{"id":6106,"date":"2026-04-02T13:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/?p=6106"},"modified":"2026-04-02T13:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:06:54","slug":"stewardship-of-greater-chaco-is-nonnegotiable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/stewardship-of-greater-chaco-is-nonnegotiable\/","title":{"rendered":"Stewardship of Greater Chaco is Nonnegotiable"},"content":{"rendered":"

America the Beautiful For All Coalition Admonishes Proposed Mineral Withdrawal Revocation<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PARA PUBLICACI\u00d3N INMEDIATA<\/strong>: 4\/2\/2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACTO PARA MEDIOS<\/strong>: Cumbia Padilla, GreenLatinos Communications Coordinator, cumbiapadilla@greenlatinos.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington <\/strong>\u2013 On Tuesday March 31, the U.S. Department of Interior proposed revoking<\/a> the 2023 20-year mineral withdrawal encompassing the Greater Chaco Region of New Mexico where the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located. If revoked, lands within 10 miles of the national park would become subject to oil and gas leasing. Interior has opened an insufficient 7 day public comment window ending April 7, 2026 for consideration of the mineral withdrawal revocation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mineral withdrawal is the result of a robust public process spanning 150 days and resulting in over 160,000 public comments<\/a> calling for the withdrawal. In November 2025, the New Mexico delegation issued a formal letter<\/a> to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, preceded by the April 2025 reintroduction of the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act<\/a> which would permanently withdraw the region from leasing and extraction of oil, gas and minerals. On June 17, 2025, The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) adopted a resoluci\u00f3n<\/a> calling on Congress to ratify this legislation. The All Pueblo Council of Governors<\/a>, representing 19 Pueblo nations in New Mexico, has consistently called for a mineral withdrawal in this area of immense cultural significance. NCAI has also supported the withdrawal since at least 2017<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, members of the America The Beautiful For All Coalition issue the following statements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe are appalled at the utter lack of respect for New Mexico\u2019s lands, people, and cultures that the Trump Administration continues to exhibit. By removing protections from the sacred lands of the Greater Chaco region, the administration is showing a disregard for our people and lands in favor of wealthy corporate donors profiting from extracting from these beautiful and holy lands. We admonish this terrible decision to forego the wishes of Pueblo communities as well as our own Congressional Delegation,\u201d said Carlos Matutes, GreenLatinos New Mexico State Director.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTens of thousands of citizens spoke up for Chaco\u2019s mineral withdrawal because this is the kind of place that we want in our children\u2019s future: places for healthy air, thriving wildlife, twinkling night skies, and learning about this landscape\u2019s extraordinary history spanning thousands of years in Chaco Canyon, evidenced by geographic formations and ancestral great houses, kivas and landmarks. Great Chaco is sacred to the Pueblo communities. We will continue to defend it from this administration,\u201d said Shantha Ready Alonso, America The Beautiful For All Coalition Executive Director.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The Chaco Culture National Historical Park represents a significant part of the cultural history of this continent and must continue to be preserved and protected. The administration's attempt to short-circuit federal law with a reduced public comment period represents a significant betrayal of the promise of America: we must honor and defend significant historical sites like Chaco Canyon, defend Tribal sovereignty, and not sell public lands off to the highest bidder for oil and gas drilling that will endanger the remarkable evidence of an important native culture that thrived there. Defiling Chaco Canyon in this way will send a signal that nothing in this country is precious and everything is worth only what it can be sold for, and it will deprive all people from learning the stories of the Native people who have lived here since time immemorial,\" said Charlotte Overby, New Mexico-based Vice President of Conservation Field Programs at the Conservation Lands Foundation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cChaco Canyon and the Chaco Region are treasured and significant cultural, spiritual, and historic sites. Protection of landscapes must extend far beyond the protection of ecologically, geologically, or environmentally significant areas\u2014it must also consider the essential and time immemorial sacred connection of humans to landscapes,\u201d said Teresa Martinez, Executive Director of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Am\u00e9rica La Coalici\u00f3n Bella Para Todos<\/a> is the largest and most representative national coalition working to stem nature loss for communities with the most at stake through community-led solutions for the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and access to nature.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America the Beautiful For All Coalition Admonishes Proposed Mineral Withdrawal Revocation FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 4\/2\/2026 MEDIA CONTACT: Cumbia Padilla, GreenLatinos Communications Coordinator, cumbiapadilla@greenlatinos.org Washington \u2013 On Tuesday March 31, the U.S. Department of Interior proposed revoking the 2023 20-year mineral withdrawal encompassing the Greater Chaco Region of New Mexico where the Chaco Culture National Historical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1527,"featured_media":6107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[74],"federal_programs":[124],"state_region":[126],"class_list":["post-6106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-press-releases","federal_programs-public-lands","state_region-southwest"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6112,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106\/revisions\/6112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6106"},{"taxonomy":"federal_programs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/federal_programs?post=6106"},{"taxonomy":"state_region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenlatinos.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state_region?post=6106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}