Protecting Sacred Lands for Culture, Climate and Justice

Most people describe their experience of the deep river canyons, spectacular mesas and deserts of the colorful redrock country of Southern Utah as sacred.  There is no landscape on earth like the awe-inspiring heart of the Colorado Plateau in Utah. And, it is one of the most threatened areas of our national public lands in the US, including proposals for public land sell offs to private interests, rampant off road vehicle use, and mining, oil and gas development.  If left undisturbed, Utah’s wild public lands provide significant carbon sequestration and storage. These lands have been sacred from time immemorial to the Native American Tribes of the Southwest, and beyond. They are cultural landscapes that provide important food and medicine, contain sacred sites for ceremony and rituals,  and hold cultural and archeological resources. Advances made  to protect these vital sacred landscapes including through Tribal co-management are being dismantled by the Trump Administration.  The unique resources of these lands could be lost forever.  However, Native American organizations are working hard to prevent this tragedy.  Will people of faith act in solidarity before it is too late? Hear directly from a Tribal member and organizer, Tara Benally about the meaning  and significance of these lands to Tribes.  Learn why Congressional support from throughout the US is essential to protecting these national public lands in Utah and throughout the West from sell-offs and short-term exploitative use from Travis Hammill, DC Director for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Jenny Holmes, of the PEC Advocacy Committee will share about the 2024 Presbyterian Church, USA  policy to protect and restore Utah’s wild lands and National Monuments – Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, and actions everyone can take to make a difference. 

WEBINAR DATE: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
PRESENTERS: Tara Benally, Travis Hammill, Jenny Holmes

SPEAKER BIOS

Tara Benally, with a long history of advocacy on the Navajo Nation, is committed to issues of health care, education, and economic development. With a background in construction and community resilience, Tara brought her enthusiasm and talents to the Utah Navajo Trust Fund before joining Stewardship Utah as its Field Director. She is involved with Women of Bears Ears and works to educate Navajo youth about the plants that are important to their people through an annual school in Bluff Utah. She serves on the Board of Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Travis Hammill is the DC Director for Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), a wilderness advocacy organization based in Salt Lake City, Utah that works to protect public lands from a myriad of threats that could decimate the natural qualities and cultural resources  of these lands. Travis graduated from George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, VA with a degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution where he taught classes in grassroots organizing through the GMU Carter Center. He lives with his wife and daughter in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Jenny Holmes worked as an organizer for climate justice, public lands and other issues for over 30 years in both secular and faith-based organizations and is a former moderator of Presbyterians for Earth Care and co-chair of its Advocacy Committee. She is active in her congregation’s Earth Care Team at First Presbyterian in Portland, Oregon. One of her most formative experiences in coming to appreciate  Earth’s history was on an extended college trip to Utah to study geology, ecology and anthropology and she has a deep love of the Colorado Plateau ever since.  She holds a Masters of Theological Studies from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC where she studied environmental ethics and public policy.