URGENT ACTION
Urge Secretary Haaland to fulfill the Honoring Chaco Initiative
The Greater Chaco landscape continues to be ravaged by oil and gas development and nearby communities continue to experience the ongoing impacts of industrialized fracking. Interior Secretary Haaland took a major step to protect this region by issuing a 20-year administrative withdrawal that bans new oil and gas drilling on unleased federal lands within a 10-mile buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, but there is still more to do. The Honoring Chaco Initiative (HCI), which seeks to identify solutions to address the need for landscape-level reforms through a new collaborative process, must resume and be completed to protect and restore the cultural integrity of all of Greater Chaco and its communities.
Take action and urge Secretary Haaland to follow through on her promise to Honor Greater Chaco. While a ban on fracking within 10 miles of Chaco Canyon is a step in the right direction, we need landscape-level safeguards that prioritize public health, economic and environmental justice, equity, and sustainability.
NEWS
December 15, 2023 · Chaco Canyon,Oil and Gas,Greater ChacoNovember 14, 2023 · BLM,Oil and Gas,Chaco Canyon,FrackingMore PostsFrack Off Greater Chaco is a collaborative effort between Indigenous community leaders, Native groups, nonprofits, and public lands and water protectors across the southwest and the country working to stop fracking in Greater Chaco.
The Greater Chaco Region is a checkerboarded area of Tribal, state, federal, and allotment land. The Bureau of Land Management has approved more than 500 new fracking wells without adequate Tribal consultation or protections for community health, water and climate impacts. Fracking development threatens ancient Chaco culture and sacred sites and also Navajo people and living communities in the area who have been dealing with the impacts of resource extraction for decades.
Video: San Juan Citizens Alliance
GREATER CHACO HYDROGEN CONCERNS
SAVING CHACO CANYON
Podcast from Paradigms
Chaco Canyon and the Greater Chaco Area (25 million square miles) are among the world’s most treasured sacred and archaeological sites, but the region is threatened by fossil fuel extraction. In this 2-part Paradigms we will learn from Native people involved in resisting the expansion of drilling and fracking in the Greater Chaco Area.
In Part 1 we hear from Emily Bowie of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, Daniel Tso, and Beata Tsosie-Pena who works for Environmental Justice.
Part 2, we will hear from a New Mexico State Legislator Derrick Lente, Executive Director of Salmon Ruins Museum Larry Baker, Eric Blinman Director of the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies, and Preservation Archaeologist Paul Reed.
"The oil and gas development has pretty much destroyed our way of life. Our livestock are suffering too. I have been a livestock owner for many years. I made my living by raising sheep and cattle. Now, I am being told by BLM I can only have so many sheep and cattle. My grazing area is getting less and less. But BLM is leasing more and more of the lands to oil and gas development. Soon, there will be nothing left. I believe this is going to happen. My biggest concern is our water, sooner or later it will be contaminated and we will not be able to use our water. How can we get these companies out?"
- Diné Elder, Woody Keetsy, Sr.
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