FACES OF CHACO
“What they are doing will never be taken away.
INTRO
Halfway down Highway 550 from the Colorado border to Albuquerque, NM lies a community so humble and dispersed that if you blink, you’ll miss it. Nestled in the hills, these people are as native to this place as the land itself.
For centuries, their ancestors thrived in this harsh and stunning place. Yet, over the last half century, unfettered and illegal oil and gas development enabled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has ravaged the sacred landscape. Much of this reckless destruction is irreversible, producing scars that will never heal.
After years of being silenced, the community is speaking out in defense of their home. They demand proper protections for their air, water, health, and cultural resources. Will you join them?
RIGHT NOW: Comment on the March 2018 Sale!
Demand cancellation of the March 2018 oil and gas lease sale in Greater Chaco, and all future sales, until a proper plan for protections is in place.
Hover over photos for quotes from local citizens.
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“This is one giant barrel of oil.”
– Daniel, Community Leader and Activist
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“Over 94% of the lands in this area is leased… the approval process is 94% done. So, the fight is not in fighting the approval process. The fight is in the mitigation of the flaring, allowing the methane gases and VOCs to be released, that’s where the fight is.”
– Daniel, Community Leader and Activist
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“Things are never, ever going to be the same. What’s destroyed is destroyed, what’s done is done, but I pray and hope that it’s going to bring our community together, even our young people… I know that things are changing, every year, as time goes on. But there’s no way it’s ever going to be the same again.”
– Marlene, Community Representative
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Chapter 1:
A SACRED PLACE
Off the beaten track in Northwest New Mexico lies Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a small preserved and protected piece of a vast sacred landscape. The region, referred to as Greater Chaco, contains the park and 230 known outlier settlements. But the Chacoan landscape is not stagnant with history, it is a living sacred space that still holds significance for over two dozen tribes today.
Scattered among these ancient ruins are extensive communities of living people, many who trace their lineage to the ancestors of Chaco’s pueblos. The people of Greater Chaco are steadfast, dedicated, and resilient. For centuries they have resided among the mesas of their home, thriving in the hot, dry, high elevation desert. While to others their home may seem vast and empty, to them it is full of life, family, and spirit.
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“Peace and quiet, no traffic, nothing… The truth is, it’s beautiful out here, tell them that. Open space, you can walk all over the place out here.”
– Community Member
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“When I was a little kid we used to hike around the hills back there, back where the flares are at, back there. We never stayed home… In fact, I was thinking, how did we drink water? How did we stay hydrated?…We were gone all day. My mom didn’t worry about us. Because it was open, who’s going to come after us? It was just family…I don’t remember taking water with us, so we must have went to maybe my Auntie’s.”
– Lois, Community Member
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“It’s like what does she need? Water, air, just like we do.”
– Kendra, Community Activist, when asked about her sister Keely.
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“People use the Yucca roots to wash their hair. It kinda soaks up once you start breaking it. It’s pretty cool. My grandma likes to use it.
I remember one time she sent me outside, around January, and she’s like “Go get me a Yucca!” And I got like an inch into the ground and it was frozen solid. I was laughing, “I don’t know grandma, you’re going to have to wait a couple more months, there is no way I’m getting through the ice.”
– Kendra, Community Activist
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“We used to go up on the mesas and find small pottery and we were told to leave it, you know, not take it back. They would consider it sacred. And just in the little hills here, mesas…. Even down in this canyon you can find petroglyphs. And they tell us we’re trespassing. This is our home, I say, how dare you tell us we’re trespassing?”
– Marlene, Community Representative
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“I was born in the mid-60s, so I’ve been here since. In Twin Pines. We only moved away a couple years, but I didn’t like it. That’s where I raised my family, our three girls. My mom lives right there, my sister lives there, her son lives there with his kids, and I have my kids down the road. It’s all family. We stay together. A lot of the families do… some anyway. My cousins nearby pretty much have their kids out and about. But they always come back to Twin Pines. It’s home for them.”
– Lois, Community Member
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“I’m really impressed with some of the meetings I’ve gone to lately, where I’ve seen some of the young Dine people come out, and they are expressing that traditional belief. They are expressing their cultural dress, their cultural ways. It’s good to see that, but it’s few and far between, there’s just not enough of it. For so many years they’ve been told that their way of life was wrong, and that was the biggest mistake anybody could have ever made. There are a lot of things that First Nation people and Dine people have to offer that we could learn from.”
– James, Lybrook Community Ministries
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“I color, or I play with my kitchen. My little kitchen. [My nephew] pretends to eat them, he gets like really close to them. Like yesterday I made a pretend cake and he blew out the candle, it was pretty cute.”
