Letters | Ancestral claim by Pueblos is unsubstantiated

Ancestral claim by Pueblos is unsubstantiated

Editor,

Should thoughtless, federal government policy ever be based solely on vague, unsubstantiated beliefs of some people, especially when those beliefs have the direct consequence of harming others?

Under Secretary Deb Haaland, and the National Park Service, the US Department of the Interior has stolen Navajo property rights. The sole basis of this errant policy is that Pueblos in New Mexico hold a vague belief that Chaco is “ancestral” to themselves. They can offer no proof, because there is none. The federal policy is based solely on a vague belief.

Has anyone examined this belief objectively, in a deliberative, systematic manner? Is there any proof that Chaco is “ancestral’ to the modern Pueblos, or to any other federally recognized tribes in the US? One could say that there is no proof either way – pro or con – and that would be correct. So why is this one belief being arbitrarily and harshly imposed on the Navajo families who live near Chaco Canyon?

There is no proof that the modern Pueblos descended from Chaco. The Pueblo assertion of Chacoan ancestry is based entirely on a concept, not on empirical fact. In fact, there is a preponderance of evidence that the Chacoans were temporary colonizers from the far south – from the lands we call Mexico today.

The Chacoans came, built their monumental structures and roads, stayed in the region for several generations, but ultimately left. Why they chose Chaco Canyon as the location of their colonial center is something we will probably never know. There are no written records that can explain any of this – only the abandoned buildings and roads of 900 years ago. Certainly, the Chaco colonizers had an influence on the early pueblo inhabitants, but it is just as likely that they were not the ancestors of the modern Pueblos.

What proof do D.O.I. and the NPS offer in calling Chaco “Ancestral Pueblo”? There is no proof – just Pueblo sentiments. Someone’s belief is not proof, but when that belief is used to impose harsh policies on others, real harm can be done. I have known so many white people who actually believe they are descendants of this or that royal family in Europe, or some prominent figure in history – Thomas Jefferson, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, General Patton, whoever.

What proof do they have? They don’t have any proof – they just believe it to be true because the story has been repeated through the years by relatives who believed it themselves. Some even hop on the internet to buy phony family “Coats of Arms’ to hang on the wall for $19.95, as if those emblems somehow substantiate the old family tales.

A perfect analogy to Chaco would be the sudden appearance of large buildings across Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan in the 12th century. Because we have written history in several languages, we know who the builders of those buildings were, and where they came from. We know what languages they spoke, how they dressed. We know when they came, what they wanted, and when and why they left.

We call them the Crusaders, and their historic period is known as the religious Crusades. The Crusaders came from Europe. They had a lasting impact on the indigenous Arab people who lived in the Middle East – an impact that is felt to this day. But would anybody call the long-abandoned Crusader castles and fortresses “Ancestral Arab”?  Of course not!

To call Chaco “Ancestral Pueblo”, without any hope of proof is worse than public misinformation, or an innocuous bureaucratic jump to conclusions. The “Ancestral Pueblo” misnomer can and has become the basis of an inappropriate and arbitrary federal government policy, which harms Navajo families.

The Navajo people have every right to protest this arbitrary government imposition. I hope they will continue to protest the wrongful policy vigorously, and I hope they will prevail in court and in Congress.

David Siegel
Retired Department of the Interior archeologist
Albuquerque

 

Chilchinbeto project could help region

Editor,

As (president/leadership) of the Chapter home of the Chilchinbeto Pumped Storage Hydropower Project, thank you for publishing Speaker Lorenzo Bates’ letter regarding the opportunity of clean energy for the Navajo Nation.

I share his enthusiasm for the Navajo Nation’s June Economic Summit wherein President Nygren spoke of how the Nation’s development of clean energy would help the Nation regain its place of prominence as a regional energy power.

Importantly Speaker Bates also shared how energy projects can develop water resources for the Nation. The Chilchinbeto Pumped Storage Hydropower Project can help the Nation gain access to the C Aquifer.

