The Visionary Activist Show – Bears Ears Victory

Out of the dark of the Moon Dark of the Year Cauldron of despair, Coyote ladles out Bears Ears Triumphant, (still needing us all to protect what is sacred and precious). Sane Reverent Indigenuity Spiraling into the Memosphere. Hosting Bill Hedden and Terry Tempest Williams.

Bill Hedden is Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Trust, under his leadership the organization has led in developing ecologically sensible forest restoration programs and is partnering with Colorado Plateau tribes to win designation of the first-ever Native American national monument at the Bears Ears in southeast Utah.

The wild lands of our collective soul in Utah have assumed human form to come tell us its story.

“Today, the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Uintah and Ouray Ute, and Ute Mountain Ute tribes have formally united to secure a presidential proclamation establishing a 1.9 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument… The five tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition have developed a visionary and workable plan for America’s first national monument that will be collaboratively managed by the tribes and the federal government. Their proposal envisions a world-class center for the integration of Native American traditional knowledge and western science at Bears Ears. The Coalition’s proposal has been favorably received by the White House and appointees in the Obama Administration at the departments of Interior and Agriculture.”  (From August 11, 2016 Interview)

And now – Victory! Obama has designated Bears Ears as a national monument (Article from The Guardian).

We will be interweaving with Terry Tempest Williams – author, activist, naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, she has consistently shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. “So here is my question,” she asks, “what might a different kind of power look like, feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably even beyond our own species?”

In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. In 2009, Terry Tempest Williams was featured in Ken Burns’ PBS series on the national parks. She is also the recipient of the 2010 David R. Brower Conservation Award for activism. The Community of Christ International Peace Award was presented in 2011 to Terry Tempest Williams in recognition of significant peacemaking vision, advocacy and action. In 2014, on the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, Ms. Williams received the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award honoring a distinguished record of leadership in American conservation.

· Bill Hedden www.GrandCanyonTrust.com

· Terry Tempest Williams www.CoyoteClan.com

 

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