The opportunity to comanage Bears Ears is an important issue for the tribes who retain a spiritual and cultural connection to the land and for the general recognition and empowerment of tribal sovereignty. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition proposed a visionary collaborative management regime for the monument that resulted in a strong comanagement substitute, recognizing and incorporating the tribes into Bears Ears management as an advisory council. That achievement was undermined when the Trump administration reduced Bears Ears, limited the Bears Ears Commission's jurisdiction, and restructured the Commission to include voices that were not representative of tribal interests. In the face of an uncertain future for Bears Ears, cooperative agreements between the tribes and the managing agencies for the monument provide a legally viable pathway for the tribes to pursue: (1) truly collaborative management of the monument beyond the authority of the Bears Ears Commission, and (2) management and advisory authority over the BLM lands removed from the monument designation.
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