The C Aquifer covers over 27,000 square miles and flows from Flagstaff to about 3,000 feet below the Chilchinbeto Chapter House. It is so deep and of uncertain water quality that nobody has drilled a well to the aquifer in our area. Yet with our Project, over 2,000 acre-feet of water infrastructure will be created making clean water available to the Nation for grazing, agriculture and drinking water.

Chilchinbeto Chapter has been told it can’t any time soon gain access to:

• the San Juan River because the water can’t cross state lines;
• the Colorado River because of the recent Supreme Court ruling;
• the N Aquifer because environmentalists don’t want it used for the project.

The Chilchinbeto Pumped Storage Hydropower Project is the opportunity for the Chapter…and the region in our area [mention other Chapters?] …to develop water infrastructure that all Chapters should have.

The Project will bring billions of dollars to the Nation, offer the opportunity for the Nation to build two GW of solar projects, jobs and most importantly for us, water infrastructure for the prosperity of us, our children and generations to come. Water is life.

Paul Madson
Chilchinbeto Chapter president
Chilchinbeto, Ariz.

 

Rising temp is sign of future uncertainty

Editor,

In response to the “NN’s economic growth rests with clean energy development”, NT, LBates, 07/13/23. I was surprised and curious that one of the most loyal, fervent supporters of coal the Council ever had, chose to write about “clean” energy.

The guy writes, “Clean energy offers a path to economic prosperity for our tribe by securing new companies. It will pay rich rewards for us to understand the clean-energy opportunities before us.” We were also given 3 examples (locations and entities).

The first is the Tohatchi Energy Project (TEP). The Red Streak (Tohatchi Chapter, 07/29/23) proposal begins with green hydrogen, greenhouses, solar PV, tree farm… etc. On page 13, we finally see what the TEP is all about – simple cycle/combined cycle peaking power plants. All the nice, eco-friendly, green stuff is loaded up front to open the doors and later we are served the meat of the project, “Phase 8: Zero Carbon Flex Fuel Simple-Cycle Turbine Project (CCS/DAC, etc.).”

In the proposal, the summary of the built-out financial analysis is where the Phase 8 contributions are highlighted.

TEP is clean energy backward. Ms Keetso (Hydrogen hub development does not allow for meaningful community collaboration, NT, JKeetso, 07/13/23) is rightly calling out the leakage of natural gas as a huge problem because recent research tells us that the benefits of gas do not outweigh coal at certain methane leakage rates.

The conclusion: the net climate impact of gas and coal life-cycle emissions are highly dependent on methane leakage (a leakage rate as low as 0.2% is on par with coal when considering climate effects over a 20-year timeframe). Common sense tells us not to look at the TEP-phase 8 in isolation. Nature starts counting carbon in natural gas as it leaves its trapped state underground and so should we.

TEP-Phase 8 (page 44) looks like they are going to source their natural gas from the Blanco Hub with the Southern Ute as producers. Southern Ute natural gas is mostly coal-bed methane – as a gas field, it is notorious for leakage.

The second is about Arizona Public Service. APS is doing this demonstration with USDOE money. APS-Tonopah knows there is no market and is cost-prohibitive to be in hydrogen. The reason that APS is interested in investigating this option is directly related to the changing of the load shape of the grid due to PV distributed generation and having to spend next to nothing to gather data/analysis with the Idaho National Laboratory.

Since APS has almost no control over distributed PV generation, they are being forced to divert some of Palo Verde generation off the grid at peak distributed PV generation time (the load shape changes daily and is trending year to year – it becomes exaggerated in the spring).

This is one of the reasons for APS making 4-Corners seasonal. Palo Verde, Cholla, and 4-Corners are susceptible because they run steady-state and are not variable output generators. APS knows there are better ways to store electricity than hydrogen.

