Greater Chaco Landscape Sacred Sites

 A few miles north of Chaco Canyon lies the remains of an ancient outpost.  It was undoubtedly an imposing and impressive place in 900 AD.  Built atop a towering butte, it would have been visible for many miles.  At night, great fires would have urged weary travelers onward.  Even now, at sunset, for example, or when the wind rises, it is an evocative and powerful place.

Yet, today, it has become a different kind of outpost. This is where intensive oil and gas development, which has increased over 400 percent in the last decade, completely transforms much of the northwestern New Mexico landscape.

On this past Monday in Santa Fe, during the first of several congressional hearings, tribal leaders and key witnesses spoke about the need for stronger Federal oil and gas regulations.  Acoma Pueblo Gov. Brian Valio told members of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources that not enough is being done to safeguard sacred sites in the Greater Chaco Landscape beyond the National Park at Chaco Canyon.  "Many cultural resources and sites exist which the Bureau of Land Management does not currently recognize", he said.

Our current  administration must honor repeated requests from tribal leaders and withdraw lands surrounding Chaco Canyon from future oil and gas leasing. The Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs must finish the long-awaited joint management plan for the area.  The plan should be based on a detailed viewscape and soundscape field study.  It must include significantly stronger protections for cultural resources, as well as local residents, including limiting the location and scale of development.

We need proper leadership more now than ever to accomplish this.

be strong, be safe, Carlan

Stewardship of the Land

The Greater Chaco Landscape is now under unprecedented assault by the oil and gas industry, with the enthusiastic support of the Trump administration and Acting Interior Secretary Bernhardt. There are already more than 20,000 oil and gas wells in the region, and the drilling is quickly encroaching closer and closer to Chaco Canyon.

Throughout the government shutdown in January, former oil lobbyist Bernhardt stayed on the job as Acting Secretary, working hard to push forward plans for leasing. During the shutdown, 800 employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) were authorized to stay at work to process oil and gas drilling leases. Meanwhile 85% of the rest of the staff at the Department of the Interior (DOI) were furloughed.

Existing drilling wells close to Chaco Canyon, and the proposed 10 mile protection zone (in blue).

In early February 2019, the BLM announced plans to sell more leases in late March (March 28) for oil and gas extraction, quite a number of which were within a 10-mile radius of the park. Then, a few days later, BLM announced that it was withdrawing the lease sales for sites within 10 miles of Chaco Canyon.  Archaeologist Paul Reed of the non-profit cultural resources group Archaeology Southwest says, “I think this is probably a temporary victory, and the parcels will come up again in a future lease sale.”

Land parcels that are still up for lease outside the informal 10-mile buffer zone, but are within the Greater Chaco Landscape, contain many important Chacoan Sacred Sites.

be strong, be safe, Carlan 

HWY83 Unspoiled, Unbroken, Dead North

The current issue of Harley-Davidson HOG® Magazine features the HWY83 story I rode, photographed, and wrote last summer.  With the Polar Vortex across the country causing some mighty cold conditions, thought the story might warm you up a bit.  Even my bike is sitting in my heated studio with the battery tender keeping things warm today.  Here is a link to the pdf copy of the full story.  HWY 83.  

Keep warm.  Hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I did creating it!

Thought for the day:

I love being on the road.  It keeps me present. Because I'm not allowing my brain to get into any sort of pattern, where I start worrying about things that don't matter.  If I'm in a new place every day, I have to be alert, I'm forced to be in the present moment so I can take what comes.

be strong, be safe, Carlan

Chaco Outliers

 After Chaco Canyon monument was established in 1907, subsequent exploration led to the discovery of outlying sites, some as far as 100 miles from Chaco Canyon.  These sites, spread out over 30,000 square miles, were the remnants of a network of outlying communities, all linked to Chaco Canyon and the other sites by an extensive system of prehistoric roads.  In the late 1920's, the monument was expanded to include additional sites that were part of Chaco Canyon.

In the 1950's and 1960's, increased energy and mineral exploration and development in the region led to the discovery of a number of additional Chacoan outliers.  In 1980, Congress passed Public Law 96 550.  Title V of that Act renamed the monument to Chaco Culture National Historical Park, enlarging the site by approximately 13,000 acres to a size of approximately 33,990 acres.

The legislation also created a system of Chaco Culture Archeological Protection Sites, consisting of 33 outlying sites totaling approximately 8,800 acres.  Unlike Chaco Culture National Historical Park, these sites are not administered as units of the National Park System.  Instead, they are managed primarily by the Bureau of Land Management.

Large deposits of uranium, natural gas, oil and coal are believed to lie beneath the San Juan basin. Energy exploration and development are permitted on and adjacent to the archeological protection sites as long as such exploration and development does not endanger the cultural values of the sites. The Bureau of Land Management is the Federal Agency responsible for the proposed leasing of an additional 4,000 oil and gas wells adjacent to many of these sacred sites.

To learn and see more visit Question of Power. 

be strong, be safe, Carlan

The Great North Road

The Chacoans built elaborate road systems covering over 1,500 miles.  Most of the roads connected to Chaco Canyon.  The Great North Road leads from Chaco Canyon to Kutz Canyon.  To the Puebloans a road is a type of altar, a channel for the life's breath, and to travel the straight road to the center place is to strive for equilibrium.

Approaching Kutz Canyon the North Road becomes a narrow corridor crossing a private commercial fracking fluid soil recovery farm.  The North Road is criss-crossed with bulldozed roads for fracking soil trucks.  Surrounded by the fracking fluid soil recovery fields Arena Alto Great House is several hundred yards from Kutz Canyon adjacent to the North Road.  This sacred site's great kiva was recently bulldozed by road construction.

The North Road is more tha a guide or corridor linking Chacoan Great Houses and features.  It is a map to a lifeway, it holds the stories of the Chaco civilization. 

 Click here to view the North Road at Kutz Canyon. 

be strong, be safe, Carlan

Soaring Like Eagles

Pierre's Chacoan Outlier

In the Native American culture eagles are honored with great care and shown the deepest respect. They represent honesty, truth, majesty, strength, courage, wisdom, power and freedom.  

The view from above has always held a special feeling for me.  Freedom of flight.  No longer constrained to your feet.  Spent quite a bit of time over the years making photographs from helicopters and fixed wing planes.  Remember every moment of it.  Loved every moment of it.  This past August received my FAA Remote Pilots License.  Certified to soar like eagles.  Working on the soaring.  

The Greater Chaco Landscape Project incorporates an aerial perspective.  Documenting sacred sites that are effected by the industrialization of the surrounding landscape.  Work which represents honesty, truth, strength, and wisdom.  Work which carries the deepest respect.  With over 10,000 new oil and gas leases proposed for the Greater Chaco Landscape, there is much work to be done.  Help become a part of this important work.

be strong, be safe, Carlan

 

Bison Advise

Riding across the Standing Rock Reservation last June working on a story for Harley-Davidson came across some good advise.  Felt the need to share it again.

Cherish wide-open spaces

Stand your ground

Have a tough hide

Keep moving on

Have a strong spirit

Let the chips fall where they may

Roam wild and free 

be strong, be safe, Carlan