ACOMA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — Native American leaders are banding together to pressure U.S. officials to ban oil and gas exploration around a sacred tribal site that features massive stone structures and other remnants of an ancient civilization but are facing the Trump administration’s pro-drilling stance.
Creating a formal buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park has been a long-running issue, but tribes are pushing for further protections as U.S. officials revamp the management plan for the area surrounding the world heritage site as well as large portions of northwestern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
Federal officials repeatedly have denied drilling leases within a 10-mile radius of the park as tribes, environmentalists and archaeologists have raised concerns about the potential effects on culturally significant sites like ceremonial structures called kivas outside Chaco’s boundaries.
A thousand years ago, the site was a ceremonial and economic hub for the Pueblo people, historians say.
Tribes gathered Thursday at Acoma Pueblo, a Native American community about 60 miles west of Albuquerque, amid an All Pueblo Council of Governors meeting to reaffirm support for protecting the land.