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| The Monument needs your help! Below is a message from Marietta Eaton, former Bureau of Land Management Science Advisor for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, expressing a practical way YOU can help protect GSENM. Dear Reader, I hope we’ve crossed paths in our shared love for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where I worked from 1997 to 2003. That time shaped my deep connection to the Monument and its extraordinary scientific and cultural legacy. I’ve remained engaged through its many ups and downs, and I’m reaching out now with a personal request: please join me in urging the Secretary of the Interior to protect this remarkable place. Its archaeological and paleontological treasures are again threatened, and your voice can make a difference. We’re reaching out with an urgent and heartfelt request: please help us shine a light on the irreplaceable cultural and scientific value of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM). This time-sensitive appeal is a way to use your voice. This is not just a stunning landscape—it is a living archive of prehistoric life, ancient and historic cultures, and paleontological treasures. Fossils, sacred sites, and stories embedded in these lands cannot be priced or replaced. These are not resources to be extracted; they are remnants of our shared human history, fragile and sacred. Once destroyed, they are gone forever. We ask you to do one powerful thing: write a handwritten personal letter. Please address it to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum (see address below) and send it in a handwritten envelope, using any color but black (which helps the letter stand out during sorting and signals a personal touch). Mail it ASAP, so our voices arrive in unison—a wave of individual messages, unified in time and intention. We borrow inspiration from the Pueblo Revolt—when cords were passed from village to village, each knot counting down the days to collective action. When the last knot was untied, the people rose. Those cords were more than messages; they were lifelines, braided with purpose and hope. These letters are our cords—a peaceful resistance against the commodification of public lands, and a reminder that these are Indigenous homelands, still vital to the well-being and sovereignty of Native communities. A letter is a small act. But it can be a mighty one. It doesn’t need to be long—just sincere. We’ve attached a few samples to spark your thoughts, but your words and connection to this place matter. If even 100 of us take the time to write, we might cut through the noise of the digital age with something timeless: a personal appeal from one human to another. Please consider forwarding this to others who care. We are not asking for donations. We are asking for voices—for action, for presence. Please forward to your network. Let’s remind the Secretary that Grand Staircase-Escalante is worth protecting—not for what it might yield, but for what it already is: a rare and wondrous chapter of the American story, still unfolding. Thank you for standing with us. The Monument needs us now! Manos Arriba for Monuments, (Hands up for Monuments). Address to: Doug Burgum U. S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington DC 20240 – Marietta Eaton |
