IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v12y2022i1p56-d1014503.html

Charting Sustainable Land Management Futures by Looking to the Past: The Case of Bears Ears National Monument

Author

Listed:
  • Greta L. Asay

    (Sociology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
    Equal authorship.)

  • Hannah Z. Hendricks

    (Sociology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
    Equal authorship.)

  • Elizabeth Long-Meek

    (Sociology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
    Equal authorship.)

  • Michael R. Cope

    (Sociology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA)

Abstract

This review offers an examination of the historical and sociocultural context that should have informed the creation and management of the Bears Ears National Monument (BENM) in rural Southeastern Utah, USA—an area surrounded by ranching communities and sovereign Native American tribal lands. Because of elements such as cultural significance, ancestral ties, natural resources, and recreational value, the land of Bears Ears has different cultural meanings for various groups. The BENM is indeed a complex issue that can and should be viewed from multiple perspectives. Throughout its history, the BENM has been a topic of debate and controversy amongst numerous groups, from Native American tribes to local ranchers to the federal government. Before, during, and after Bears Ears was designated as a national monument, disputes and discourse surrounding the issue have been mainly focused on land use, management, politics, and governance. We present a review of the historical background leading to claims of ancestral ties to place. We summarize the major events that led to the Bears Ears National Monument designation, reduction, and restoration. We provide a brief discussion of the current academic literature and directions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Greta L. Asay & Hannah Z. Hendricks & Elizabeth Long-Meek & Michael R. Cope, 2022. "Charting Sustainable Land Management Futures by Looking to the Past: The Case of Bears Ears National Monument," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2022:i:1:p:56-:d:1014503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/1/56/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/1/56/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Home, 2021. "History and Prospects for African Land Governance: Institutions, Technology and ‘Land Rights for All’," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    2. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    3. Andre Sorensen, 2015. "Taking path dependence seriously: an historical institutionalist research agenda in planning history," Planning Perspectives, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 17-38, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Clarita Lefthand-Begay & Lauren Redmore & Christopher Armatas & Jesse Brisbois & Kunsang Choden & Dara Craig & Angelo Baca & Jaime Martin & Michael Ross & Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk & Alfred Lomahquahu &, 2025. "From paternalism to self-determination: examining evolving tribal-federal relationships and co-management arrangements through three case studies," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Home, 2021. "History and Prospects for African Land Governance: Institutions, Technology and ‘Land Rights for All’," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    4. Mariana Chudnovsky & Diana Martínez Medina & Agustín Filippo, 2026. "Parity in Public Administration as a Moving Target: The Role of Women Policy Agencies in Mexico," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(1), pages 60-76, February.
    5. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    6. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    7. Samed Yasin Öztürk & Gonca Yangın Ekşi, 2025. "Fostering Intercultural Competence through Telecollaboration on SDGs: A Multinational Study With Student Teachers," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(4), pages 21582440251, November.
    8. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    9. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    10. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Lampros Lamprinidis, 2025. "Socially Responsible Public Procurement and the Social Economy: European and Global Institutional Approaches," Journal of Public Policy and Administration, IPRJB, vol. 10(1), pages 46-62.
    12. Benjamin Nölting & Bettina König & Anne B. Zimmermann & Antonietta Di Giulio & Martina Schäfer & Flurina Schneider, 2022. "Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity to reflect on sustainability research," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 11-27, December.
    13. Nakakawa, Frances & Mugisha, Johnny & Kaaya, Archileo N. & Tumwesigye, Nazarius M. & Hennessey, Martina, 2024. "Nutrition education effects on food and nutrition security for women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    14. Rashmi Jaipal, 2017. "Psychology at the Crossroads," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 125-159, September.
    15. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    16. Anna Napiórkowska & Piotr Zaborek & Marzanna Katarzyna Witek-Hajduk & Anna Grudecka, 2025. "Individual Cultural Values and Charitable Crowdfunding: Driving Social Sustainability Through Consumer Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-26, June.
    17. Oleksandr Melnychenko, 2025. "Artificial Intelligence in Regulating Production Volumes for Sustainable Development: Qualitative and Quantitative Aspects," Virtual Economics, The London Academy of Science and Business, vol. 8(1), pages 40-57, March.
    18. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    19. Rostami-Tabar, Bahman & Ali, Mohammad M. & Hong, Tao & Hyndman, Rob J. & Porter, Michael D. & Syntetos, Aris, 2022. "Forecasting for social good," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1245-1257.
    20. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2022:i:1:p:56-:d:1014503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.