Chaco decision, land bill expose deep divide in eastern Navajo communities
WINDOW ROCK
The Trump Administration’s decision to revoke the 20-year mineral withdrawal around Chaco Culture National Historical Park has exposed sharp divisions among those closest to the land, pitting a Navajo allottee and chapter president who welcomed the move against a former Council delegate who has spent decades fighting to protect eastern Navajo communities from oil and gas development.
At the same time, a bill introduced in Congress by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., that would allow the federal government to transfer National Forest land used as cemeteries has raised concern among Navajo residents in the checkerboard region of northwestern New Mexico. Some say the measure’s language could be used to shift land out from under them.
Together, the two federal actions show how decisions made far from eastern Navajo communities continue to reshape the region’s complex land status, often without full participation from the people who live there.
Public Land Order 7923, issued during the Biden Administration, placed a 20-year moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on about 336,000 acres of federal land within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The Trump Administration has moved to revoke the order, drawing opposition from Pueblo leaders and environmental advocates and support from Navajo allottees and chapter officials in the area.
To read the full article, please see the April 16, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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