November 6, 2025
Contact:
Keegan King, keegan@native-lands.org, 505-910-0712
Hannah Sizelove, hannah@team-arc.com, 240-226-6436
Pueblo Leaders Cry Foul as Trump administration rushes to undo Greater Chaco Canyon Protections
Department of the Interior sent letter that disregards Tribes’ customs and traditions
Last week, the Department of the Interior (DOI) sent a letter to several Pueblos and Tribes requesting “Government-to-Government Consultation” on the agency’s intention to consider a “full revocation” of Public Lands Order (PLO) 7923, which protects the Greater Chaco Landscape from future oil and gas leasing on federal lands.
All Pueblo Council of Governors Chairman Dominic Gachupin, said, “The All Pueblo Council of Governors is dismayed to learn that the Department of the Interior has begun the process to revoke Public Land Order 7923, the 10-mile buffer zone which surrounds Chaco Canyon. For decades, the Pueblos have stood strong and in unison in our desire to protect Chaco Canyon and the Greater Chaco Region from the impacts of oil and gas development on ancestral Pueblo cultural resources. Together, the Pueblos of APCG, the State of New Mexico, and even the Navajo Nation, prior to their change in position, came together to craft the protections enacted by Public Land Order 7923. Chaco Canyon will always be revered and respected as a sacred place by Pueblo people, and we will use our collective voice to continue the fight.”
The letter identifies “full revocation” as the “preferred” action, negating nearly a decade of meetings and compromises from dozens of Tribes that led to the 20-year mineral withdrawal within 10 miles surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. DOI sent the letter while the government is shut down and as many Pueblos are preparing to select new leaders and are busy focusing on upcoming and sensitive cultural activities. DOI continues to advance its oil and gas priorities during the shutdown, issuing hundreds of drilling permits on New Mexico’s public lands while failing to provide basic government services that Tribal communities rely on. The letter also says the agency will only offer an abbreviated 14-day comment period for the general public.
“The Department of the Interior – Bureau of Land Management’s announcement to begin the process to consider revoking PLO 7923 so soon after it was put in place disregards years of advocacy and the clear purpose of the withdrawal: to protect the living heart of our culture,” said Pueblo of Acoma Governor Charles Riley. “Any attempt to reopen these lands would place irreplaceable cultural resources at risk and undermine the federal trust responsibility to our people. Acoma stands in firm opposition to revocation and calls on the Department to honor government-to-government consultation and support permanent protection surrounding Chaco Canyon.”
In addition to the Pueblo Tribes, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) issued aresolution in support of PLO 7923. As one of the oldest and largest organizations serving the tribal governments and communities, the resolution read, “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NCAI urges the Secretary of the Interior to defend and fully implement Public Land Order No. 7923, and encourages sustained cooperation with the New Mexico State Land Office and tribal governments to preserve the landscape’s cultural integrity…”
Background on Chaco Canyon
Opening the lands in Greater Chaco Canyon to expanded oil and gas development would not only desecrate sacred ground, it would also harm the local economy and public health. In 2023 alone, visitors to Chaco contributed over $3.2 million in economic output and supported dozens of jobs in surrounding communities. This economic activity is founded on preservation, not extraction.
The public health consequences are just as serious. Oil and gas operations contribute to water and air pollution, respiratory illnesses, and other poor health outcomes, particularly for children, including preterm births, birth defects, and some childhood cancers. These burdens fall hardest on Native communities already facing environmental injustices. In San Juan County, within the Greater Chaco Region, more than half the Native American population lives within a half-mile of a production site.
Further, revoking the withdrawal would undermine long-standing state efforts to protect this important landscape. In 2019, the New Mexico State Land Office set aside 73,000 acres of state lands in the Chaco withdrawal area from future oil and gas leasing and extended these protections for an additional twenty years in 2023.
Chaco Canyon has always been a place of reverence, memory, and resilience, and deserves to be protected for generations to come.
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