Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation writes a check for Bears Ears 'engagement' fund

Movie star and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio's foundation joined other philanthropic groups to cut a check for $1.5 million to establish the Bears Ears Community Engagement Fund. The fund, announced Thursday, will enhance local community efforts aimed at conservation of natural resources and assist Native American tribes at the newly designated Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah. "To support robust tribal involvement in managing the monument and to also support community efforts to enhance resource conservation in the monument and to create economic opportunity," multiple groups stepped forward with contributions, according a press release issued by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Other contributors are: the Wyss Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Wilburforce Foundation and the Grand Canyon Trust...more

"To support robust tribal involvement...and to also support community efforts..."

Could be. But more likely is a "robust" effort to prevent the following:

The fund's creation comes at a time when Utah's congressional delegation — which is adamantly opposed to the monument designation — has threatened to hold up any funding for Bears Ears or try to overturn the Dec. 28 action by President Barack Obama.

Have you ever wondered if money talks?

Carleton Bowekaty, co-chairman of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said the Five Native American tribes involved in the push for the designation of the Bears Ears National Monument now have another reason to be grateful.
Walter Phelps, a Navajo Nation council delegate, said the money will provide a much-needed boost to help protect resources in the 1.35 million-acre monument...

Apparently it speaks Navajo and several other Native American languages.