Libertarian Advocacy Goes Native

Traditionally a handshake seals the deal between two parties. Some business transactions – like those involving realty – require an actual contract if courts are ever called to enforce them. Yet the hope remains that both parties will perform their obligations under the agreement by honor alone.

And if only for the faith which one wants to have in one’s own country, this transactional reliance on hope is paramount when the contract’s opposite party is the government itself.

In December 2016, President Barack Obama issued Proclamation 9558, which reserved around 1.35 million acres for two national monuments in the state of Utah; Bears Ears, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante, 118 miles (190 km) due west. The Proclamation invited the five surrounding sovereign nations of the Navajo, the Zuni, the Hopi, the Utes and the Ute Mountain Tribe to manage Bears Ears by way of electing representatives to a Commission. The U.S. Forestry Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would administer Bears Ears in close consultation with the tribal Commission, which thereby granted the tribes a managerial stake in the land which their ancestors had long stewarded.

All land is unique, but especially so with Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante. These are breathtaking canyons hollowed out by glacial flows, exposing layered sediment like the very building blocks of North America. Vast mesas supporting unique ecosystems and microclimates inhabited by rare birds and reptiles. Stunning buttes rise from valleys like silent skyscrapers shaped by G-d’s own hand. Nestled under crags and in grottos are the ancient dwellings of the civilizations which called Bears Ears home. The land is of incalculable value for ecology, geology and anthropology.

But easy come, easy go. In December 2017, President Donald Trump [45] countermanded his predecessor by reducing the two monuments’ acreage by 90%. In October 2021, President Joe Biden overrided Trump by restoring and expanding Obama’s grant to the monuments. In June 2022, BLM contractually formalized its agreement with the tribal commission (called the Bears Ears Commission) to co-manage Bears Ears for posterity. Yet in June of this year, President Trump [47] unilaterally rescinded the contract by reducing Bears Ears Monument to 9% of its acreage.

The “authority” – if it can so be called – for ping-ponging a chuck of territory nearly the size of Connecticut from the federal government to tribal sovereigns and back again, rests on the Antiquities Act of 1906. This was the legislation whereby progressives in Congress established the national parks in the hopes of preserving some of the American frontier before it was all paved underneath parking lots for Woolworth’s. It is debatable whether a visitor to lands held in trust cares which entity does the conservation (e.g., the national government, state, tribal nation or private entity), but the plain fact is that the U.S. government contracted with five tribal sovereigns to manage the land, shook their hand, then broke faith with them.

As previously stated, any citizen hopes that his own government abides by the terms of its agreements with him. Amerindians hope that even more fervently being that the U.S. government has a blemished record of honoring its promises to these people.

The Trump Administration, for its part, claims that its revocation of the grant is due to national security. Turns out that in addition to the grant’s value to ecology, geology and anthropology, uranium and petroleum lay in the subsurface. The administration seems to presume that the Tribal Commission would reject all mineral extractions from Bears Ears, but that may not be the case. The Commission may welcome extractions as a source of revenue and for tribal jobs, presuming that the extractions are conducted in ways which minimize environmental impact.

Ideally this transaction could have been structured as a sale to pass title definitively to the Tribal Commission. The BLM could have requested a nominal sum of $1 per acre, and surely the five tribal sovereigns have $1.36 million liquid or could finance it easily. That would prevent the land from yo-yoing back to the national government after every presidential election. Nevertheless, the U.S. government entered into contract with the five tribal sovereigns, and it should be unable to dissolve that unilaterally.

This is the cause which the Libertarian Party’s Vice-Chair Amanda Griffith has espoused, and the party is urged to exert influence towards resolving the revocation in the Tribal Commission’s favor. Since all Libertarians reject the notion that government is free unilaterally to change the terms of the contracts it enters, it comports with our mission to embrace this cause and advocate on the five tribal sovereigns’ behalf.

This advocacy follows a resolution which the Libertarian National Committee unanimously passed on July 5th, 2026, which commits the party to integrating tribal sovereigns to the party as entities akin to state affiliates. Thus, if there are enough Seminoles who join the Libertarian Party, they could petition for creation of an affiliate to represent the Seminole Nation and would not have to rely on the Libertarian Party of Florida for representation.

Whether this is a solution in search of a problem remains to be seen. Hopefully Cherokees and Lakotas in droves are mailing membership applications to the Libertarian Party and requesting recognition of tribal affiliates. It is impossible to say one way or another since Amerindians as a demographic are difficult to generalize. Some reservations are impoverished, whilst others are flush with cash from casinos or undertaxed commerce. Some are very isolated, whilst others more regularly interact with outsiders. What is certain is that the legacy parties pay mere lip service to tribal sovereigns – like Democrats’ formulaic and performative land acknowledgements before public functions – but neither legacy party invites tribal sovereigns to participate as full-fledged state-level representatives for their people, which means that this is a constituency which the LP should court.

The resolution of July 2026 for tribal integration comes long after Tony D’Orazio similarly proposed that the LP establish affiliates in U.S. protectorates, like American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. The legacy parties do include affiliates for such territories, which means that Mr. D’Orazio was prescient about the need for the LP to solicit participation from freedom-lovers in those jurisdictions.

To the issue at hand, LP Vice-Chair Griffith and Alex Flores, LNC Representative for Region 9 (Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada) urge those interested in holding the national government to its commitment regarding Bears Ears Monument, to contact the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which will coordinate demonstrations and other advocacy. Insofar as the national government purports to speak for all Americans, we should never allow it to close a deal with a handshake… only to hold its other hand behind its back with fingers crossed!