San Juan County is a sparsely populated area in southeastern Utah, made up of large swaths of federal land, pocked with small towns. It is inhabited by a large Native American population, primarily Navajo. A portion of the county is referred to as Bears Ears, a name taken from two ear-shaped buttes that loom large in the landscape. Five Native American tribes have banded together to push for a National Monument designation in this area, to protect the rich assortment of archaeological and sacred sites located there, and to shield against possible future resource development in the area. Predictably, this proposal has not gone without resistance from both local forces and Utah state government. The ensuing ideological conflict may be seen as a proxy for the current national conversation around land rights, federal abuse, and Native American rights.
