LETTER: Let’s quit squabbling over Gold Butte and enjoy it

I watched in semi-amusement, but with some horror at the unnecessary hysteria taking place Thursday night at the BLM Gold Butte National Monument information meeting (Friday Review-Journal). Lost on the anti-monument crowd was a statement by a gentleman of Southern Paiute descent who scoffed at the 200-year resident claims, stating correctly that his ancestors have been in the area much longer.

Let’s face it, their land was taken over by the early European settlers. In my mind cows (welfare cattle), fences, mines, rusted piping, discarded shot gun shells and man-assisted spring flows all pale in the face of preserving our ancestral resident’s stories told on the many rock faces in the area.

We are lucky to have this magnificent piece of 300 million plus years of geologic and human history, located right in our backyard, protected. Let’s us humans quit squabbling and enjoy it while we can.