The round-trip efficiency of producing hydrogen by electrolysis and later burning the hydrogen in a gas turbine to produce electricity is around 30-40%. In Phoenix at 115F ambient, you are lucky to hit 30%. There are several other ways to store electricity for later use at much higher efficiencies. APS should use its allotment of reclaimed water for recharging local groundwater supplies instead of turning it into hydrogen.

The third is the 4-Corners PP and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The reason that the fossil fuel industry loves CCS is simple: The fossil fuel industry is trying to give the impression that it is using CCS to combat climate change – in reality, it extends the fossil fuel era instead of ending it.

The other related reason is the Federal Government (eg. USDOE) and the money it has doled out for the last 25 years chasing CCS: This happens when monied interest (fossil fuel industry) has such power in our politics – this includes our NN Government.

CCS for 4-Corners is senseless – ask Enchant Energy and their efforts to “save” San Juan GS (Enchant even proposed sales of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery). Enchant spent more on lobbying and seeking subsidies than planning its CCS project.

By 12/21/22 Enchant abandoned the CSS project at San Juan GS, claiming that they have several CCS projects in the works in the region that are confidential. Nine months earlier NTEC invested in Enchant. Perhaps NTEC got their money back, but it looks like there were no lessons learned from the San Juan GS debacle. In the guy’s letter, he referenced CCS as CCUS, using a variant to emphasize Utilization – as in Enchant’s scheme re-visited.

The whole reason we store carbon is to sequester, not to be used as a tool to extract more hydrocarbons. It is not difficult to see and understand the net effect. CCS is a technology with a long history of unfulfilled promises.

I should not have expected much from a guy that put us on a path that led us to become the 3rd biggest coal miners in the U.S. It has been said that the innate nature of an individual is not mutable.

The summer of 2023 has already given us a hint of what 1.5C above pre-industrial global average surface temperature would feel like. This summer we are sitting at around 1.15C above with an additional boost caused by El Niño. 1.5C above will likely be reached in 10 years, with all the consequences. Some of us will live to see 2.0C above, even now it is hard to imagine what it would be like. The jump from 1.0C to 1.5C above will be nothing compared to the jump from 1.5C to 2.0C above. It will be way worse.

Glen Manygoats
Flagstaff

 

Red Willow Farm’s grand opening

Editor,

This is Elvis Bitsilly from Tohatchi, New Mexico. I am currently the Tohatchi Red Willow Farm Board chair. I am submitting this special announcement of an event that occurred on Thursday June 22, 2023, at our Red Willow Farm site in the community of Tohatchi.

We celebrated the grand opening of our new infrastructure water well pump system and powerline project. This water well pump system for irrigating water for our farmers for their planting usage on their farm plots during season.

This project was initiated in 2011 through the efforts and collaboration of former Red Willow Farm Board members, chapter officials, and New Mexico state legislators. Although it took 10 years to this day to finalize and complete, the project will benefit the local community farmers for better living lifestyles, healthier foods, nutrition, and overall mental and physical well-being.

This water well project is a unique project of its kind. The Navajo Nation is experiencing and suffering from drought conditions over many years. A time when the nation suffered from the virus occurred across the world. Due to the lack of needed moisture, snow, and rains in the community we pushed forward in making this project dream come true.

To install our very own water well pump system so that farmers do not have to rely on the nature of runoff water to fill our local reservoir for water irrigation purposes. The farm site is 938 acres of land, and it benefits over 25 active farmers.

As a role model project for our very own Navajo Nation, we can dream big and make a project happen despite the issues that can come from a local project in any community.

Attached is a picture of the groundbreaking ceremony with 3 Farm Board members cutting the ribbon.

Standing left to right in middle photo with ribbon: Sam Natonabah Jr (vice chair), Geneva Begay (secretary) and Elvis Bitsilly (chair).

Elvis Bitsilly
Red Willow Farm Board chair
Tohatchi, New Mexico

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