The Bears Ears Commission was disbanded, and now, Tribal seals are disappearing from monument signs in Utah. Following a presidential proclamation that shrunk Bears Ears National Monument by 90 percent, the federal government is removing Tribal seals from monument entrance signs.
The Bureau of Land Management has removed Tribal seals previously included on signs surrounding Bears Ears, according to the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. Five seals representing the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe were installed to symbolize the Bears Ears Commission—a federal-Tribal partnership that helped shape the monument.
Davina Smith–Idjesa, a representative of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said seeing the removal of the seals is a physical reminder of how quickly years of relationship-building, trust, and progress can be stripped away. The seals were installed at monument signs as official emblems of Tribal sovereignty and government.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management said that the Bears Ears Commission was terminated under the presidential directive, and as such, the Tribal seals have been removed. They have begun efforts to implement the modified boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument established by President Trump on July 13, 2026.
Ruben Pacheco, communications and partnerships director for the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said community members captured before-and-after photos near the small towns of Mexican Hat and Bluff, Utah. The images were then posted on Instagram by a group of conservation groups, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Center for Western Priorities.
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Under the newly signed initiative, President Trump reduced Bears Ears to approximately 121,000 acres and Grand Staircase–Escalante to about 182,000 acres. Previously, Bears Ears encompassed 1.36 million acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante totaled 1.9 million acres.
Smith-Idjesa said that the removal of the signs represents an administrative erasure of the Bears Ears Commission. Seeing those signs come down made her think about their history. Native people have seen promises broken, treaties ignored, reservation boundaries reduced, and lands taken when they held something others wanted.
Smith-Idjesa says that the shrinking of Bears Ears boundaries doesn’t diminish ancestral responsibility and heritage. Removing the signs does not erase their relationship to Bears Ears. It does not erase their responsibility to this place. The Coalition Tribes will continue to carry that responsibility, no matter what signs are standing on the side of the road.
Bears Ears National Monument has a long history of human presence, with evidence of ancient cultures dating back thousands of years. The removal of the Tribal seals and the reduction of the monument’s size have sparked concerns among Tribal communities and conservation groups about the preservation of these cultural and natural resources, including human endurance and the impact of outdoor activities on the environment.
