Drilling Around Chaco Canyon Prohibited

The Department of Interior has decided to prohibit new oil and gas leasing within ten miles of the famed indeginous cultural site [photo credit: Getty Images] of Chaco Canyon for two years. Officials will consider a proposal to withdraw federal land in the area from development for a twenty year period. Conservation groups and tribal members have pressured the Department to take administrative action to protect the site which holds cultural significance for native peoples in the southwest. Secretary Deb Haaland is the first native American to hold cabinet rank and is a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. 

The World Heritage site is considered to be the center of a major civilization built in alignment with the seasonal movements of the sun and moon. The ruins are dotted with circular rooms, called kivas, cut into the floor of the canyon. These are believed to have been used in religious ceremonies. UNESCO recognized its, “monumental public and ceremonial buildings and its distinctive architecture – it has an ancient urban ceremonial centre that is unlike anything constructed before or since”.The buildings of Chaco were abandoned about 1200AD by the ancestral Puebloans.

the great house at Chaco

For years the San Juan basin was known to be seeping natural gas, but the play heated up when a previously unexploitable oil shale layer was opened by fracking and directional drilling in 2013. Development interest has been high since then. The local BLM office admits that interest exceeds anything they projected in their plans. Archeologists are worried that in the rush to extract natural resoureces, sites of significant value will be lost. The National Congress of American Indians called for a moratorium on more drilling throughout the Chaco region. The preivous adminsitration aggressively sought to open up more federal land, including protected areas such as wildlife refuges and national monuments, to development as part of its "energy independence" policy,  Visitors to the site can hear oil pump jacks working less than a mile away.

The BLM, which manages the land around Chaco Cultural National Historic Park will gather environmental data and public comment for the next two years concerning the proposed withdrawal.   More archeologically and culturally significant sites are thought to exist around the Chaco ruins. Protecting Chaco from oil development has been an on-going battle for decades. Secretary Haaland supported withdrawal when she was a member of the House of Representatives. Withdrawal is complicated by the checker-board of land ownership surrounding the Park. Most of the land is owned by the Navajo Nation or individual Navajo allottees. The Nation is seeking a smaller withdrawal zone to protect the financial interests of individual tribal members. Navajo leaders say they ready to work with the Biden administration on the proposal to permanently protect Chaco from development.