Host Jennifer Errick explores the Tribal-led fight to protect Bears Ears National Monument and what the future of collaboration between Native nations and the U.S. government could mean for public lands with guests Ernie Atencio, Southwest regional director for the National Park Conservation Association; Davina Smith, organizer and consultant for the National Parks Conservation Association, cofounder of Women of Bears Ears, and board member of Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners; and Pat Gonzales-Rogers, executive director for the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.

Watch Davina Smith and other survivors speak about the dark history of Native American boarding schools in the PBS documentary “Unspoken” at https://parkb.it/pbsunspoken. Learn more and find resources for healing from boarding schools and other forms of violence against Native Americans at https://boardingschoolhealing.org/ and https://restoringawcoalition.org/. Read reporting on attempts to open Bears Ears to uranium mining at https://parkb.it/bearsearsreporting. Learn more about the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition at https://bearsearscoalition.org/.

Original theme music by Chad Fischer

This episode was produced by Jennifer Errick with moral and technical support from Todd Christopher and Bev Stanton.

The Secret Lives of Parks is a production of the National Parks Conservation Association. With more than 1.6 million members and supporters, NPCA is the nation’s only independent, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting national parks. Learn more at npca.org