Protecting Greater Chaco

Update: On November 4, 2023, at its 46th annual ceremony, the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded an Emmy to the short documentary film “Protecting Chaco’s 10-Mile Zone,” produced by Archaeology Southwest and David Wallace Visuals. The category was Historical/Cultural Content. It is Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and filmmaker David Wallace’s tenth Emmy. Preservation Archaeologist Paul Reed spearheaded the project, and Istara Freedom provided production assistance.
The film showcases Tribal leaders’ broad support for protecting public lands surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. In their own words, Pueblo leaders Chairman Mark Mitchell (All Pueblo Council of Governors and former Governor of Tesuque Pueblo), Governor Michael Chavarria (Santa Clara Pueblo), Governor Randall Vicente (Acoma Pueblo), cultural leader Octavius Seowtewa (Zuni Pueblo), former Vice-Chairman Clark Wayne Tenakhongva (Hopi), and Diné conservation leader Reyaun Francisco, speak to the living and vital connections their communities have to the Greater Chaco Landscape.
The threat of oil and gas drilling continues to loom over Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the ancestral home to both the Pueblo and Navajo peoples. Tribal communities have fought for decades to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape and its cultural resources and safeguard the health of their families from nearby drilling.
At the start of 2022, the Department of the Interior initiated a process to administratively withdraw roughly 351,000 acres of federal lands and minerals surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park from future oil and gas leasing for a period of 20 years. Now, the Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments on the withdrawal until May 6th, 2022.
Archaeologist Paul Reed and leaders and representatives from the Acoma Pueblo, Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Santa Clara Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, and Zuni Pueblo, who are featured in this film, underscore the broad support for the Biden administration to #ProtectChaco by finalizing it's proposal to withdraw federal lands surrounding Chaco from oil and gas leasing.

[@gwenmartinez7982]

Please sign the public opinion to stop this harmful drilling and any exploration. My family is from this area and we need to preserve this. Thank you!

[@HiDesert004]

Can you share link

[@leephoenix4041]

This is clearly political retribution against Eloise Cobell and all the Native People who won the legal right to be compensated by the Oil and Gas Companies for all the Natural Resources sold off their land. (Cobell vs Salazar 2009)

[@rkba4923]

For some reason, I break down in tears every time I visit Chaco Canyon!!! It's an extremely spiritual experience for me for some reason I don't even understand.

[@johnganshow5536]

I agree, feel the same way. Lots of ancient spiritual energy there. Love it...

[@leephoenix4041]

It was probably way more spiritual before the Federal’s desecrated all the graves at Chaco and permanently exhumed all the bodies for their labs and museums. No one cared when that happened. No one cared when they actually started DRILLING all those wells, FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Furthermore, no one cared about Chaco until Eloise Cobell won her landmark legal case against the Oil and Gas Companies; and now the Navajo Families who live at Chaco actually have a legal right to receive oil and gas royalties for all the oil and gas that gets sold off their private land that just happens to be apart of the Navajo Reservation.

[@godfreydaniel6278]

All sincere respect to the ancient Puebloans who created this civilization and their descendants who struggle to preserve their legacy...

[@leephoenix4041]

With all due respect to the Pueblo People’s; Chaco was not built or occupied by Pueblo People or their Ancestors. The Federal’s already desecrated all the graves at Chaco and permanently exhumed all the bodies for their labs and museums. Subsequent testing on the exhumed bodies revealed that they were a unique people group who displayed unique physical structures including polydactylism, which is having six toes and six fingers.
Furthermore, no one cared about Chaco until Eloise Cobell won her landmark legal case against the Oil and Gas Companies and now the Navajo Families who live at Chaco actually have a legal right to receive oil and gas royalties for all the oil and gas that gets sold.

[@01Lenda]

Yes, all due respect to the cannibals who exploited the enslaved tribes they abused and slaughtered.

[@godfreydaniel6278]

@@leephoenix4041 Rubbish - but thanks for delivering it...

[@godfreydaniel6278]

@@01Lenda Yawn - nothing so uplifting as a modern person applying an anachronistic template on an ancient people...

[@christianeriveles1870]

Congratulations to all! A powerful film which I pray will help extend protections to a place that means so much to so many people.

