**Today, Alex and I are sharing an update on the latest in a series of federal violations of tribal sovereignty along with a few calls to action and opportunities to get involved.**

The Libertarian Party has long condemned the federal government’s sequestering of vast tracts of land from the people who live nearest to them and know them best. We are rightly skeptical of systems that delegate to a distant body the power to regulate millions of acres and dictate their use by proclamation. **For this reason, we—as individuals and as a Party—should be outraged and rise to action over what is happening at Bears Ears National Monument.**

In 2016, the federal government made a commitment to five sovereign tribal nations—the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Zuni Tribe, the Ute Indian Tribe, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe—by designating Bears Ears as a national monument. **The first agreement of its kind, the designation created a tribal commission to co-manage the monument,** granting the five tribes an official role in caring for a landscape they had stewarded long before the United States existed.

This was a nation-to-nation arrangement, not a gift—one entered into by both sides and with real obligations attached. **One of these was the duty to consult with the Tribal Commission in the event that any substantive changes to the land were being considered.**

Libertarians Must Defend Tribal Sovereignty at Bears Ears | Libertarian