Ryan Zinkes Official Portrait A Final Slap In The Face To Native American Tribes

When then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke traveled to southern Utah in May 2017 to visit a pair of protected national monuments, he surrounded himself with advocates for dismantling, if not entirely erasing, those sites.

He toured Bears Ears National Monument not with members of the Native American tribes that consider the landscape sacred, but staunch opponents of the Obama-era monument. He gave representatives of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, made up of the five tribes that petitioned for the monuments designation, just a one-hour meeting. And when an indigenous woman confronted Zinke about why he hadnt spent more time talking with tribal leaders as part of his review, he shook his finger in her face and forcefully ordered her to be nice and dont be rude.

True to form, Zinke commemorated his scandal-plagued tenure atop the federal agency this week with a portrait of himself riding a paint horse beneath a towering butte in Bears Ears shortly before he and President Donald Trump gutted protections. It is based on a picture of Zinke during his 2017 visit and was unveiled during a ceremony Wednesday at the Interior Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Attendees, including Zinkes wife and former Navy intelligence officer Donald Bramer, posted pictures of the event to social media.

(Well get to that fiery snake battle pic in a minute.)

Defense contractor lobbyist says he enjoyed catching up with former Interior Secretary Zinke and his wife \"at the unveiling of his official and 'un-official' portrait(s)\" https://t.co/BcBZaMuoJp

So, um, which portrait is the official one? pic.twitter.com/aHoxXfyAfN

Corbin Hiar (@CorbinHiar) December 9, 2020","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Corbin Hiar","author_url":"https://twitter.com/CorbinHiar","cache_age":86400,"description":"Defense contractor lobbyist says he enjoyed catching up with former Interior Secretary Zinke and his wife \"at the unveiling of his official and 'un-official' portrait(s)\" https://t.co/BcBZaMuoJpSo, um, which portrait is the official one? pic.twitter.com/aHoxXfyAfN Corbin Hiar (@CorbinHiar) December 9, 2020\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Corbin Hiar on 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Defense contractor lobbyist says he enjoyed catching up with former Interior Secretary Zinke and his wife "at the unveiling of his official and 'un-official' portrait(s)" https://t.co/BcBZaMuoJp

So, um, which portrait is the official one? pic.twitter.com/aHoxXfyAfN
Corbin Hiar (@CorbinHiar) December 9, 2020

Zinke was secretary of Interior from 2017 to late 2019, when he resigned under a cloud of ethics scandals. His replacement, David Bernrhardt, is a former oil, mining and agricultural lobbyist who has furthered the administrations assault on environmental rules.

Named after a pair of buttes and home to thousands of Native American archeological and cultural sites, Bears Ears was the first monument established at the request of tribes to honor and protect Native American heritage. In December 2017, on Zinkes recommendation, Trump shrunk the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears boundary by 85% and the nearby 1.87 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument roughly in half, opening the door for oil, gas and other development across large areas of previously protected lands.

Brent Cotton, the Montana artist and dear friend of the Zinke family who painted the portrait, told Billings radio station KBUL that the piece includes a nod to [Zinkes] respect of the native Americans tribes (sic) in the band of the hat. (Aaron Weiss of the Center for Western Priorities pointed out the hat appears to be on backwards something Zinke famously did in real life .)

Definitely the north end of a southbound hat. pic.twitter.com/PS7BRUJpHa

Aaron Weiss (@aweiss) December 9, 2020","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Aaron Weiss","author_url":"https://twitter.com/aweiss","cache_age":86400,"description":"Definitely the north end of a southbound hat. pic.twitter.com/PS7BRUJpHa Aaron Weiss (@aweiss) December 9, 2020\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_hide_thread":{"label":"Hide previous Tweet in conversation thread","value":true},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":2030,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoxTrS-XUAEFANq.jpg:large","thumbnail_width":2048,"title":"Aaron Weiss on 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Definitely the north end of a southbound hat. pic.twitter.com/PS7BRUJpHa
Aaron Weiss (@aweiss) December 9, 2020

Zinkes supposed respect for tribes was no doubt lost on the tribes that pleaded with him to leave Bears Ears alone. When Zinke recommended in July 2017 that Trump dismantle the monument, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition condemned it as a slap in the face to the members of our Tribes and an affront to Indian people all across the country. And when Trump followed through and signed a proclamation to shrink the site, Ethel Branch, the attorney general for the Navajo Nation, slammed the move as absolutely shocking and totally disrespectful of the decades of work that went into establishing Bears Ears.

In many ways, the portrait perfectly captures what is widely seen as Zinkes most controversial action and his lasting legacy: rolling back public land and environmental protections to the benefit of extractive industries and undermining tribal sovereignty .

In his statement to KBUL, Cotton said he hoped the portrait will be well received by all.

Not surprisingly, the response has been anything but positive.

Zinkes official portrait is the last gasp of a fading swamp creature, Shaun Chapoose, a member of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee and representative of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, told HuffPost. He testified to Congress that tribal sovereignty means something while he ignored the clear statements of five sovereign tribal governments that the Bears Ears landscape needs and deserves protection.

His official portrait, Chapoose added, is another desperate attempt to rewrite history. What you dont see, what he doesnt tell you, is that we are still here defending and protecting our lands. If you look real close, we are there waving goodbye as he is run out of Bears Ears on the horse he rode in on.

In a scathing statement Tuesday, Rep. Ral Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, called the portrait a petty monument to a petty man, an intentional final insult to tribes he disrespected and entirely consistent with his smug, unethical, condescending tenure at the agency.