National Libertarian Party leaders are rallying members to oppose President Donald Trump’s reduction of Bears Ears National Monument, asking them to participate in public demonstrations and calling for amicus briefs in support of expected legal challenges.
Libertarian National Committee Vice Chair Amanda Griffiths and Region 9 Representative Alex Flores issued a July 28 call to action on the national party website, arguing that the Trump administration’s July 13 proclamation violated commitments made to the five tribal nations involved in managing the monument. The proclamation reduces Bears Ears from approximately 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres, leaving less than nine percent of the monument within its new boundaries. It also terminates the Bears Ears Commission, composed of representatives from the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Indian Tribe, and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
The Bears Ears Commission came into existence under President Barack Obama in 2016, when he established the monument following advocacy from the five tribal nations. A 2022 agreement with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service later formalized a cooperative management relationship that included tribal consultation and the incorporation of tribal knowledge into federal decisions.
In justifying the reduction, the Trump administration says the previous boundaries exceeded what was necessary to protect historic and scientific resources under the Antiquities Act. It also points to federal management costs and the presence of uranium, copper, and other minerals considered important to the national economy and security. Lands removed from the monument are scheduled to reopen to mining claims, mineral leasing, and other uses 60 days after the proclamation.
This is also the second time Trump has reduced Bears Ears. He similarly scaled the monument back in 2017, a move later reversed by President Joe Biden in 2021 when he largely restored it to those boundaries first established under Obama. Trump’s latest proclamation leaves Bears Ears even smaller than it was following his first reduction.
While acknowledging the party’s historical opposition to federal control over large swaths of land, Griffiths and Flores called Trump’s action a “sign of an unaccountable government” exercising authority “over people who were never asked.” They said Libertarians should view the dispute through the principles of tribal sovereignty and voluntary agreements.
“No matter our thoughts on the underlying merits of large monument designations—no matter whether we believe the federal government should be involved in such designations at all—Trump’s action constitutes a direct violation of a contract between the U.S. national government and the people of the other nations who share American land,” they wrote. “No man should have the power to destroy a negotiated arrangement between sovereign peoples by the fiat of a single hand.”
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, which represents the five tribal nations that founded it in 2015, said the administration did not consult the nations before reducing the monument and terminating the commission. Conservation organizations have disputed the president’s authority to reduce monuments created under the Antiquities Act, and Earthjustice has vowed legal action in response to the latest proclamation.
In the meantime, Griffiths and Flores encouraged Libertarians in Utah and the surrounding region to participate in demonstrations and days of action, specifically referencing those events being coordinated by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. They also encouraged Libertarians to consider supporting anticipated legal challenges through the filing of amicus briefs, which they said would be “in the interest of the Party’s dearest principles.”
Their appeal follows the Libertarian National Committee’s 18-0 adoption of a resolution on tribal and national sovereignty earlier in July. The resolution, authored by Flores, acknowledges treaties between tribal nations and the United States as nation-to-nation agreements and recognizes the sovereignty of Native American tribal nations and the Hawaiian Kingdom. It also encourages party officers and members to explore pathways for their representation within the Libertarian Party in ways that reflect their unique tribal structures.
As adopted, the resolution did not commit the Libertarian Party to any specific dispute or course of action. However, in their joint statement, Griffiths and Flores called it “only the first step” toward more direct advocacy involving Indigenous rights and presented Bears Ears as an opportunity for the party to act on the principles of that new position.
“The Libertarian Party stands with the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Zuni Tribe, the Ute Indian Tribe, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in demanding that any changes to how this land is managed happen through the process that was actually promised: real consultation and the consent of the people of the nations who have stewarded this land the longest,” the two concluded.
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