Before they headed to Washington, D.C. this week to make their case against oil and gas drilling around the historic Chaco canyon of New Mexico, Native American leaders first did a flyover of what they consider to be sacred land.
Leaders from Tesuque, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Cochiti, Santa Clara, Acoma and Picuris pueblos are trying to make a case with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to keep a 10-mile buffer zone in place around Chaco.
Native Land Institute and Lighthawk, a conservation flight nonprofit organized the flights for some of the Native American leaders in order to give them a bird’s-eye view. The Indian leaders of New Mexico are concerned the Biden administration’s recent consideration of changing the boundaries of no-drilling around Chaco Canyon might result in an invasion of rigs.
Two years ago, the Biden administration implemented a 20-year withdrawal of federal lands from future mineral leases within a 10-mile area around the canyon.
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