WASHINGTON – House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) on Friday, July 10 dismissed the historical value of Native American artifacts as a basis for establishing national monuments, as first reported by Greenwire in a story about President Obama’s designation of three national monuments.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah). (Official photo)
“There is nothing that Obama did today that had anything to do with an antiquity,” Congressman Bishop said. “There are criteria for using the act. There is nothing Obama announced that had anything to do with the criteria.”
When asked about the Native American artifacts at the Basin and Range National Monument site in Nevada, including cave paintings, he said, “Ah, bull crap. That’s not an antiquity.”
Ranking Member Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the following statement in response, “The natural and cultural resources protected by these designations are, in fact, antiques; species and trees and rocks and cave paintings and beautiful landscapes are all quite old. We want them to remain antique. House Republicans want them to become extinct.”
Congressman Grijalva thanked and congratulated Obama earlier in the day for his designations of Berryesse Snow Mountain National Monument in California, Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas and Basin and Range National Monument in Nevada.
– Reprinted with permission from Native News Online (nativenewsonline.net)
