Brooke LarsenA week after President Donald Trump reduced Bears Ears National Monument by 91%, federal agencies are taking down signs outside of the new boundaries — and removing seals of five tribal nations from those that remain.
“The removal of the Bears Ears National Monument signs and Tribal seals is the physical manifestation of last week’s proclamation,” Davina Smith–Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said in a statement Wednesday.
The seals were added to the roadside monument signs in 2022 when the federal government and five tribes — Hopi, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Ute Mountain Ute and the Zuni — signed a cooperative management agreement for the monument.
The Bureau of Land Management confirmed in a statement to The Tribune that it has begun implementing the new monument boundaries, including removing signs at the former boundary and tribal seals.
(Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition) The Bureau of Land Management began removing the seals of five tribes from the Bears Ears National Monument signs on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. President Donald Trump shrank the monument for a second time on July 13, 2026 and disbanded the Bears Ears Commission, which consisted of representatives from five tribes.
(Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition) A Bears Ears National Monument sign was removed from Highway 95 in southeast Utah on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. The Bureau of Land Management began removing signs after President Donald Trump shrank the monument boundary on July 13, 2026.
“Those signs represented something meaningful: years of relationship-building, trust, and the hope that Tribal Nations and federal agencies could move forward together in the care of Bears Ears,” Smith–Idjesa said.
The five tribes previously represented on the sign made up the Bears Ears Commission, which was established by President Barack Obama when he designated the monument in 2016 and guided the management of the monument.
Trump’s latest Bears Ears executive order disbanded the commission.
“The seals were a recognition of the Bears Ears Commission, which has been disbanded and terminated,” the agency wrote in an email. “The BLM will continue to consult with tribal nations in accordance with applicable laws.”
(Bureau of Land Management) A sign marking the boundary of Bears Ears National Monument with seals for the five tribes that make up the Bears Ears Commission during the sign unveiling on June 18, 2022.
The latest actions from Trump follow years of political tug-of-war over the monument boundaries. Trump first shrank the monument in 2017. Biden restored and expanded it in 2021.
The Bears Ears landscape has been sacred to tribes for time immemorial.
“They may be able to remove the signs and take down the Tribal seals, but they cannot erase who we are, our connection to Bears Ears, or our responsibility to protect it,” Smith–Idjesa said. “Bears Ears remains a living cultural landscape, and our commitment to this place continues.”
(Ani Pham) People protest President Donald Trump shrinking Bears Ears National Monument at the monument sign near Bluff before the tribal seals were removed on Monday, July 20, 2026.
