In a hopeful move for the future of efforts to close and clean up the White Mesa uranium mill, President Biden’s first full week on the job included two key actions that can help address radioactive and toxic pollution in southeast Utah on the doorstep of Bears Ears National Monument and next to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community. Taken together, these orders are a marked departure from the last four years, and they demonstrate a real commitment to prioritizing tribal nations, confronting the climate change, and advancing environmental justice.
1. Respecting tribes as sovereign nations
The first action was a presidential memorandum on reaffirming tribal sovereignty through strengthened tribal consultation. Reversing years of neglect and damage done to government-to-government relationships by the previous administration, President Biden said of the memorandum: “I m directing the federal agencies to reinvigorate the consultation process with Indian tribes. .resp
A rocky corner in southern Utah has brought 5 tribes together. An executive order is reviving effort to protect them
A rocky corner in southern Utah has been the focal point of protests and political battles for years. A recent move by the Biden administration is giving Native tribes hope that a broken promise could be mended.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden ordered federal officials to review the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument a sprawling region rich in red rock canyons, cliff dwellings and numerous archeological sites that former President Donald Trump drastically shrunk in size (December 4, 2017) only 11 months after its official designation (December 28, 2016).
Longtime Alaska attorney who represented tribes named to leadership position in Interior Department Published February 3
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Print article A former longtime attorney with the Native American Rights Fund in Alaska and a citizen of Oklahoma’s Chickasaw Nation has taken a leadership position in President Joe Biden’s Interior Department, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. Natalie Landreth will serve as deputy solicitor for land, a position that could place her in the middle of major legal questions involving natural resource development and land protections in Alaska and nationally, said Heather Kendall-Miller, a retired senior staff attorney with NARF who has worked in Alaska with Landreth and remains involved with the organization.
The sacred lands of Utah’s Bears Ears brought 5 tribes together. An executive order is reviving effort to protect them
A rocky corner in southern Utah has been the focal point of protests and political battles for years. A recent move by the Biden administration is giving Native tribes hope that a broken promise could be mended.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden ordered federal officials to review the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument a sprawling region rich in red rock canyons, cliff dwellings and numerous archeological sites that former President Donald Trump drastically shrunk in size (December 4, 2017) only 11 months after its official designation (December 28, 2016).