Bears Ears National Monument, Relationship, and the Rhetoric of Public Lands

This dissertation examines the rhetoric of public lands through three case studies related to Bears Ears National Monument (BENM). I argue that a central part of what makes public lands rhetorical are the relationships that people have with the lands, or the experiences, interactions, and meanings that they associate with the land. Chapter Two examines how relationship to land affected the debates over the Utah Public Lands Initiative (PLI), an important precursor to the monument, and the role of three key terms––wilderness, compromise, and certainty––in the debates over the PLI. Chapter Three examines three versions of the monument and argues that the relationships of five Native American Tribes to the land can be precisely calibrated to the size of the monument’s boundaries. Chapter Four argues that a way that settler colonialism operates rhetorically is by subsuming Indigenous relationships to land under settler relationships.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Smith, Joshua

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tell, Dave

• Rhetoric
• Bears Ears National Monument
• Environmental Rhetoric
• Native American Rhetoric
• Public Address
• Public Lands
• Settler Colonialism

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:18438

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/35693