Early Friday morning on February 2, parts of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument were reopened for mining and drilling. The move follows President Donald Trump’s December decision to slash the size of the two national monuments. Now, tens of thousands of Native American sacred sites are at risk, along with key wildlife habitats and areas used for outdoor recreation. On this bonus episode, Michele and Igor speak with two tribal leaders, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Davis Filfred of Navajo Nation, about the devastation these actions will have on sacred land and sites ingrained in their tribes’ legacies and what they’re doing to fight back against it.
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Michele Jawando is a vice president at the Center for American Progress. Igor Volsky is a vice president at the Center. Sally Tucker is the radio coordinator for Communications at the Center. Rachel Rosen is the senior director of Broadcast Communications at the Center.