Sec. Haaland's Celebration of Drilling Ban Blows Up In Her Face

Above, ruins at Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Things didn't quite go as planned for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland when she tried to enter Chaco Culture National Historical Park for a "celebration" of the Biden Administration's 20-year ban on gas and oil drilling.

Protesters blocked her from entering the park.

The Associated Press reported:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It was supposed to be a homecoming of sorts for U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, after her agency spent many months hosting public meetings and talking with Native American leaders about curbing the pace of oil and gas development in the San Juan Basin and protecting culturally significant sites.

But her return to Chaco Culture National Historical Park on Sunday was derailed when a group of Navajo landowners blocked the road, upset with the Biden administration’s recent decision to enshrine for the next 20 years what previously had been an informal 10-mile (16-kilometer) buffer around the World Heritage site.

Social media posts showed protesters yelling “Go Home!” as some held signs that read no trespassing on allottee land.

The landowners and Navajo leaders have said Haaland and the Biden administration ignored efforts to reach a compromise that would have established a smaller buffer to protect cultural sites while keeping intact the viability of tribal land and private Navajo-owned parcels for future development.

The "celebration" had to be moved to Albuquerque.

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