Interior head: Chaco protections ‘millennia in the making’

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is meeting with state and tribal leaders in northwestern New Mexico, where a battle has waged for decades over oil and gas development

CHACO CULTURE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, N.M. -- A few big rigs carried oilfield equipment on a winding road near Chaco Culture National Historical Park, cutting through desert badlands and sage. Mobile homes and traditional Navajo dwellings dotted the landscape, with a smattering of natural gas wells visible in the distance.

This swath of northwestern New Mexico has been at the center of a decades-long battle over oil and gas development.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland joined pueblo leaders Monday to reflect on her office's announcement last week that it would seek to withdraw federal land holdings within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the park’s boundary, making the area off-limits to oil and gas leasing for 20 years.

“This celebration is decades in the making,” Haaland said. “Some would even say millennia in the making.”