– Keely, Community Member
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Chapter 2: Oil and Gas
A. HOW LEASES WORK
In Greater Chaco, the surface land is split in a checkerboard of tribal, private, state, and federal ownership. Through what is called “split estate” the government owns, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages, nearly all subsurface land and minerals regardless of surface owner. Most community members in this area reside on one of two land ownership types:
Allotment Land
In the 1880s, as an attempt to separate tribal members from their tribes, the Dawes Act authorized the President of the United States to divide tribal lands into allotments for individual native families and all of their future heirs. Some allotments now have hundreds of owners. When oil and gas under allotment lands is leased, allotment owners must sign approval and receive compensation.
Tribal Homesite
Native members of a tribe are able to apply for a “homesite” to build a house on lands owned by their tribe. When oil and gas under tribal trust lands are leased, homesite owners are not compensated or consulted.
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“In my area, the top is tribal trust land, so you have to apply for a homesite… I think six inches down is where federal minerals start, and we have no say to that.
When I was growing up, I never thought of that. I never thought, “oh, well, this is not owned by us,” when we dug out a shovel full of dirt. We never thought of those things.”
– Kendra, Community Activist
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“That boilerplate [allotment] lease just says that we give them the limited power of attorney and they can do everything to develop oil and gas. “Everything” means regulations, cutting corners in any way possible.
“Even though we say ‘No,’ it still doesn’t matter, because a simple majority [of allotment owners] all agreed.”
– Mario, Community Member
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“[My relatives are] really for it, like all of this is money to them. I ask them, did you know that it’s coming from the earth and it could affect the earth. Not just you now, but do you guys think way in the future, like of your grandchildren? Do you guys ever think about that? This doesn’t just only revolve around you guys. This is your grandkid’s grandkids. But they can’t think about that.”
– Community Member
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“I had gotten certified mail, saying, “Sign the lease”… I went to the land agent’s office and basically questioned. That’s where I found out there would be hydraulic fracturing.”
I basically said, “I don’t want to sign,” and he said, “Okay let me see your letter,” and he pulled up the allotments and the leases and then he just smirked and said, “I don’t need your signature, I’ve already got 72% approval, 91% approval, 96% approval.”
A few phone calls later I found out that none of the folks [who approved]…knew it was going to be horizontal drilling.”
– Daniel, Community Leader and Activist
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“Even though we say ‘No,’ it still doesn’t matter, because a simple majority [of allotment owners] all agreed… You hear people, like Leonard Tsosie saying ‘I never heard of anybody that turned down the money.’ I told him actually, I said, ‘We actually turned it down.'”
– Mario, Community Member
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Chapter 2: Oil and Gas
B. THE IMPACTS OF FRACKING
There are extensive consequences when a region hosts 40,000 oil and gas wells. Those impacts fall most heavily on the people living in and around the development, many of whom have no say in where or how it happens.
Oil and gas development produces all kinds of pollution. Spiderwebs of haphazard and unmaintained roads cause dust, mud, and erosion. Well site construction is irreversible in this arid, unreclaimable landscape. Runoff from well sites pollutes surface water, fracking underground can contaminate groundwater, and waste emissions of natural gas increase climate change and cause cancers and asthma.
But the impacts extend beyond pollution. Community members in Greater Chaco voice concerns about extensive truck traffic, road destruction, noise and light pollution, drugs, and violent man camps. These impacts not only affect public health and the environment, but also alter the structural makeup of a community in destructive, painful ways.
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“I worked in the oil field business for 21 years, now I’ve learned my lesson. It’s not good because they’ve damaged the water, the earth. I know what they put underground. It’s not safe. It’s toxic ,all that junk down there. It’s polluting the earth, that’s all they’re doing.”
– Community Member
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“They don’t have to report a spill if it’s less than 500 gallons. And if there’s a spill of 150, they’ve got 24 hours to clean it up. But sure, naturally, all their spills are less than 500 gallons. And they have, what was it, 17 state [inspectors] for over 67,000 wells. So they don’t get to each well but every 7 years.”
– Daniel, Community Leader and Activist
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“We have mud days, did you ever hear of mud days? That you want to record. Mud days. Mud days are not snow days. Mud days are: the roads are so muddy a school bus cannot pick our children up, which happens about 10 school days of loss a year. For equal access, to the general curriculum – it’s not the same.”
– Pamela, Torreon School Counselor
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“The road is all corrupted. You can’t get a little car that’s low to the ground… down where his mom lives. Our daughter tried going down there for her grandmother’s birthday. She couldn’t make it. I said, “You don’t try, because you’re going to get high centered. You stay home.” So she didn’t go, and her grandma turned, what, 83? They don’t live by the highway like we do. They live way the heck over there in the back and that’s where all the oil fields are.”
