Interesting to see @SpencerJCox bemoan the “divisiveness” of Bears Ears this week.

The effort to shrink the monument was led by Phil Lyman, a convicted felon who has been found legally responsible for tens of thousands of dollars of vandalism to the monument. 1/

Why was this felon in charge? Well the white members of the San Juan County council succeeded in illegally Gerrymandering the county to lock out Native voices. They got sued, lost, and reformed their gerrymander. And now the Navajo council members have a majority. 2/

But in 2017 the Lyman-controlled council supported destroying the monument. It didn’t matter to them what the tribes wanted. It didn’t matter that the Obama admin had given ranchers concessions to continue to use the land. So they used tax payer $ to hire lobbyists. 3/

That tax payer money wasn’t just SJ County money—the Republican state legislature gave them *state money* to fund this effort. They spent $500k hiring out-of-state lobbyists with ties to Trump and Bannon. How could that $ have been invested improving SJ County? 4/

2017 BTW was when Trump commemorated Native American Heritage month by performing his racist “Pocahontas” routine in front of a crowd of Navajo war heroes. His profane dismissal of their culture was no secret. 5/

When Interior Secretary Zinke visited in 2017, he toured via Black Hawk helicopter—an ironic choice given that no natives were invited on the tour, only Republican leaders who universally opposed protecting the sacred land. 6/

This process was in stark contrast to Sally Jewell’s visit during the Obama administration. She met with tribal leaders and the (illegally gerrymandered) County Council. She met with environmentalists and ranchers. 7/

Jewell negotiated something unheard of today: A COMPROMISE.

Ranchers were allowed to continue, unaffected by the monument. The designation carves out an explicit exception for them.

Natives were still allowed to harvest wood from the monument.

Everyone worked together. 8/

Does that sound like a spirit of unity, @SpencerJCox?

Well when Trump signed his declaration, the latest broken promise of the US Government to local tribes, he said this:

“It’s time to end these abuses and return the control of the land to the people.”

WHICH PEOPLE??? 9/

Governor, the people of Utah support Bears Ears.

Now that the San Juan County Council is not under illegal control by a felon, the Council supports Bears Ears.

The people of the US support Bears Ears.

If you want unity, you just have to #SupportBearsEars too. /END