The Diné Pueblo Solidarity Coalition held a rally today outside the Bureau of Land Management office in Santa Fe to speak out against the Trump administration's plans to potentially eliminate or remove environmental protections around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Currently, mineral mining and oil and gas drilling are prohibited in a 10-mile zone around the park, commonly known as Chaco Canyon. Today is the last day the public can submit comments through the BLM's website regarding planned changes to the protections. Rally organizers estimate that roughly 250,000 comments have been submitted opposing the changes.
Marissa Naranjo of the Santa Clara Pueblo and Sovereign Energy spoke about the ways that extractive industries can pollute Indigenous communities and damage sacred sites. She said that removing the protection would be more than just bad policy.
"That's a slow form of erasure and cultural genocide," Naranjo said. "It's environmental injustice. It's violence on our communities that we've had to endure for centuries that we've been fighting against in unity for very, very long time."
Julia Bernal of the Pueblo Action Alliance claimed that over 90 percent of the land in the Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape is already being leased for oil and gas extraction.
"How much more oil and gas does the Bureau of Land Management actually need at the expense of people's lives?" she asked.
Bernal inspired cheers when she said that more Diné and Pueblo people need to be in leadership positions to protect places like Chaco Canyon.
"And that is our call, and that will always be our call, because we're not going anywhere," Bernal said.