[@leephoenix4041]

With all due respect to the Pueblo People’s; Chaco was not built or occupied by Pueblo People or their Ancestors. The Federal’s already desecrated all the graves at Chaco and permanently exhumed all the bodies for their labs and museums. Subsequent testing on the exhumed bodies revealed that they were a unique people group who displayed unique physical structures including polydactylism, which is having six toes and six fingers.
Furthermore, no one cared about Chaco until Eloise Cobell won her landmark legal case against the Oil and Gas Companies and now the Navajo Families who live at Chaco actually have a legal right to receive oil and gas royalties for all the oil and gas that gets sold off their private land that is also apart of the Navajo Reservation.

[@harirao12345]

Great video!!! Really hits home the point on many fronts. We really need to protect these incredible treasures and give them the space they need. It is important to note that people from all cultures find peace and calm when they visit Chaco making it a world heritage.

[@leephoenix4041]

With all due respect to the Pueblo People’s; Chaco was not built or occupied by Pueblo People or their Ancestors. The Federal’s already desecrated all the graves at Chaco and permanently exhumed all the bodies for their labs and museums. Subsequent testing on the exhumed bodies revealed that they were a unique people group who displayed unique physical structures including polydactylism, which is having six toes and six fingers.
Furthermore, no one cared about Chaco until Eloise Cobell won her landmark legal case against the Oil and Gas Companies and now the Navajo Families who live at Chaco actually have a legal right to receive oil and gas royalties for all the oil and gas that gets sold off their private land that is also apart of the Navajo Reservation.

[@665underdawg2]

Hey, that's my oil rig you filmed! 😊

[@VaultBoy1776]

Thank you

[@PedroPeyolo]

Yaaaaatay !!!!! Aho Mitakuyelo 🫶🫶🫶

[@MrAndyBearJr]

I grew up in this area, just a few miles from Chaco Canyon from 1961 to 1979. The natural gas fields there did not affect the well being of the Chaco National Historical Center. To the contrary, the leasing fees paid by El Paso Natural Gas Company helped provide jobs, housing, and access to basic amenities such as roads, electrical power, and water, constructed by EPNG to many Navajo Nation people living there, With the current restrictions now in place, many of them now live at the poverty level. The natural gas wells there were built and maintained with the local ecology in mind. Those of us who grew up there have been taught the history of the Anasazi in our schools (Bloomfield Unified) and respect the culture that once thrived there. The natural gas provided by these fields has supplied southern California since 1945 from the San Juan Basin. So many of the myopic people who protest these fields grew up under the auspices of the energy they provided. Any maps and aerial photos taken will reveal no wells near enough to Chaco Canyon Historical Park to even remotely threaten its well being. They have actually provided access for local sheep and cattle ranchers to bring their herds in for spring and summer grazing. Local climate has done more to erode, and damage the sites such as Pueblo Bonito and Pueblo Del Arroyo. Also, until the 1980's excavation restrictions, archaeological excavations were the major cause of damage to the sites. Backfilling of excavation sites is now the chosen method to preserve the ruins from erosion. So damage to Chaco Canyon and its contemporary inhabitants has been done way more by archaeologists and the government, than the gas companies ever did. But that is the government for you. Blame anyone else for their shortsightedness and blunders.

[@esanuevamexicana]

Drink oil

[@fishman245]

Tell me you're a liberal without telling me you're a liberal in 30 seconds

[@episdosas9949]

tell me you re a dummy without saying you re a dummy in less than 5 seconds

[@leephoenix4041]

​@@episdosas9949 No one cared about Chaco Canyon until Eloise Cobell won her landmark legal case (Cobell VS Salazar 2009) against the Oil and Gas Companies and now the Navajo Families who live at Chaco actually have a legal right to receive oil and gas royalties for all the oil and gas that gets sold off their private land that is also apart of the Navajo Reservation.

[@justinshades6652]

Cannibalism happened there

[@paulsmith1411]

Areas Are Already Caving In...

[@PedroPeyolo]

Ahoooo

[@Redfour5]

The Navajo and Puebloans not in accordance? Imagine that...

[@muddgeeser]

The Welsh were hear 1000 years agow, they had a hand in this

[@combridge1]

😂 Whhhhaaaaattttt?

[@mikeokeefe2014]

A pile of dirt