– Community Member
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“My district when from the town of Bernalillo north toward Cochiti Lake and north westerly all the way to the San Juan River down by Farmington. That much vast, expansive district it takes a lot of time, you know hours, to get to your constituency. At the same time, we’re the only state in the nation called a “citizen’s legislature,” we’re not salaried, we’re not paid, you know. So it takes both arms and a leg to provide the public service that the legislature provides in this state. I feel that the Navajo Nation Chapters have more challenges than the Pueblos in my opinion. The Pueblos are along the Rio Grande Valley and they have access to urban areas… But the Nation here, they still have infrastructure needs, they lack so far behind in infrastructure.”
– James Madalena, Former New Mexico State Representative
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“You know, they made almost twenty million dollars out here but when you drive through here can you tell that?”
“We don’t have any rec centers, we don’t have a police department, we don’t have a fire department. They’re taking from us, that’s all they’re doing is taking from us.”
– Kendra, Community Activist
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“Lately, I’ve seen people with breathing problems. There may be two or three in a household, and I’ve questioned the doctors about that, you know. There’s more cancer coming up, whereas before we didn’t have all that. They deny they are using any chemicals. But, you know, some of us are educated and some of us do know that chemicals cause illness.”
– Marlene, Community Representative
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“My biggest question, I guess, is when do the people become important? You come out here and you see how much money is put into all this other stuff, and how little money is put into the people and into the community.”
– James, Lybrook Community Ministries
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Chapter 3: Oil and Gas
C. WPX EXPLOSION
On July 11th, 2016 a WPX Energy oil production site just off Highway 550 south of Nageezi, NM, 14 miles from Chaco National Historical Park, caught fire just 150 feet from a home.
During the incident, the community was thrown into confused chaos. The company and BLM had no emergency evacuation or response plan. The nearest fire fighters were over 40 miles away. 55 residents were eventually evacuated. The exact cause of the fire remains unknown, but the company was forced to let it burn out over four days.
On the night of the explosion 36 oil and chemical storage tanks caught fire. The company has since returned to the site, significantly increasing production without proposing an emergency evacuation plan to the community.
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“Last year in July, this is where the explosion happened, where all those crates are. A lot of the people were parked here on the side. You could clearly see these flames building up and they had nowhere to go, it was crazy. There was no public evacuation plan, or even emergency plan. There’s a house right next door to it. You can see it from here.”
– Kendra, Community Activist
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“I got a message pretty late at night, it was after 10, and they said there was a fire at [mile marker] 114. So I’m like, what kind of fire are they talking about?
So I went outside and I could start seeing the flames build up, right? Then it kinda smelled weird. I can’t describe what the smell was. It was just gross. It wasn’t a smell that we usually have in this area.
As it kept getting bigger, we were standing outside, and you could hear those containers still popping off, like they were each exploding. That was crazy.”
– Kendra, Community Activist
Photo Credit: Kendra Pinto
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“One of the ladies who was affected by the explosion, her kids were affected, like her son, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. And it’s like, talk, but I don’t know why. It’s like, your son pretty much has PTSD now. She said whenever he hears balloons pop he gets crazy, like he gets scared. Like, talk about it. They affected your son, they hurt your son, they really did. But I don’t think she sees it that way.”
– Kendra, Community Activist
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“We need an emergency evacuation plan. We didn’t even have that when that explosion happened last year in Nageezi… We asked for it, we’ve been asking for it. What if it happens again? Are we just supposed to sit on the side of the road again for a few hours? Are we just supposed to be quiet again?”
– Kendra, Community Activist
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Chapter 3: The Resistance
A. MOVING FORWARD
Over the last decade, as fracking has crept into and swept over Greater Chaco, multiple groups have shifted to or formed for the purpose of fighting the development and demanding protections for those who are impacted. Prominent groups include Dooda Fracking, Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Dine C.A.R.E.) and Frack Off Chaco.
At the same time, local Chapter Houses and organizations like Lybrook Community Ministries work tirelessly to mitigate the multitude of impacts affecting their community members from oil and gas development and other challenges.
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“To try to help my people I will do a monthly community get-together. We call it a community meal. Just to give people hope and just to talk about their situation.
We encourage them to talk about their situation. But if they just want to be there. As I said, it has really separated families, torn families apart. So it’s just trying to give some hope and healing to the community.”
– Marlene, Community Representative
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“She’s the grandmother of all Navajo enviros. You don’t know the stories.”
– Daniel of Lori, Board Member and Founder of Diné C.A.R.E.
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“[Diné C.A.R.E. was] trying to dissolve after we won our first issue in ’89, and it didn’t work out that way. We had people continuing to call us and we said, “Oh no, no we’re done, we’re finished.”
So finally we had to call a meeting in ’91 and all these other groups from around the Rez, from coal mining in Black Mesa to oil and gas, they all came and said, “You know what, you guys made history, that was a huge company you guys defeated. So we should just use that name and keep going because its known.”
All these people from different issues, they became the board members… It’s really just a collective just to work together and help each other.”
