My grandmother always said, one strand of hair, when you pull on it, can break.
But if you part it into three pieces and braid it and try to pull that apart, you can't.
There are key places on this earth that are very important to Native people.
We as Native Americans, we have a responsibility to make sure that it's there for our future,
for our children and grandchildren.
As we move forward and we begin to speak for the land and the elements that grow from
the land, now we're speaking for things that can't speak for themselves.
The strength is in the braiding of the people.
What does it mean to be a Native American?
It's not just a term or a label, but it's a way of life, it's who we are.
The Baers-Ears region is a place that's made of wide valleys, large plateaus and deep canyons.
But it's also an important cultural landscape.
So we have places up there that are maybe archaeological sites or shrines and trails
and pictographs and petroglyphs.
But also we have this history about these places that we were there, we were living there.
And it makes up who we are.
I look at some things and I see that's why I am the way I am.
Because of these things that my ancestors left on the walls, that they left in places near
springs and along the rivers, those were left for me and future generations.
What you see out there archaeologically are our footprints.
The evidence that we see out there, the pottery shirts, burials, everything that was a part of their community,
that's the footprints of our ancestral people.
The Hopi's don't see ruins as being quote abandoned because the spiritual people still reside there.
It's still in our memory, it's still in our ceremonies.
We don't see the ruins being just cultural resources.
They were part of our lives, grandmothers were there, kids were there.
Everything was very vibrant, perhaps harsh, but people lived there.
Our people have gone through a lot and there's a lot of healing that still has to happen.
This place really touches us and heals us and rejuvenates who we are and our spirit.
See, this plant is a sage and it's good for coal.
This is a place where I have known all my life called Bear Ear and in Ardenet it's called Shaspija.
This is where it's at these days, fear, stress come out and enjoy this land.
Hopefully I get to be an old lady and still continue to come up here to do my prayers and to gather herbs
that I need for myself and for other people that are in need.
I'm home whenever I visit here. It's a unique place to be.
I think to lose this place is to lose being native.
The threat, looting, grave robbing, mineral leasing, to name a few.
We've already seen it in and around these lands and if this is something we lose then we lose it forever.
Tribal groups are very concerned about the potential for disturbance of important parts of our history.
These places are still very much part of our homelands and when we hear about petroglyphs being damaged or archaeological sites being damaged
it is in a sense like taking a chapter out of a book.
So when parts of those are disturbed or missing then we're not able to connect the dots as effectively as we ought to be allowed to.
We don't want to disturb the final resting places of our ancestors and to think that objects that may have been buried with them could be brought up.
We would never do that to a family plot or a graveyard anywhere else.
What I believe needs to happen is to get a very strong interpretive program infused into the public end of it as to what we will be telling people about.
You also need to be respectful, to be careful where you go.
Don't pick up artifacts because there's still burials there.
We as Bears Ears into Tribal Coalition are here to propose to President Barack Obama a national monument for what we commonly refer to as the Bears Ears.
It's 1.9 million acres of land in southeastern Utah that we relate to in a very unique and special and religious way.
Five sovereign governments, the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Uinta and Ure Ute and the Zuni Tribe are requesting of U.S. President Barack Obama to join us in a collaborative effort to manage these lands responsibly.
One that's consistent with existing federal laws, but also one that is respectful of our indigenous fundamental laws that govern life.
The Bears Ears proposal calls for a world-class cutting-edge institute that matches indigenous knowledge with western knowledge, western sciences.
I don't know of any other place where you can find that right now, and I think that's one of the most compelling and exciting parts of our proposal.
This is not just about national monuments. This is not just about intergovernmental relations. We are about healing.
The Bears Ears into Tribal Coalition has created a map, a region from the native eye. We have lifted the state lines, the county lines, in order to preserve our ability to heal.
Warm up on the Bear Dance hall. Those of you who are interested, please come on out and watch the Ute Bear Dance.
For the Ute people, the Bear is very, very important to us. We revere the spirit as a protector. We hold the Bear Dances near the Bears Ears area. It's even more valuable for our younger people because it's their history.
Bears Ears offers something unique that we can't find anywhere else in the world, and so therefore it's special.
We hold the Bears Ears at a high regard, no different than the way any of us in the room would value and treat and consider and love a family member.
There are still many beautiful stories to be told. This is such an important part of history.
The blood that was in the veins of the people that lived there thousands of years ago, their blood is in my veins also.
This whole area is our home. We still come here. We have a relationship with the land. It's not this memory. It's not something of the past. It is now.
This needs to be a place that the President designates as a monument.
I don't know if there's any other place where so many tribes are deeply connected to in one dense area.
I would like to tell President Barack Obama that he has inspired a lot of hope in this country, and I believe that hope consists of the right to human rights, the right to have equity in voice.
I believe that this Bears Ears proposal that now sits on his desk, it embodies that. He is in a position to breathe life further into his vision for this country.
I sincerely hope that you will meet us with that vision.
Thank you.
