This year, the All Pueblo Council of Governors, a body composed of 19 sovereign
Pueblo nations, hosted a historic summit between the Pueblo governors and the
president and vice-president of the Navajo Nation to focus attention on how all
tribal nations in the Southwest can work together to protect sacred sites in the
Greater Chaco Canyon region.

In the 400-year history of the council, this is the first time the Navajo Nation was
represented. This historic meeting, held at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in
Albuquerque, was convened to facilitate further government-to-government
consultation with federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau
of Indian Affairs and National Park Service, over actions or management plans that
may affect Chaco Canyon, traditional cultural properties and sacred sites in the
Greater Chaco landscape.

Exactly 110 years ago, in 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt created the 36,000 acre
Chaco Culture National Historical Park, ensuring that many of the region’s most
significant and awe-inspiring ancient ruins were protected for generations to come.
While protection of this park unit was a very important first step, thousands of
archaeological sites lie outside the park throughout the San Juan Basin. Some of
these sites are over 12,000 years old.

This area was historically the center of Puebloan culture and economic life. Over
many generations our people built great houses, astronomical observation sites and
ceremonial kivas across the Four Corners region. These sites continue to be places
of prayer, pilgrimage and a living connection to our ancestors. Our water, our
lands, our culture and our livelihoods depend upon this landscape. All of these
things are threatened as industrial development expands in the San Juan Basin.

As we celebrate the anniversary of Chaco Park, we call on the BLM to increase
protections for the Greater Chaco Canyon. Most of this area is publicly owned land
managed by the BLM. Yet the BLM has already leased 90 percent of the area to oil and
gas drilling. We, as representatives of the Pueblo and Navajo people, are calling on
the agency to protect what’s left, including areas where leased land hasn’t been
developed yet. Around 16,000 oil and gas wells pepper our ancestral landscape, as do
more than 15,000 miles of industrial access roads.

We understand that much of Greater Chaco has already been leased and developed and
that future drilling in the region is virtually certain to continue. But we need
public engagement to make our voices heard as the BLM plans for future management of
lands in the Greater Chaco Region. As the BLM updates its land-use plan, known as a
Resource Management Plan, we have the best opportunity in many years for the BLM to
acknowledge the significance of the Greater Chaco landscape by taking bold steps to
protect the area from future oil and gas development. We urge the BLM in their RMP
process to protect a larger percentage of the lands contained in Greater Chaco.

We do not oppose energy development as a whole – it has positively benefited many
communities in New Mexico. We simply believe it is time to recognize that the BLM
needs to balance energy and development needs with protecting the few areas of our
cultural landscape that remain intact and undeveloped.

Our culture, both past and present, is inextricably linked to our land, including
those managed by the BLM. We continue to have serious concerns about the impacts
incurred by oil and gas development and fear that decisions made by the BLM may
further facilitate development in areas that are more valuable to us when left
undeveloped.

As we celebrate the 110th anniversary of Chaco Canyon Park, join us in calling on
the BLM to create a new chapter of the ancient Chaco story by setting our sacred
sites off-limits to development.

Our Navajo and Pueblo communities look forward to working together on this and other
issues in the future to ensure our ancestral homelands are protected for future
generations.