From 2017-2018 I made dozens of journeys to Bears Ears National Monument working on a COVER STORY for National Geographic magazine about several National Monuments that were reduced by dramatic percentages when Trump took office in 2017. Bears Ears took the biggest hit with a reduction of 85% and was a Monument proposed primarily by INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES. It was one giant open air (living) museum with hundreds of thousands of sites of archaeological and spiritual significance within it. I realized quickly that a traditional “flat” story would not work because it would eliminate most of the indigenous voices and would read as pretty postcards for something that was far more complex. With my own funding and time I began working on creating massive photogrammetry models of sites (with the help of my assistant, and later partner, Devlin Gandy) with the idea that we could transport people there without revealing locations, and we could pair those experiences with the narration and songs and prayers of Native elders, medicine people and archaeologists. The end result was a series of VR EXPERIENCES that won the 2019 Webby Award for best Interactive design. You can see an in-depth lecture on the history, the sacred sites, and the culture war surrounding Bears Ears that I gave for Nat Geo Live HERE.