Given the recent human rights atrocities perpetrated in North Dakota by state and local officials against the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the continued failure of the United States Federal Government to honor tribal sovereignty and our Mother Earth, we bring attention to another assault against Native American lands and peoples. 

We call upon the Speaker of the House and Congress to stop any and all assaults on American Indian Tribal Lands, such as H.R. 5780, the so-called "Utah Public Lands Initiative" by Congressman Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz. Under the guise of "special management", Congressman Bishop and Chaffetz have crafted a deceptive bill purporting to support the interests of the State of Utah as well as public and school trust lands. 

In addition, Rep. Bishop (a fierce anti-public lands Republican in Utah) is now urging President-elect Donald Trump to abolish national monuments including some of the lands protected under the Antiquities Act, such as the Gila Cliff Dwellings and Navajo National Monuments which were established to protect significant ancestral Native American sites from robbery and destruction. 

Rep. Bishop is also firmly opposed to the creation of a Bears Ears National Monument in Southeastern Utah, home to 100,000 Native American archeological sites.  He has introduced this legislation in an effort to remove from protection nearly 18 million acres of land in Utah, including 100,000 acres of the Ute Indian Tribe Reservation and to prevent the creation of a new national monument.

This is nothing but a another 21st Century Native American Land grab for the sake of oil and gas interests.  This bill is proposed for the purpose of opening up this land to oil/gas exploration and extraction through fracking, which will cause irreparable damage to sacred Indian lands as well as harm to the environment.

Rep. Bishop and Rep. Chaffetz along with others in Congress are engaging in all out assault on Native American sovereignty, land and water rights, and even their identity rights. It is time the Speaker of the House and members of Congress step in and protect these sacred lands.  Enough is enough - Stop H.R. 5780!