GREATER CHACO PROTECTION MUST GO BEYOND THE 10-MILE BUFFER
The Greater Chaco Coalition is launching an online letter writing campaign to collect comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed withdrawal of 351,479.97 acres of public land from future mineral leasing within approximately 10-miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, within the Greater Chaco Landscape, for a period of 20 years. BLM has initiated a 90-day public comment period on this mineral withdrawal, with comments due by April 6, 2022.
There is widespread support for protecting cultural resources and public health across the Greater Chaco Landscape, but more oil and gas drilling continues to be approved. Over 91% of available public lands in the Greater Chaco region are already leased for oil and gas extraction. This reaffirms the impetus to recenter land management planning on the needs of impacted communities and Tribal Nations to whom this region is sacred, regardless of whether the proposed 10-mile buffer moves forward.
As New Mexico families struggle to stay healthy, the Obama, Trump, and now Biden administrations continue to recklessly frack the remaining unleased lands in the Greater Chaco region.
The Greater Chaco Coalition is supportive of protecting lands within 10 miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park from future oil and gas leasing and drilling, but much more must be done to assure the protection of the Greater Chaco region at large and the meaningful involvement of impacted communities and Tribal Nations in this process.
Take action today and tell BLM that while a ban on fracking within 10 miles of Chaco Canyon is helpful, ultimately we need landscape-level safeguards to protect and restore the cultural integrity of all Greater Chaco and its communities.
Submit a comment to BLM today and demand Greater Chaco Landscape Protections!
Image: Pueblo Action Alliance
Op-Ed: The Fight Continues In Protecting The Greater Chaco Region
By
Kaylene Loretto, PAA Cultural Lands Organizer and Lauren Howland, PAA Environmental Justice Organizer
On November 15, 2021, The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that steps will be taken to protect The Greater Chaco Region. This announcement was not only unprecedented but a pivotal moment for Indigenous peoples and grassroots organizations who have been advocating for the protection of The Greater Chaco Landscape for decades. However with this win, the work doesn't stop here....
Image: Pueblo Action Alliance
A Collaborative White Paper Produced By The UCLA Tribal Legal Development Clinic and Pueblo Action Alliance
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Beginning on 2020, PAA and the UCLA Tribal Legal Development Clinic joined together to work on a white paper to discuss the shortcomings of federal policy that are supposed to protect Indigenous people’s right to religious freedom, cultural and historic preservation, environmental and natural/cultural resource protection and environmental justice. This paper provides a discussion of co-management or co-stewardship strategies that provide tribes the jurisdictional authority over how public lands and it’s natural resources are managed. Using the example of the movement to Protect the Chaco Region, the white paper explores other policy mechanisms like Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to ensure Indigenous nations are at the table when it comes to managing our lands and waters…
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Special shoutout to the UCLA Tribal Legal Development Clinic and Diné C.A.R.E. for their contributions to the fight to protect the Greater Chaco Region!
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Click on the button below to read the full white paper and to access the free downloadable version of this popular education piece.
#ProtectGreaterChaco #Frackoffchaco
Greater Chaco Coalition Celebrates New Path Forward for Landscape Protection
Indigenous Leaders to D.C: Demand Biden END the Fossil Fuel Era!
Join People vs Fossil Fuel in Washington, D.C. from October 11-15th and demand that Biden stand against fossil fuels.
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“This fight is more than just protecting our earth mother, protecting our water mothers, it's about protecting our cultural integrity, it’s about protecting cultural knowledge for future generations.”
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#ProtectGreaterChaco #Frackoffchaco#NoNewLeases #peoplevsfossilfuels
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Learn more at peoplevsfossilfuels.org
Click the button to sign up and participate!
Chaco Will Never Be Ruins
Official Online Chaco Zine!
This zine holds up-to-date information regarding the current political, physical and spiritual environment surrounding Chaco Canyon. This form of extractive colonialism is yet another example of how environmental racism continues to destroy life on Pueblo-Indigenous Land.
