Diné and Pueblo Frontline Community Leaders Stand United in Condemning Federal Attack on Chaco Canyon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 16, 2026
Contact
Emerald Sage, Director of Communications, Sovereign Energy, 443-952-1114, emerald@sovereignenergy.org
Marissa Naranjo, Deputy Director, Sovereign Energy, marissa@sovereignenergy.org
Cheyenne Antonio, Community Leader, c.antonio40@gmail.com
Mario Atencio, Torreon Community Alliance, 505-321-9974, mpatencio@gmail.com
Daniel Tso, Diné allotment shareholder, 505-567-0289, 49detso@gmail.com
Diné and Pueblo Frontline Community Leaders Stand United in Condemning Federal Attack on Chaco Canyon
The Draft Environmental Assessment targets sacred lands, ignores Tribal sovereignty, and is an attack on community health.
Santa Fe, NM––Late Wednesday evening, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) quietly released a document that will have major consequences for the future of the Greater Chaco Region and frontline communities. The Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) on Public Land Order No. 7923 (PLO 7923) proposes to eliminate the hard-won 10-mile buffer zone around Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. Established in 2023, this buffer zone protects federally managed land from new mineral leasing. Diné and Pueblo frontline organizers, the All Pueblo Council of Governors, and Indigenous-led organizations, including Sovereign Energy, call on the BLM to keep the 10-mile buffer in place.
“Already, those living in the Greater Chaco Region face health, cultural, and environmental hardships due to the oil and gas leasing and drilling near their homes. Our communities have paid for oil and gas with our health. With already 91 percent of the public lands in the region leased to extractive energy companies, our children and elders suffer daily,” said Daniel Tso, Diné Allotment shareholder and elder. “Bypassing a full Environmental Impact Statement and rushing the review process is environmental racism. The BLM must halt its attack, listen to the communities impacted by drilling, and meaningfully consult with all Diné allottees, all local Diné leaders, and Pueblo leadership.”
The Greater Chaco Region encompasses a vast, living, and sacred landscape that contains archaeological, cultural, and natural features of critical importance to Pueblos, Diné, and Tribes. Navajo Nation Chapters and Diné community members living in the Greater Chaco region have advocated for environmental, cultural, and community health protections for more than a decade, including formal resolutions, letters, and testimony. Navajo-led research, including the 2021 Counselor Health Impact Assessment, documents serious and disproportionate health harms from oil and gas development. Diné families, especially children and elders, face cumulative exposure to hazardous air pollutants, spills, truck traffic, and industrial activity, including development near schools such as Lybrook Elementary.
“Removing the protections around Chaco Canyon is a direct assault on the living, sacred landscape, communities that live and worship there, and Tribal sovereignty,” said Cheyenne Antonio of Pueblo Pintado. “Decades of tireless organizing, meetings, and ethnographic studies won the buffer zone and protections for part of this sacred landscape. Now, the federal government is disregarding our voices and pushing through a proposal in direct opposition to Indigenous voices. We will not allow our work and voices to go unheard.”
Public Land Order (PLO) 7923 withdraws over 330,000 acres of federal lands within the Greater Chaco Landscape from new oil, gas, coal, and uranium leasing for 20 years. The BLM acknowledges that there is coal and uranium potential in the area, but it declines to analyze these impacts because it does not foresee development of coal or uranium in the next 20 years. However, several companies are attempting to develop uranium at nearby sites. And currently, there are 129 active mining claims within the buffer zone (for uranium and other minerals), but no coal leases.
The withdrawal area is based on the 10-mile Chaco Protection Zone proposed in federal legislation, which was developed over many years through government-to-government consultation, community input, and environmental analysis. Pueblos, Tribes, and Indigenous frontline leaders insist that any federal action affecting the Greater Chaco landscape must include meaningful consultation with Tribal Nations and engagement with Navajo Chapters, allotment owners, and affected communities. A general 14-day comment period following the EA draft does not constitute meaningful consultation. In response to the BLM’s failure to consult local communities, Indigenous groups and leaders are organizing a door-to-door community campaign to reach Indigenous communities across the Southwest.
“Expanded oil and gas leasing is a direct attack on the land and people in the Greater Chaco Region. The area the federal government wants to drill on is home to Diné communities, whose families, livelihoods, ceremonies, and daily lives are rooted within this landscape,” said Marissa Naranjo, Deputy Director of Sovereign Energy. “The Greater Chaco Region is essential to Pueblo and Diné identity, cultural continuity, and the exercise of self-determination. Our Diné and Pueblo frontline community members stand together in fighting this legacy of extraction.”
The DOI’s timeline undermines public and Tribal participation and threatens Tribal sovereignty, cultural protection, and community health. The BLM only gave 7 days for the public scoping period and now only 14 days for the Draft EA public comment period. Two weeks is not enough time for Tribal governments and experts to properly assess the 140-page document and develop detailed comments.
The public comment period is being held as the BLM continues to hold quarterly oil and gas lease sales in the Greater Chaco region through the Farmington and Rio Puerco Field Offices. The next sale is proposing to lease 12 parcels of ancestral lands totaling 16,855.5 acres on August 19, 2026, with a public protest comment period closing on July 29. Additionally, the Trump Administration is proposing to essentially rescind the 2024 BLM Oil and Gas rule, which would further threaten the integrity of the Greater Chaco Region.
The All Pueblo Council of Governors is calling on the public to submit comments in support of maintaining the buffer zone. Indigenous organizations have created a toolkit that helps members of the public learn more about the issues and how to submit a comment.
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