– Lori, Board Member and Founder of Diné C.A.R.E.
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“My wife and I agreed that we were going to come out here and we were going to learn just as much as they were going to learn from us. And it’s worked out very well that way.
The mission has been here since 1953… We got here almost 3.5 years ago and the place had almost shut down… My wife and I learned about the need for a director here, and a pastor for the church, and two weeks later we were here.”
– James and Kimberly, Lybrook Community Ministries
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“[The mission is] one of the primary water sources for people in the community. There are people that do not have running water, and do not have electricity, and you know what, it’s perfectly fine, they’re very happy, we could learn a lot from that. But we have one of the purest aquifers in New Mexico.
People come here from all around to get water. And they pay for it, it’s on an honor system, they get their water and then they put their money in the little slot in the house over there. I never double check to make sure everybody pays, I have people that get paid at the beginning of the month so they’ll put money in there for the whole month.
I would rather people came and got water and left and not worry about paying if they can’t pay, I’d rather they have water.”
– James, Lybrook Community Ministries
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“The part that’s really heartwarming is when the younger folks speak up. When they take some of the information I’ve provided and use it in their statements, it’s heartwarming. And, of course, the leadership of the three Chapters, they are just in line with helping.”
– Daniel, Community Leader and Activist
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“There’s a lot of entities out here that make the people in the community dependent on things. [The mission is] one entity that wants to make them self-sustainable. We believe that they can survive in this area, and survive abundantly, with the right resources.”
– James, Lybrook Community Ministries
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“Two years ago the laundromat over the hill closed down and people have to go 50, 60 miles to do their laundry. People do not have reliable transportation, so they have to hitchhike or they have to carry the laundry, and so we decided at that time we would try to put in a laundromat.
We did it in a way that people could come here, do their laundry and they could see their kids in the park.”
– James, Lybrook Community Ministries
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Chapter 3: The Resistance
B. WHAT’S NEXT?
The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) office-wide 2003 Resource Management Plan (RMP) for Northwest New Mexico does not include any plans for fracking in Greater Chaco. Technologies in 2003 could not drill in the region, but newer equipment can. In 2014, the BLM admitted this and agreed to write an amendment to the RMP to reflect this oversight. But the final amendment isn’t expected until 2019 and in the meantime over 400 wells have already been drilled.
This video covers the January 2017 lease sale protest. You can protest the March 2018 sale here.
Drilling without a plan is unacceptable. Leaders, groups, and citizens from all over the Four Corners have stood up to demand a moratorium on drilling until the RMP amendment is complete. Those voices include the Navajo Nation, the All Pueblo Council of Governors, 15 Navajo Nation Chapters and over 300,000 public citizens. A lawsuit currently stands asserting that drilling without a plan is illegal. Protestors turned out in droves to counter the BLM’s January 2017 lease sale and were ignored. Now, the BLM is pushing forward the March 2018 lease sale.
The people of Greater Chaco deserve the same protections as everyone else. They deserve to know that their air, land, water, health, and cultural resources are safe and respected.
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“A lot of people [in the community] I think don’t speak because they think it has nothing to do with them. Like, “Oh, well if I say something, then what’s it going to matter?”
I’ve had people tell me that: “Why do I need to say something? They don’t listen, they don’t care.”
– Kendra, Community Activist
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“We started all this work from the premise of us as Navajo people, us as the Tri-Chapter. Our sphere of influence is only so big. We need to reach out beyond the boundaries of our two Chapters to tell the story… Our Greater Chaco coalition, their relatives could be the next spider web of support.”
– Daniel, Community Leader and Activist
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“People are friendly. Don’t be scared of them. If you need help, ask them. I mean, you’re not going to get help if you don’t ask. That’s it. Everyone’s friendly where we live, you don’t have to be scared of someone. And welcome, you know, the place is mine, you’re at home. Don’t be scared, welcome!”
– Lois, Community Member
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Will you add your voice?
Demand the BLM cancel the March 2018 oil and gas lease sale, and all future sales, in Greater Chaco until proper protections are put in place.
“We’ve been effective, we’ve made some milestone shows of solidarity, but I think that work just needs to keep going. We just have to. Some of the young folks after the January 25 [oil and gas lease] sale happened, said “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?”
We just keep doing what we’re doing. We just keep going. And that’s what we can do. When all of this is said and done, all the oil field people are gone, we’ll still be here. We’ll still be here.“
– Daniel
In this first phase of Faces of Chaco we introduce you to the incredible people of Greater Chaco. Future installments will continue to dig deeper into the passion, vitality, and brilliance of their communities.
If you are moved by this story, please sign up for updates on future installments, take action, and share us on social media. If you are interested in supporting the project in any way, or have questions, please email emily@sanjuancitizens.org. Follow #FacesOfChaco on Twitter and Facebook too!
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