Chaco Canyon allottees feel no one is listening to them

GALLUP

Chaco Canyon area allottees have felt like they are being spoken over in the last few years while discussions about extending the buffer zone have been underway.

Late last year, the Biden administration and Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland proposed a 20-year ban on oil-gas leasing within a 10 mile buffer zone around Chaco Canyon, which is a 5-mile extension from the current buffer zone.

The proposal is currently in a 90-day review that ends on April 7.

Alice Benally and Delora Hesuse are two of the allottees who have felt like their voices have not been heard throughout these discussions. They contacted this reporter to get their voices heard, saying no one is listening to them.

“Concerning is the fact that Deb Haaland is talking about the lands that our Diné have occupied for generations,” Benally said. “Their families continue to reside and graze their livestock on their homesteads surrounding Chaco Canyon Park.”

Benally said Haaland is protecting the “dilapidated ruins of the Anasazi who have long been annihilated” and is now sending a message that the Diné allottees who live on their allotments “do not matter.”

Benally believes it makes “no sense” because she was taught that Anasazi ruins are taboo. She spoke about her grandfather’s teachings as a traditional practitioner in the Blessing Way ceremonies.

“As a young child, it was his teaching and counsel that we should never find yourself in these areas of the Anasazi,” Benally said. “That it is taboo and will affect our emotions and our overall physical health.

“And that, white man’s medicine will not heal you,” she said. “Only a traditional practitioner who is blessed with the special ceremony will heal you.”

Benally said Haaland gained support of Ben Ray Lujan, Martin Heinrich, Tom Udall and other Democratic New Mexico congressmen to initiate the bill which is “taking away land that has been in Diné families for generations.”

“She has made no efforts to meet and consult with us, as allottees,” Benally said. “And her lack of consultation is even prior to the pandemic our country has been experiencing. She and the leaders whom I’ve mentioned earlier all made no efforts to sit face to face with us.”

Hesuse is in her 50s and from Nageezi. She holds the same beliefs as Benally and says everyone seems to not be listening to the allottees.

“Somewhere down the line, these different environmentalist groups, Diné CARE, Sierra Club and so on and so on, have been really saying a lot but not really wanting to hear our expressions or our wants or not having the time to listen to us,” Hesuse said.

She feels that as an allotee her rights are being violated.

“We still have great respect for our land but we still have resources also and we have this opportunity to do so,” she said. “We’re having all these other groups coming in and I believe we’re really being violated with our rights as a Navajo allottee.”

Hesuse said they are interfering what has been a law and the sovereignty of the Nation. She also said the BIA has met with the Nation on other issues including ones that involve cultural and historical sites.

“We don’t have a chance to tell our story,” Hesuse said. “It’s been a long road and I can’t stop what I do because I care and this new whole 20-year ban with the BLM department now, I said, ‘Who in the world would even consider something like that? How many more archaeology tests are they going to do?’”

Within her community, she hears questions like the ones previously mentioned from elderly people. She said she hears them wonder how they are going to survive.

“This money really helped us during the pandemic even though the oil companies maybe couldn’t pay one month of royalties,” Hesuse said. “They’re (elderly allottees) afraid, they don’t know what’s going to happen to them,” she said. “They do get Social Security benefits but at this time, it’s not enough to cover other expenses.”

Benally also spoke about the benefits of receiving royalties from oil production in the area and said it has helped families.

“It’s allowed us to sustain our families with food, home, clothing, a vehicle and pay for educational expenses for our children and grandchildren,” Benally said. “It has given us a sense of independence.”

Hesuse hopes allottees will be listened to more as the discussion of the protection of Chaco Canyon goes on and believes everyone should work together to solve this issue.

“Chaco Canyon National Park has the protection it has now, it always has, then on the other hand Navajo allottees need their revenue as well,” she said. “There can be a compromise, you know? The oil companies do their job. I think everyone just needs to respect each other, we can’t have all these people saying this and leaving us allottees out.”

---