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Archaeologists uneasy as Trump shrinks Bears Ears monument lands

Thousands of ancient Native American sites to lose protections.
  1. Cally Carswell
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Sun rises over Valley of The Gods inside Bears Ears National Monument

The striking sandstone formations of the Valley of The Gods are part of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Credit: Alex Goodlett/NYT/Redux/eyevine

A US government plan to slash protections for one of North America’s richest and best-preserved archaeological landscapes has prompted a wave of concern among researchers. On 4 December, US President Donald Trump announced that he had cut the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah from 547,000 hectares to 82,000. That removes protections for thousands of Native American cultural sites, some as many as 13,000 years old.

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Nature 552, 13-14 (2017)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-07794-5

References

  1. Swarts, K. et al. Science 357, 512-515 (2017).

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