On July 10 President Obama by proclamation created the Basin and Range National Monument in a remote wilderness region of southern Nevada. At the same, time two other national monuments were created: the Berryessa Snow National Monument in northern California, and Waco Mammoth national Monument in central Texas. Roughly 704,000 acres of undeveloped land, Basin and Range was created in part because it is a repository of ancient Native history, rich with petroglyphs and other archaeological evidence of human habitation going back at least 13,000 years. It is the ancient territory of the Southern Paiute people.

Kudos to President Obama for his foresight to protect such an important cultural heritage place. The site has been used for ranching, military training, and other recreational purposes and will continue to be with the oversight of the Bureau of Land Management. The national monument designation protects it by removing the possibility for the site to be opened to mining and other environmentally destructive processes.

One of the opponents of the Basin and Range proclamation was Representative Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who blatantly referred to it as “bull crap.” Specifically, when asked about the antiquity of the Native artifacts there such as the cave paintings, he said “Ah bull crap. That’s not antiquity.”

If a historical site with artifacts that date back at least 13,000 years can’t be considered “antiquity,” what can? The statement was so asinine that even Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Az.), bless his heart, wrote a commentary in ICTMN to express his concern about congress’ growing hostility toward Indian country in general, reflected in part by Bishop’s absurd claim.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/07/28/rep-ron-bishop-and-real-bull-crap