This educational information is available to download via google drive. We ask for our community to pass the knowledge by sharing this zine on any platform possible. Chaco will NEVER be "ruins".
Violence on the Land is Violence on our Bodies
93% of the public land surrounding the Chaco Canyon ancestral village has already been leased out for oil and gas productivity. Hydraulic Fracturing“Fracking,” has been the method of oil and natural gas extraction. This violent penetration done on our Earth Mother has discreated the landscape similar to violence perpetrated on Indigenous womxn.
Fracking has caused adverse health impacts to the frontline Indigenous communities that live within the Greater Chaco region. These illustrations layout the discretion that land extraction has on the body. Poor air quality incited by Greenhouse Gas Emissions affects the respiratory system that causes life-long disruption to the breath.
We demand an end to the fossil fuel extractive economy that continues violence against the land and people.
#NoNewLeases #UNDRIP32 #Protectthepeople #LandBack #WaterBack #CommunityDefense #Solidarity #ProtectGreaterChaco #ProtectChaco #FrackoffChaco #Frackoff
Chaco Op-Ed: Written by Julia Bernal (Sandia Pueblo)
Land, water, and mineral colonial resource exploitation is a reoccurring reality on the stolen ancestral lands of the Pueblo, Dine and Apache people; what is known now as the Greater Chaco region (San Juan Basin) has been heavily fracked by oil and gas industry. As we have seen in the most recent weeks, we live within the violence of the white settler state. And the system created by European invasion has continued to oppress Indigenous, black and people of color. We see no different when it comes to the violence inflicted on the land in the form of resource extraction. Violence on the people is violence on the land.
Public Forum on Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Program
VIRTUAL PRESS CONFERENCE - Wednesday, April 14, at 8:15am (MST).
Representatives from New Mexico communities impacted by oil and gas extraction and environmental advocates will hold a press conference to discuss the climate, health and social impacts of the federal fossil fuel leasing program as well as issues of cultural integrity and Tribal consultation.
COVID-19 & Fracking: CLASHING PANDEMICS IN THE GREATER CHACO REGION
January 14th, 2021
Bureau of Land Management Santa Fe, New Mexico
Timeline of Extractive Colonialism & Indigenous Resistance
Build Back Fossil Free
“The Greater Chaco landscape, as well as many other Indigenous ancestral landscapes, have throughout history experienced the violence of extractive colonialism.”
“Chaco holds a significance place in creation for the 23 tribal nations in so called New Mexico. Yet, it’s global centrism has grativated our relatives from the north and south of Turtle Island. Indigenous peoples’ have migrated, traded, shared ceremonies and songs, seeds, and feathers on the land and within the walls of Chaco. Today, it has continued the opportunity to create sacred spaces, bring generations together, and continue the sharing of knowledge. Chaco is our home, Chaco will never be ‘ruins’, and we demand the liberation of this sacred place.”
- Julia Bernal Sandia Pueblo, Alliance Director
Educate to Liberate
Protecting the Greater Chaco Region has brought together those from different walks of life to collaborate, build solidarity, and educate communities on the negative impacts of oil and gas extraction and development. Once historic adversaries, the solidarity between Diné and Pueblo people has strengthened through the advocacy to protect the Greater Chaco Region. Pueblo Action Alliance has worked to build trust relationships with the Navajo Tri-Chapter House Coalition and other indigenous organizations.
To learn more about our Popular Education workshops, click the link below.
The Greater Chaco region has been victimized to present day colonial land grabs and continued exploitation of cultural resources. Resulting in the poisoning of the air, water, and soil. Our Earth Mother has never given consent to the violence inflicted on her. Violence on the land is violence to our bodies. We demand the end of extractive colonialism.
Greater Chaco Film
Pueblo Action Alliance is excited to share information about the upcoming Chaco film. With the efforts to protect the Greater Chaco region; It is our pleasure to invite you to check out the website, read up on the current state of our fight, and encourage others to get excited for the film! Visit the website with the link provided below and follow the social media accounts for updates.
