DuBois column - Chaco Canyon and land lost to the feds

 

Chaco Canyon and land lost to the feds

Navajos

The New Mexico congressional delegation has reintroduced the ‘‘Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act of 2023’’.  This bill will withdraw all federal lands from oil and gas exploration that are within 10 miles of the national park. At the same time the Secretary of Interior is considering her authority to withdraw this same acreage from all oil and gas leasing. (Section 204 of FLPMA allows for withdrawal of 5000 acres or more for a period of up to 20 years).

Concerning his legislation, Senator Martin Heinrich says, “Chaco Canyon is one of the most important living cultural landscapes on the planet. It holds deep meaning for Pueblo people and many New Mexicans.”

Even Gabe Vasquez, our new Congressman for southern New Mexico says, “The Chaco Canyon and the Greater Chaco Region are not just significant landscapes, but they are the footprints of our ancestors and hold deep meaning for many Tribes, Pueblos, and communities in northern New Mexico.”

Senator Heinrich is fond of saying his environmental bills are locally driven, but he doesn’t say that about this one. Could it be that the largest landowner affected by this bill opposes it?

That’s right, the Navajo Nation opposes this 10-mile buffer, which they estimate would encompass 351,000 acres. The Nation had received resolutions from four different Chapters (Pueblo Pintado, Whitehorse Lake, Lake Valley and Nageezi) opposing the land withdrawal and the establishment of any buffer zone. In April of this year they passed a resolution stating the withdrawal “would have a detrimental impact on Navajo allottees by preventing the development of new oil and gas resources on allotments as a result of the allotment being landlocked.” One estimate is they will lose $194 million over the next 20 years.

On Interior’s administrative withdrawal process, the Western Energy Alliance says, “. They have failed to hold adequate tribal consultations and listen to the voices of the Navajo Nation in the immediate vicinity of Chaco while giving preference to Sec. Haaland’s and related Puebloan tribes hundreds of miles away.” The alliance also claims that Interior Secretary Haaland has several conflicts of interest including “Sec. Haaland’s daughter works for the Pueblo Action Alliance, an organization that helped coordinate a violent anti-oil-and-gas protest at Interior headquarters and has aggressively lobbied to advance the Chaco withdrawal.”

I should add here that three of Heinrich’s bills were recently passed by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. They are the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic River Act, the Buffalo Tract Protection Act (Sandoval County), and the Cerro de la Olla Wilderness within the Río Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico. 

Language or land

A recent New York Times article by Simon Romero was titled New Mexico is Losing a Form of Spanish Spoken Nowhere Else on Earth. The article gives an interesting history on New Mexican Spanish, or what linguists call Traditional New Mexico Spanish or the Spanish dialect of the Upper Rio Grande Region, and drawing a contrast between it and the more Mexican-influenced Spanish of southern New Mexico.

Concerning the future for those speaking this type Spanish, the author then veers off saying “economic forces” have “fueled an exodus” from the “aging northern villages.” He also sights other threats, such as the largest wildfire in the states’ history and issues associated with “climate change”

What never seems to be told is, one of the "economic forces" that has "fueled an exodus" is the federal government itself.

The feds have taken away their land and water, and disrupted centuries of tradition.

It is not just their language that is being lost. Through federal ownership or control of the land and water, the entire history and culture of this area is on the chopping block. Communities have been crippled, families torn asunder, and small businesses destroyed. It is a shameful blight upon the federal enterprise.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation