Officials removed the seals of five tribal nations from Bears Ears National Monument roadside signs following President Donald Trump's July 13 executive order to reduce the boundaries of the protected land by 91%.
Emblems of the Hopi, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Ute Mountain Ute and the Zuni nations were added to monument signs in 2022.
That was the year the Biden administration set up a cooperative management agreement between the tribes and federal agencies.
Trump's executive order ended that agreement.
Multiple indigenous groups spoke out following the executive order and said they were not consulted in the decision to significantly reduce the protected lands.
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The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) also relocated the monument’s signs this week to reflect the new boundaries.
The Bears Ears landscape is considered sacred by Indigenous peoples. However, its boundaries have been the topic of a longstanding political tug-of-war.
President Barack Obama established the monument in 2016 to protect 1.3 million acres. Trump shrunk the monument to 228,000 acres in 2017. Then, Biden restored it to its original size in 2021.
The current executive order shrunk Bears Ears to 121,000 acres.