Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah protects a vast canyon landscape centered on twin buttes long held sacred by Native peoples. Created in 2016, it includes Comb Ridge, the Valley of the Gods, Indian Creek, and other public lands rich in archaeology and cultural history. More than 100,000 sites, including cliff dwellings, granaries, kivas, towers, and rock art, preserve evidence of human presence stretching from Clovis tools to Ancestral Puebloan communities more than 3,500 years ago. Co-managed by federal agencies and five tribes, Bears Ears became a landmark in Indigenous stewardship, while later boundary cuts and restoration made it a major national political issue.