Bears Ears Field School

A growing consciousness has emerged in today’s field of public lands management regarding the tumultuous history of indigenous rights, the mass eviction of indigenous tribes, and the geographic overlay of public lands on ancestral homelands. Western Colorado University’s Center for Public Lands is exploring contemporary approaches to agency-tribal relationships by investigating issues and integrating diverse perspectives into socially just public lands management ethics.

Utilizing the expansive landscape and innovative practices at Bears Ears National Monument, faculty and graduate students with the Center for Public Lands grappled with the history, issues, and diverse perspectives affecting the integration of co-management approaches to develop the Bears Ears Field School curriculum. This curriculum was developed in an effort to explore the most effective methods in navigating sensitive inter-cultural relationships and creating a more collaborative environment for future land management practices.

Striving for Public & Ancestral Lands Management Cohesion

What Is Co-Management?

Co-management attempts to bridge social justice with land management by recognizing the autonomy of all nations occupying a territory and elevating historically underrepresented voices as equals in decision-making.

Bears Ears National Monument, October 2020

The World Bank defines co-management as a decentralized approach to decision-making that involves the local users in the decision-making process as equals with the nation-state. (Carlsson and Berkes, 2005)

But this definition is incomplete, as it gives the same amount of rights and privilege to business interests and local landowners without identifying those communities and nations, specifically Indigenous populations, whose ancestral lands have been stolen and deserve a more formidable role in the collaborative process. A truly equitable approach to co-management recognizes the sovereignty of all nations and attempts to forge a new path with social inclusion.

Co-management may seem a relatively simple concept, but in practice it can require large investments in time and resources to achieve success. When related to land management, agencies and stakeholders alike will need a willingness to adapt and an openness to achieve greater cultural pluralism while participating in civil governance with each other.

Co-management Models

Models for co-management exist around the world in countries such as Canada, Australia, and many others, but few models exist in the United States. Most worldwide examples of co-management in practice today deal primarily with equity in the management of food resources, such as in the case of integrated land management projects with fishing communities in Mozambique and in the co-management of the Waikato River in New Zealand. Though no models are perfect, and gender equity and other social power dynamics play a role in the effectiveness of representation, land managers in the United States can learn from the best practices and challenges discovered through these innovative approaches to resource conservation.

In 2016, former President Barak Obama used the power of the Antiquities Act to designate Bears Ears National Monument in the American Southwest. In its establishment, the prescribed management structure aimed to respect Indigenous cultural history and values while following Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management approaches to multiple-use — representing a new public lands management vision realized in a place co-managed by Tribes and agencies. The designation of the national monument was contentious and decisions regarding its management continue to play out today. Read more about the history of Bears Ears here.

Lessons to Be Learned

Since the monument was created in 2016, after much political wrangling at the local and national scale, has Bears Ears achieved its desired co-management goals? What can managers learn by studying this progressive attempt to co-manage public lands with Indigenous people?

[ WCU graduate students at Bears Ears National Monument, October 2020 ]

To explore these questions, Western Colorado University’s Center for Public Lands received a grant in the spring of 2020 from National Geographic Explorers to develop a Field School that prepares the next generation of public land managers to collaborate with tribes in more equitable and inclusive ways.

To find out which ancestral lands overlay the public lands in your region, click here: Native-land.ca