During his tenure, Barack Obama gave roughly 553 million acres of land national protection (more than even famed conservationist Theodore Roosevelt) by establishing or adding to 29 national monuments, signaling an unprecedented commitment to protecting culturally and historically significant American land.
However, since his election, conservationists have worried Donald Trump and his administration were going to greatly reduce the amount of sacred, tribal land protected under federal law.
“If the Trump administration’s effort to dramatically reduce the size of the Bears Ears National Monument survives challenges in federal courts, it would represent a very large change in application of the 1906 Antiquities Act – because it would be an unprecedented reduction by executive action of a monument proclaimed by a previous president. This might also encourage future executive assaults on other laws that have been used to protect cultural and environmental resources on the federal public lands,” said Dr. William D. Lipe, archaeologist and Professor Emeritus at Washington State University.
One of the biggest blows the administration has dealt to the indigenous nations of the southwestern United States is the 2017 proclamation that reduced the size of Bears Ears National Monument to a mere 15 percent of its former size.
Trump’s administration used the Antiquities Act to justify his proclamation, a move that many have contended is illegal under federal law. The Antiquities Act was signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and gave the federal government the power to create national monuments from public lands.