Global Courant
A group of citizens of the Navajo Nation blocked two top Biden administration officials from entering their territory on Sunday in response to a recent federal ban on oil and gas leasing.
The Navajo demonstrators — holding signs that read “Go Home and No Trespassing” — created a roadblock preventing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Indian Affairs chief Bryan Newland from attending a nearby event in the Northwest. of New Mexico and Newland were scheduled in Chaco Culture National Historical Park to celebrate a recent oil lease ban.
“This morning was not ideal,” Haaland said at an alternate location in Albuquerque after the protest on Sunday night. “It was heartbreaking to see a road to one of our national parks or our public lands blocked – yes, less than ideal. That’s the nicest thing I can say – to see a road to one of our national parks or our public lands is blocked because our public lands belong to all Americans.”
On June 2, Haaland banned the leasing of oil, gas and minerals within 10 miles of the Chaco Canyon site for 20 years, a move strongly opposed by Navajo communities and government leaders.
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Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and other tribal leaders, in addition to locals, have argued that Haaland’s action will harm low-income Navajo citizens who rely on income from renting out their allotments within 10 miles of Chaco Canyon, primarily on fossil fuels. fuel companies. The allotments date back to the 1900s, when the government granted them to Navajo citizens as a comfort when the tribe’s territory was reduced.
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“It’s unfair to totally ignore those local communities,” Nygren said in an interview with Fox News Digital on Saturday. “There’s no need to celebrate people falling into poverty, to celebrate the undermining of the Navajo Nation’s sovereignty, the undermining of everything that comes with working with tribes, in this case the Navajo Nation.”
“You can’t beat your chest when you go after people in poverty,” he said. “I don’t know who would want to celebrate that. Personally, I think that’s, I don’t know, you shouldn’t have a heart if you’re going to place people who are already impoverished in a third world country.” circumstances and barely having enough to pay for gas, food, laundry, the daily necessities – to put them in an even more difficult situation.”
In all, there are currently 53 Indian allotments in the 10-mile buffer zone around Chaco Canyon, generating $6.2 million annually in royalties for an estimated 5,462 allottes, according to Navajo Nation data. In addition, there are 418 unrented allotments in the zone associated with 16,615 allocations.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren criticized Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland for going through with a ban on oil leases on Navajo land. (Navajo Nation | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
According to the Western Energy Alliance, an industry group representing oil and gas producers in the area, Navajo members will lose an estimated $194 million as a result of Haaland’s actions.
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In addition, Navajo leaders and public representatives criticized Haaland for not properly consulting the Navajo Nation and the communities near Chaco Canyon most likely to be affected by the action. The tribe previously approved a five-mile buffer zone to protect the site while ensuring future drilling on oil-rich allotments, but has said Haaland never considered the compromise.
And while DOI has stated the move will not affect existing leases or production, opponents of the 10-mile buffer zone said it would indirectly render Indian allotments worthless. Because drilling on the Navajo allotments requires horizontal crossings passing through federal land affected by the ban, the move effectively ends all drilling in the area, they argued.
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“These Navajo landowners provided Deb Haaland and Joe Biden with a much-needed dose of reality,” Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power The Future, said in a statement. “The decision to cut off their land from oil and gas development was opposed by the landowners and leadership of the Navajo Nation, but the green agenda always comes first for Biden and Haaland.”
“We are grateful to these landowners for popping the distorted DC bubble where Joe Biden and Deb Haaland believe they can ignore the voice of the people.”
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
