Greater Chaco Delegation Joins Red Road to D.C., Calling for End to Environmental Racism
Greater Chaco Delegation Joins Red Road to D.C., Calling for End to Environmental Racism
Journey to Protect Greater Chaco continues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2021
Washington D.C. - A delegation of Diné and Pueblo members of the Greater Chaco Coalition arrived in Washington D.C. to stand with other Indigenous delegations as part of the Red Road to D.C.,representing themselves and their nations in advocating for the protection of their cultural landscapes and communities. Delegates that represent the Greater Chaco Landscape include T Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (Diné CARE), Pueblo Action Alliance, Native American Voters Alliance Education Project (NAVA) and members of the Navajo Nation Tri-Chapter House consortium.
Indigenous delegations from all over Turtle Island have gathered to advocate for their stricter and stronger protections for their cultural landscapes. Part medicine journey, delegates from the Greater Chaco Landscape are calling for justice and an end to the era of sacrifice zones in the face of federal agency actions that continue a legacy of extractive colonialism and assault against communities. Greater Chaco Coalition members are calling on the Biden Administration to finally address the legacy of oil and gas and other extractive industries that have adversely impacted the people, the land, water and air of the Greater Chaco region.
For over a century, the federal government has quite literally treated the Greater Chaco Landscape like a national energy sacrifice zone and the Diné people experience disproportionate impacts due to the presence of ongoing extractive industries. With a recent boom of industrialized fracking across the landscape, New Mexico has become the second largest oil producer in the United States, with more than 91% of available lands in the Greater Chaco area leased for fracking.
The Greater Chaco Coalition is calling forthe Biden Administration and Department of Interior Secretary Haaland to finally address environmental justice in the region and fundamentally reform the federal fossil fuel leasing program, including providing remediation and clean up of landscapes like Greater Chaco, centering all federal management activities on the free, prior, and informed consent of inherited and sovereign Indigenous tribes and frontline communities.
Contact: Julia Bernal, Pueblo Action Alliance Director, julia.f.bernal@gmail.com, 505-220-0051
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