FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — The Hopi Tribe is blasting the idea of potential drilling near Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
The Farmington Daily Times reports that Hopi Tribe has submitted critical comments to the Bureau of Land Management about the possibility of drilling by the World Heritage Site.
Oil and gas firms have nominated 38 oil and gas leases, totaling 19,103 acres, for a January lease sale. The BLM is evaluating the parcels for the lease sale, and it is not yet clear which parcels will be included or if some will be withdrawn.
One of the parcels is less than a quarter-mile from the park’s boundary.
The tribe in Arizona traces some of its clans to the ancestral Puebloans who inhabited areas in and around the park a millennium ago.