Monument Valley, San Juan County, Utah, Navajo Nation

WHO’S THE BOSS IN UTAH’S BEARS EARS COUNTRY?

A seemingly intractable political and cultural battle rages amid the spires of this iconic American landscape. A chapter in the larger struggle is playing out after a “historic” election put a Navajo majority on the San Juan County, Utah, commission.

Part 1: County governance merges with pro-Bears Ears National Monument and tribal activism

Part 2: Separation of church and state and the role of Native American traditions, spirituality in determining Utah residency

Part 3: Can even a Navajo majority county commission mitigate Third World conditions on the Utah side of the reservation?

Part 4: One commissioner’s career in squishy tribal governance

The Canyon Country Zephyr published a version of this report.

Part 1

When Willie Grayeyes and Kenneth Maryboy took their oaths of office in January, San Juan County, Utah, became the first in Utah to have a local governing majority of Native Americans and one that comprised activists who have played a leading role in a bitter multiyear, multimillion dollar political campaign to create and now litigate Bears Ears National Monument.

Its “historic” status survived an initial legal challenge that alleged Grayeyes was not a resident of Utah and…