Press Release: Diné allotment shareholders and community leaders go to the Department of the Interior to demand it fulfill its trust responsibilities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 29, 2026

Contact

Mario Atencio, Diné allotment shareholder, mpatencio@gmail.com, 505-321-9974

Vanessa Bowen, Bowen Creative LLC, vanessa@bowencreative.co, 937-931-6788

Press conference recording: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbYjChzkQCp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Diné allotment shareholders and community leaders go to the Department of the Interior to demand it fulfill its trust responsibilities

Frontline delegation flies to DC to meet with federal officials and request they maintain the Chaco buffer zone

Washington, DC–At 12 pm EST, four community leaders with direct ties to the Greater Chaco Region held a press conference outside the U.S. Department of the Interior Headquarters in Washington, DC, to call on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to keep Public Land Order  7923 in place. Established in 2023, PLO 7923 protects over 338,000 acres of federally managed lands around Chaco Culture National Historical Park from future mineral leasing. 

“As a Diné allotment shareholder, my siblings and I have allotments within the Greater Chaco mineral withdrawal area and outside the withdrawal area. So that gives me a before-and-after perspective of the impacts that have happened to the withdrawal area. What I see is that the energy companies are running amok, without proper monitoring or oversight. And if allowed, the energy companies will do the same type of destruction to the land, the air, the water, and the sacred places. What sacred sites are within the withdrawal area? And that is the reason that we are working hard to make sure the public land order 7923 stays in place,” said Daniel Tso, Diné allotment shareholder and former Navajo Nation Council Delegate.

The Greater Chaco region is a vast, living landscape of critical cultural and spiritual importance to Diné, Pueblo, and other Tribes. With nearly 40,000 oil and gas wells across the landscape, Diné people living in the region already experience disproportionate harms from oil and gas extraction, including exposure to hazardous air pollution, toxic spills, industrial traffic, and degradation of the land and sacred places. PLO 7923 provides a modicum of protection for frontline communities and one of the most significant cultural landscapes in the world. 

“For generations, our communities have lived with the consequences of unchecked oil and gas development in the Greater Chaco Region.  The pollution does not recognize boundaries- it moves through air we breathe and water we depend on, placing the greatest burden on our elders, children,” said Wendy Atcitty, Huerfano Community Member of Eastern Navajo. “The BLM Environmental Assessment (EA) does not meaningfully reflect this. We will not be ignored. We will continue to raise our voices and ensure our experiences are heard and considered in federal processes.”

“The federal government’s rushed process directly undermines Tribal sovereignty and the government’s fiduciary duty towards allottees and all Indigenous peoples. Despite federal law requiring meaningful consultation with Tribes, the BLM did not conduct outreach to Tribal communities and limited federal notices to English, barring non-English speakers from engaging with information about the consequential impacts of this proposal. This is illegal and disgraceful,” said Mario Atencio, Diné allotment shareholder. “The federal government must right its wrongs, listen to impacted communities, and keep the buffer zone in place.” 

Diné allottees and community members have rights to clean air and water, access to land and cultural places, and the preservation of their homelands for future generations. But in the BLM’s proposal to revoke PLO 7923, the agency focuses almost entirely on whether revocation would make certain allotments more attractive for mineral development. The federal trust responsibility cannot be reduced to making allotted lands more commercially viable for extraction. For over a decade, Navajo Nation Chapters, community leaders, and allotment shareholders have voiced public health and safety concerns about oil, gas, and mineral development in the region. BLM completely ignores this. 

"The federal government's attempt to revoke Public Land Order 7923 threatens our sovereignty, our culture, and our sacred homelands. Meaningful engagement means listening to Diné communities, providing interpretation in the Diné language, and honoring the knowledge our people have carried for generations. We call on the BLM to uphold its trust responsibilities and protect Greater Chaco for future generations," said Hazel James-Tohe, Director of the Diné Centered Research and Evaluation (DCRE).

While this delegation meets with federal officials in Washington, DC, Diné and Pueblo advocates and allies meet in Santa Fe, New Mexico, outside the BLM’s regional office to protest the buffer zone revocation. Frontline organizers will be giving speeches and collecting comments in support of Greater Chaco protections. 

The frontline Diné delegation to DC calls on the Department of the Interior to recognize and fulfill its fiduciary duty to protect allotment lands, water rights, cultural resources, and community health for current and future generations. The group advocates for an extension to the public comment period on BLM’s proposal to revoke the protective zone around Chaco, and calls for congressional support for durable, landscape-level protections for Greater Chaco led by Diné and Pueblo peoples.