Even some Native Americans don't know about the archaeological riches their ancestors left in Cedar Mesa. A week ago, on a tour of the area, a member of
the Hopi Tribe was shocked to find his family's Flute Clan symbol in a
rock pictograph. "It was a very powerful, very emotional tour,"
said Mark Maryboy, a Navajo elder. "A lot of them didn't realize how
much history and how much evidence their people left behind. There are
many generations." In a campaign to reclaim the place from Anglo
grave robbers, off-roaders and benignly ignorant campers and hikers who
have traversed the region since state and federal leaders carved it up
to distinguish public from private land, Utah's Navajos are leading a
push to create the Bears Ears National Conservation Area in the southeastern corner of Utah. Their proposal stretches from the southern edge
of Canyonlands National Park to the San Juan River and Glen Canyon
National Recreation Area in the south to approximately U.S. Highway 191
on the east and the Colorado River on the west. The tribe's 1.9 million-acre proposal is larger
than three other plans to expand federal land protections in the region
— including the Greater Canyonlands notion from the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance, four conservation areas pitched by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and another from Friends of Cedar Mesa...more

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