1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

Block the reversal of Public Land Order 7923 and oppose any reduction of the buffer zone protecting Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The Department of Interior is rushing a decision — offering only 21 non-contiguous days for public comment, with no public meetings — to undo protections that took 150 days of comment, 8 public meetings, and 1.5 years of deliberation to establish. That is not a fair process. It is a dismantling of one. The stakes are not abstract. Archaeologists estimate up to 12,000 cultural sites lie within the 5-10-mile zone the DOI now proposes to open to drilling, and only 15-20% of that area has even been surveyed. The 20 sovereign Pueblos of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, the National Congress of American Indians, and the Mescalero Apache Tribe all oppose this. So do 71% of New Mexico voters. Chaco Canyon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that flourished as a ceremonial center for four centuries. The region surrounding it has already been ravaged — nearly 90% was leased before protections were put in place. Reject both alternatives the DOI has proposed. Neither removing all protections nor shrinking the buffer to 5 miles is acceptable. The original 10-mile withdrawal must be preserved, and the consultation process must be conducted with the respect and timeline that sovereign Tribal nations and the public deserve.