Protect Greater Chaco
For Immediate Release
Contact: Julia Bernal
Alliance Director, Pueblo Action Alliance
julia.f.bernal@gmail.com
November 10th, 2020
Collective Statement from Pueblo Action Alliance on the Removal of Chaco Protections within the Senate’s Appropriations Bill for FY2021
Pueblo Action Alliance is demanding that protections be put in place to stop oil and gas leasing within the 10 mile buffer of Chaco Canyon. The FY2021 Appropriations Bill prepared by the Senate Republicans does not contain the preexisting language, supported by the sovereign tribal nations and many others, that prohibit the BLM from leasing federal lands within roughly 10 miles of Chaco Canyon. This is the only policy provision which was removed from the CR in the Interior Bill, while the Majority retained riders on sage grouse, BIA and Monuments. This is a direct attack on Tribal capacity during a global pandemic, reveals how off the rails the oil and gas industry has been managed under the Trump administration, and disregarded the requests by the Pueblos and Navajo sovereign nations.
Our demands:
We demand that protections be restored for Chaco.
We demand increased funding for Indigenous Communities – increasing funding to be on par with the House Mark and to assure that places that are sacred have the resources to be properly interpreted and protected
We demand meaningful tribal consultation and consent, especially during a global pandemic
We demand an ethnographic study be conducted by participating sovereign nations before further oil and gas development proceeds
We demand that any parcels within the 10 mile buffer auctioned for the December land lease sale be cancelled