November 4th, 2025
For Immediate Release
Greater Chaco Coalition Condemns Further Sacrifice
Statement in response to efforts to expand leasing and drilling in the Greater Chaco Landscape
In response to a letter from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sent to Tribal governments on October 30, 2025, stating the BLM would initiate a process to revoke an administrative mineral withdrawal for future oil and gas drilling within a 10-mile buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the Greater Chaco Coalition issued the following statement:
“The Greater Chaco Coalition condemns the Trump Administration’s move to revoke the 10-mile mineral withdrawal, as well as its renewed push to lease ancestral lands within the Greater Chaco Landscape outside of the 10-mile buffer for oil and gas extraction. Local communities have been experiencing a devastating increase in drilling activities that threatens their health and the health of the land. The Greater Chaco Coalition once again calls for holistic protections for the entire Greater Chaco Landscape and its communities, including an end to fracking, remediation and reclamation, and meaningful investments in regenerative local economic opportunities and a just energy transition, grounded in the principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.”
Background:
The Greater Chaco Coalition was established to support and raise visibility of the courageous environmental justice advocacy of Indigenous advocates, Navajo Allottees, Navajo Chapters, the Eastern Navajo Agency Council across multiple Navajo Presidential administrations. Millions of people, including the entire New Mexico Congressional Delegation, the National Congress of the American Indians, and the New Mexico House of Representatives, have all taken action to support the call to protect the peoples and sacred places of the Greater Chaco Landscape against increased oil and gas extraction. The landscape is so holy that the Navajo Nation and the All Pueblos Council of Governors, in two historic summits, affirmed and reaffirmed the need to limit industrial fracking to protect the sacred Greater Chaco Landscape.
The Greater Chaco Coalition has long supported calls from local Chapters of the Navajo Nation government requesting that oil and gas activities in the Eastern Navajo Agency be stopped until the cumulative environmental and public health impacts of fracking are thoroughly studied and addressed. To this day, the Bureau of Land Management has still not evaluated the cumulative harms of extraction to the land, air, water, people, and the climate.
On November 6th, the BLM will host an online oil and gas auction in New Mexico. Parcels up for lease in the state include more than 3,838 acres in the Greater Chaco region, as well as nearly 5,000 acres in the Greater Carlsbad area. While New Mexico families are struggling without SNAP benefits, BLM continues to lease stolen ancestral lands during a government shutdown.
With nearly 40,000 wells across the Greater Chaco Landscape, frontline communities in this region are already overburdened. The November lease sale will exacerbate the many harms of oil and gas extraction that frontline and Diné communities experience every day, including dangerous air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, toxic spills of liquid waste, destruction of sacred sites and places, degradation of local roads vital for community transport, and elevated risks to public health. Moreover, the BLM has failed to meaningfully consult with impacted and Indigenous communities on this lease sale.
The Trump Administration’s actions not only threaten irreplaceable sacred cultural sites, they also endanger the health of the local Diné people. Oil and gas wells are well known to emit cancer-causing chemicals and produce toxic and radioactive waste. Local communities have conducted preliminary health impact assessments, providing commonsense policy recommendations to mitigate the harms of extraction on the health and spiritual wellness of the local Diné. Moreover, local communities and allies have insisted for years that the protection of the entire landscape — inclusive of and beyond the withdrawal area – is paramount.
Additional Statements from Coalition Members:
The Diné People are rooted in the Land, Water, Air, and Fire/Sunbeam. It is incredibly disappointing for the US Department of the Interior to consider rescinding the 10-mile buffer around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park for future oil and gas drilling. Why can’t it be understood that more extraction of natural resources impacts our climate and the spiritual relationship between natural elements and the health of our relatives? Let’s break the cycle of failed promises regarding the public land sell-off and the neglect of producing a comprehensive cultural landscape management plan. The Greater Chaco landscape is sacred, and protection is vital for our future generations.
– Hazel James-Tohe, Diné Matriarch, Coordinator, Diné Centered Research & Evaluation (DCRE)
“Again, we are back at potentially desecrating a spiritual and Holy place on Mother Earth. All for greed and money. Where are the thoughts for our next Seven Generations, and into antiquity, to protect sacred Chaco Canyon for Humanity to experience and feel into the future? Some of us need to reassess our Indigenous ways of life and participation on Mother Earth. Do we really want to see puddles of black oil and gas waste, destruction of the landscape, and continue to breathe the toxic fumes that are a threat to all life? Removing the ten-mile buffer would be a travesty for all Inhabitants of Mother Earth. Protect the Greater Chaco region and our beloved Chaco Canyon!”
– Terry A. Sloan, Director, Southwest Native Cultures
We are appalled at the utter lack of respect for New Mexico’s lands, people, and cultures that the Trump administration continues to exhibit. By removing protections from the sacred lands of the Greater Chaco region, the administration is showing a disregard for our people and lands in favor of wealthy corporate donors profiting from extracting from these beautiful and holy lands. We admonish this terrible decision to forego the wishes of Diné communities as well as our own Congressional Delegation.”
– Carlos Matutes, New Mexico State Director of GreenLatinos
“For years, advocates and impacted community members have called on federal agencies to protect the cultural integrity of the Greater Chaco landscape and community well-being from fracking. Now, under a second Trump administration that is blatantly calling for public lands to be sold off for corporate polluter interests and turn back the clock on climate action, it’s urgent that we permanently protect this sacred landscape from further desecration, as well as the health of communities already overburdened by oil and gas drilling. We will continue to support local efforts to protect the Chaco Culture National Historical Park and the broader landscape and public health.”
– Camilla Feibelman, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter Director
“This is a stunning failure of governance and justice. By moving to revoke the mineral withdrawal and push new leasing in the Greater Chaco region, the Trump Administration is once again prioritizing fossil fuel profits over public health, climate stability, and the protection of our shared public lands. After years of community engagement through the Honoring Chaco Initiative, the Bureau of Land Management has failed to deliver the promised comprehensive cultural landscape management plan — and is instead reverting to the same extractive status quo that has devastated Diné communities and the sacred Greater Chaco Landscape for decades.”
– Rebecca Sobel, Climate and Health Program Director for WildEarth Guardians
“The Trump administration’s attacks on this modest 10-mile protection zone are beyond unreasonable. More than 90% of Greater Chaco is already either industrialized by oil and gas extraction or promised to industry for more drilling in the future. We will continue to push for community protections in intensively overexploited areas such as Greater Chaco so we may all enjoy a healthy, livable future in which our leaders prioritize environmental justice.”
– Rose Rushing, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center
Sponsors
Torreon Community Alliance, San Juan Citizens Alliance, Chaco Alliance, Southwest Native Cultures, NM GreenLatinos, Earth Ethics, Inc., Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians, Western Environmental Law Center, Navi Pin Haa Un Muu / Breath of My Heart Birthplace, Daniel E. Tso, former Navajo Nation Council Delegate
Featured image: Flare at an oil and gas well site in the Greater Chaco region. Photo credit Miya King- Flaherty