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EXCLUSIVE: The president of the Navajo Nation told Fox News Digital that he has ordered the tribe’s attorney general to consider legal action following the Biden administration’s ban on oil leases affecting Navajo citizens.
Buu Nygren, the president of the Navajo Nation, a federally recognized tribe in the southwestern U.S., said the Navajo Justice Department is considering suing following the recent order from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, and he is plans to protest her upcoming visit to the reserve on Sunday. . Last week, Haaland banned the leasing of oil, gas and minerals within 10 miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico for 20 years, a move strongly opposed by nearby Navajo communities.
“To totally ignore those local communities — it’s unfair,” Nygren told Fox News Digital in an interview 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.”
“I have directed the Attorney General to explore all of our options because I want to do justice to the local community,” he continued. “As president, I’ve already told my attorney general to explore all options. So we’re moving forward with that as well.”
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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)
Nygren and other Navajo leaders, in addition to locals, have argued that the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) move to ban leasing will harm low-income Navajo citizens who rely on income from leasing their allotments within ten miles of Chaco Canyon, mostly to fossil fuel companies.
The allotments date back to the 1900s, when the federal government granted them to Navajo citizens as a comfort when the tribe’s territory was reduced.
“Since I joined my Navajo people’s legislative body, I’ve been listening to a lot of voters in that area and, you know, it’s just emotional distress, psychological as well, that they’ve talked about this — it really disturbs me to know how much more hardship these people will go through out there,” Brenda Jesus, chair of the Navajo Nation Council’s Resources & Development Committee, told Fox News Digital earlier this week.
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Jesus led a delegation of Navajo tribal leaders who met lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week to make their case against the DOI’s ban. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., chair of a House panel on Indian affairs, said the move represented a “conquest” of tribal lands and promised congressional action after meeting the delegation.
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.
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.
“Today marks an important step in fulfilling President Biden’s commitments to Indian Country by protecting Chaco Canyon, a sacred site that holds deep meaning to the indigenous peoples whose ancestors have called it home from time immemorial.” said Home Secretary Deb Haaland on June 2. . (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
“You can’t beat your chest going after people in poverty,” Nygren told Fox News Digital. “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.”
“For me, I don’t know how anyone could sleep with that thought,” he said. “Come to Navajo. It is difficult. Everyone is struggling, everyone is literally trying to make a dollar.”
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Haaland is expected to visit Chaco Canyon on Sunday to celebrate the action. Nygren said Navajo citizens plan to protest the event peacefully and that he has even received calls to block the Interior Secretary’s access to Navajo roads.
“You shouldn’t celebrate beating up people living in poverty,” Nygren said.
On August 28, 2021, an archaeological site will be photographed at the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
Nygren also noted that the Biden administration has not made any economic proposals to account for the income losses the Chaco land withdrawal would cause for the Navajo allotments.
In addition, Nygren criticized Haaland for not properly consulting the Navajo Nation and the communities near Chaco Canyon that would be most 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.
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“For her to go all over the country and the world talking about tribal sovereignty and tribal communities and this and that. But when it comes down to it, to question tribal sovereignty. Actions speak louder than words, in my opinion ,” he said.
While DOI stated on Friday that the move will not affect existing leases or production, opponents of the ten-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.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
