Timeline of Extractive Colonialism & Indigenous Resistance

We’re here telling the colonial history of New Mexico. Before Spanish and American colonizations, the Indigenous people here, our ancestors, lived and thrived off of this landscape and were never given a chance to evolve their technologies and never given the chance to enjoy ourselves as Indigenous people. 

Fossil Fuel extraction is an example of the symptoms that come from colonialism. It’s important to make this connection as the entire Indigenous struggle has and is still resisting colonialism. We see Indigenous relatives across turtle island putting themselves between developers, energy corporations, and the federal government to protect the lands that have been stewarded by them and their ancestors since creation. 

This timelines is to retell the state of New Mexico’s real history and how colonialism has bolstered the oil and gas industry, leading us into climate crisis and the continued resistance of Indigenous people across the globe. 

Timeline

Creation - 900’s BC - Indigenous ancestors steward Chaco Canyon landscape 

900s BC - First evidence of settlement in Chaco Canyon

200’s AD -  First Kivas 

700’s AD - Small houses 

850 - 1250 - Chaco as Thriving World Trade Center 

1150 - 1250 - Migration, movement to establish Pueblos

1452 - Doctrine of Discovery 

1492 - Columbus Arrival

1540 - 1542 Coronado Expedition 

1542 - 1730 - Indian slave trade/encomienda system 

1540 - 1541 (Winter) - Tiguex War 

1598 - First documented meeting of Pueblo leadership (Onate) 

1599 - Battle of Acoma

1600’s - Diné settle in the Chaco Region

1500 - 1680 - Spanish Colonization 

1620 - Canes to Pueblo leadership 

1680 - Pueblo Revolt

1692 - Spanish Recolonization 

1775 – 1783 American Revolutionary War

1776 - United States of America becomes a country

1819 - Civilization Fund Act

1824 - BIA, Dept of War

1830 - Indian Removal Act

1830 - 1850 - Trails of Tears

1846 - 1848 Mexican- American War

1846 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1849 - 1886 Apache Wars

1849 - Dept of War becomes Dept of Interior  

1850’s - Present - Coal Mining starts

1853 - Gadsden Purchase

1861 - 1865 Civil War

1862 - Homestead Act

1862 - Transcontinental Railroad Act

1863 - Lincoln Canes 

1863 - 1866 - The Long Walk

1872 - General Mineral Act 

1876 - U.S vs Joseph 

1877 - Desert Land Act

1880 - First Train arrives in Tewa Territory

1880 - 1988 - Boarding School Era

1887 - The Dawes Act 

1894 - Carey Act

1902 - Bureau of Reclamation

1906 - Antiquities Act 

1907 - National Park Service designates Chaco a national monument 

1908 - Winters Doctrine

1910 - Bureau of Mines established

1911 - Present - Era of Fossil Fuel Extraction

1911 - First Oil Discovered - Seven Lakes, McKinley County, NM

1912 - Statehood for NM

1916 - National Park Service

1914 - 1918 World War I

1920 - Mineral Leasing Act

1920 - First production of uranium in New Mexico

1921 - First completed gas well in NM

1921 - Gas at Ute dome - first commercial gas usage at Aztec

1921 - Bursum Bill

1922 - Pueblo Leadership Oppose the Bursum Bill  

1922 - Oil at Hogback

1924 - First completed oil well in NM (SE)

1924 - The Snyder Act

1924 - Pueblo Land Claims Act

1924 - Oil at Bloomfield, Rattlesnake, and Red Mountain Colorado. Three-inch pipeline completed from Hogback to Farmington 

1926 - 1950 - Oil discovery in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico - pipeline development during this time 

1934 - Taylor Grazing Act

1939 - 1945 World War II 

1942 - Manhattan Project

1944 - Red Power Movement

1945 - Trinity Test site, downwinders

1946 - Interior's General Land Office and Grazing Service become Bureau of Land Management

1951 - Discovery of oil in the Mancos Shale - Rio Arriba County, NM 

1953 - 1982 - Jackpile Mine Laguna Pueblo

1964 - Wilderness Act

1966 - National Historic Preservation Act

1968 - American Indian Movement

1969 - National Environmental Policy Act 

1970 - Return of Blue Lake

1971 - Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

1973 - Endangered Species Act

1975 - Energy Policy and Conservation Act

1975 - Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act

1976 - Federal Land Policy and Management Act, BLM oil and gas program 

1976 - Federal Land and Policy Management Act

1977 - Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

1979 - Archaeological Resources Protection Act

1979 - Church Rock uranium disaster Rio Puerco * 

1980 - Designated National Historic Park

1987 - Chaco UNESCO World Heritage Site

1987 - Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act

2005 - Energy Policy Act

2021 - Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Department of the Interior