This story appears in the November 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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Inside the new battle for the American West
The push to cut back federally protected lands is fueling a dispute rooted in our history and culture. The big question: Whose land is it?
Arch Canyon is still protected within Bears Ears National Monument, but other canyons and thousands of Native American archaeological sites now lie outside the monument’s newly reduced—and still contested—borders. The monument is named after the twin buttes on the horizon, which are held sacred by local tribes.
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