Despite Conflict of Interest, Interior Secretary Issues Legally Vulnerable Chaco Decision

​DENVER – Western Energy Alliance today denounced Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s decision to withdraw lands from oil and natural gas leasing for the next 20 years around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The Interior Secretary ignored the Navajo Nation’s compromise proposal and her own conflicts of interest.
 
“Despite her conflicts of interest, Secretary Haaland announced a withdrawal of land around Chaco that threatens the livelihoods of 5,500 Navajos near the park. She completely ignored the democratic resolutions of the sovereign Navajo Nation whose lands surround the park to put the interests of her tribe, based a hundred miles away, and obstructionist groups first,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance. “The decision prevents Navajo property owners from accessing the oil and natural gas resources they own which provide them with their sustenance. Secretary Haaland didn’t even consider the Navajo compromise proposal when conducting the NEPA analysis necessary to support this decision, which leaves her and the Interior Department legally vulnerable.”

Last month, the Navajo Nation voted to reject any buffer around Chaco Canyon. By doing so, the tribal government withdrew its previous support for a smaller five-mile buffer that the Interior Department failed to consider during the legally required review process. In the resolution, the 25th Navajo Nation Council stated, “If the buffer zone is adopted, the Navajo allottees who rely on the income realized from oil and natural gas royalties will be pushed into greater poverty.” The economic costs of Interior’s land withdraw and prohibition of oil and natural gas leasing will cost Navajo members an estimated $194 million over the next 20 years. Exposing the secretary’s fallacy that it will not impact Navajo lands, the Council noted that the withdrawal will cause Navajo lands to be landlocked and inaccessible to development.
 
Sec. Haaland has several conflicts of interest related to Chaco as the Alliance pointed out in a recent letter to the House Committee on Natural Resources. The secretary’s conflicts involve her daughter’s ties to the climate group Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA). While ignoring the Navajos during the review process, Sec. Haaland granted PAA special access to her office to further her daughter’s lobbying activities.
 
The ten-mile buffer around Chaco Canyon has been pushed by activist groups and far-removed Puebloan nations, one of which the secretary is a member of, for several years. Their proposal failed to gain the support of the Navajo Nation whose lands immediately surround the park. The following provides a brief history of major actions:
 

• Congress has not passed legislation to implement a ten-mile buffer (map) around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park despite members of the New Mexico delegation and the former chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources introducing the Chaco Heritage Area Protection Act several times since 2019.

 

• In January 2020, the Navajo Nation passed a resolution in opposition to the legislation and in support of a five-mile buffer as a compromise.

 

• In September 2021, the ten-mile buffer was included in an early House version of the Build Back Better Act. Leaders of the Navajo Nation Council sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting consultation with lawmakers before a vote could take place. The provision was stripped out of the bill.

 

• In November 2021 at a White House Tribal Nations Summit, President Joe Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the Department of the Interior would initiate a 20-year withdrawal of federal lands for oil and natural gas leasing through the federal rulemaking process.

 

• A week later, during a visit by Sec. Haaland to Chaco Canyon, the Navajo Nation Council said, “The Biden Administration and Congress did not hear from our Navajo families and made a decision that will affect them with no formal consultation,” according to the Navajo-Hopi Observer.

 

• In a November 2021 letter to Sec. Haaland, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer wrote, “By simply bypassing true and inclusive tribal consultation with the Navajo Nation and our Individual Indian Allottees, the Biden-Harris Administration is markedly undermining the trust responsibility they owe to the Navajo Nation and the 22,000 Individual Indian Allottees impacted by this decision.”

A compromise is also supported by members of the surrounding community. In April 2022, the commissioners in San Juan County, New Mexico, passed a resolution opposing Interior’s ten-mile buffer and instead supported the compromise five-mile buffer supported by the Navajo Nation.

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