🌍 Extracting Our Souls: Trump's War on Public Lands and Indigenous Futures

Delve into shocking statistics about National Park Service staffing cuts and the alarming intersection of capitalism and environmental degradation.

😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾

Current policies led by former President Trump 🏛️ are tearing apart the environmental protections 🌍 that have safeguarded public lands for generations. This assault not only negatively impacts national heritage areas 🏞️ but also threatens Indigenous communities 🪶 whose histories and identities are deeply interconnected with these landscapes. As shocking statistics 📊 reveal job losses in the National Park Service 👮‍♂️ alongside increased park visitation 👣, the urgent call to action 📣 emphasizes the need for organized resistance ✊ and community engagement 💪 to protect these sacred spaces 🕊️ from corporate exploitation 💼.

🗝️ Takeaways

• 🌱 Exploitative policies threaten sacred land and Indigenous sovereignty.

• 📉 National Park Service has seen a 20% decline in staffing and 3,500 jobs lost since 2010.

• 📊 Over two-thirds of Arizona voters reject reduced protections for national monuments.

• 🌍 The Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni monument is a vital source of cultural heritage for twelve Indigenous nations.

• ✊ Activism is needed more than ever. Support Indigenous-led efforts and participate in local discussions.

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Extracting Our Souls: Trump's War on Public Lands and Indigenous Futures

Borderlands Dispatch - February 2025

The Landscape of Resistance

Another morning, another colonial bulldozer revving its engines.

Let me tell you something, compañeros - what's happening to our public lands isn't just policy. It's spiritual warfare.

President Trump's latest moves are a calculated assault on the very ground beneath our feet, a systematic dismantling of environmental protections that have taken generations to build. This isn't just about acres or resources. This is about the soul of our collective landscape.

The Human Cost of "Unleashing" Energy

When Trump signed the "Unleash American Energy" executive order, he didn't just issue a policy document. He issued a declaration of war against Indigenous territories, environmental sustainability, and the very concept of public good.

Consider Brian Gibbs, a park ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument. Fired on Valentine's Day, eight months into what he called his "dream job" - an environmental educator suddenly locked out of his work email, his entire purpose reduced to a bureaucratic footnote. His words echo like a prophecy:

"You're losing people that are keeping the bathrooms clean, the trails maintained. You're losing people who are teaching youth the value of protecting and preserving these places for current and future generations."

And isn't that always how colonization works? Erasing the caretakers, the storytellers, the knowledge keepers?

By the Numbers: A Landscape Under Siege

Let me break down the brutal mathematics of environmental destruction:

• 20% decline in National Park Service staffing between 2010 and 2023

• 3,500 full-time jobs eliminated

• 16% increase in park visitation during the same period

Capitalism's perverse equation: Maximum exploitation, minimum human care.

Sacred Lands, Disposable Narratives

Take the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni monument - a name that translates to "where Indigenous peoples roam" in Havasupai, "our ancestral footprints" in Hopi. This isn't just a piece of land. This is a living testament to survival, to memory, to resistance.

The monument protects territories sacred to twelve Indigenous nations:

• Havasupai

• Hopi

• Hualapai

• Kaibab Paiute

• Las Vegas Paiute

• Moapa Paiute

• Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah

• Navajo Nation

• San Juan Southern Paiute

• Yavapai-Apache

• Pueblo of Zuni

• Colorado River Indian Tribes

And now? It's potentially on the chopping block of extractive capitalism.

The Intersectional Nightmare

This assault isn't just about land. It's a multidimensional attack on:

• Environmental justice

• Indigenous sovereignty

• Labor rights

• Climate resilience

• Generational healing

We are watching systemic violence unfold in real-time, and the battleground is our very existence.

The Bitter Irony of "Public Opinion"

Here's a punch of statistical reality:

• Over two-thirds of Arizona voters oppose reducing national monument protections

• 80% support the Baaj Nwaavjo monument

And yet, here we are. Corporate interests continue to override community will.

Resistance: Not a Moment, But a Movement

Earthjustice attorney Heidi McIntosh captures the brutal truth:

"Rather than protecting the cultural treasures, world-renowned fossils, historic places, and one-of-a-kind ecosystems... this administration wants to sell these lands to the highest bidder."

Our ancestors didn't survive genocide for us to lose our lands to another corporate land grab.

Call to Powerful Action

This is where you come in, mi gente. This is not a time for despair. This is a time for organized, strategic resistance.

1. Educate: Dive deep into the true history of these lands

2. Amplify: Center Indigenous voices in environmental discussions

3. Organize: Support local Indigenous-led conservation efforts

4. Resist: Attend federal and local listening sessions

5. Fund: Contribute to legal funds fighting these land grabs

6. Vote: Support candidates who respect Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice

Your Turn, Compañeros

I want to hear from you. Drop a comment below and tell me:

1. How are these land policies impacting your community?

2. What local resistance efforts are you part of or know about?

The land remembers. And so do we.

¡Hasta la victoria siempre!

— Your Borderlands Chronicler 🌵✊🏽

Resistance is not a sprint. It's a generational marathon.

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