May 21, 2015—Over the past few months, I have continued to advocate for protection of the Greater Chaco Landscape. This has included attending a number of meetings with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other officials, conducting a tour of the Chaco Landscape with several Pueblo leaders, and engaging my fellow archaeologists on a number of issues.
In April, I led a tour to Chaco Canyon and the Great North Road. Accompanying me were representatives of Tesuque, Santa Ana, and Isleta pueblos. My focus for the tour was showing folks the wonder of the Greater Chaco Landscape and discussing the encroachment of oil-gas facilities. By the end of the trip, I think we all had a much greater appreciation for the wonder and majesty of the Greater Chaco Landscape and the great need to protect it.
We toured Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon and went up top to Pueblo Alto and New Alto. While the great houses in the Canyon proper, such Bonito and Chetro Ketl, are phenomenal, monumental structures, a full appreciation of the spectacular Chaco Landscape is best approached from above.
To gain this landscape vision, the group visited Pueblo Alto—an eleventh-century Chaco great house on the mesa above Pueblo Bonito and New Alto—an early twelfth-century great house located just west of Pueblo Alto. These sites sit in commanding positions on the mesa north of Chaco. In addition, the Great North Road begins its journey just to the east of Pueblo Alto. The road runs approximately 35 miles north to the edge of Kutz Canyon, terminating at the great house called Twin Angels Pueblo.
About 15 miles north of Alto is a Chacoan great house known as Pierre’s. The site has three structures and a number of outlying small pueblos and other smaller sites. It is the largest settlement on the Great North Road, and the positioning of two structures on mesas located 200 feet off the valley floor indicates the importance of this strategic location.
The Pierre’s great house complex is well within the area that has seen impacts from oil-gas developments over the past few decades. The site itself is protected, but it is surrounded by industrial facilities. Protection of the Chaco Landscape beyond the boundaries of Chaco Culture National Historic Park is the main focus of Archaeology Southwest’s advocacy. One option we have proposed is a master leasing plan that would guide development of oil-gas facilities over the next several years and build in protection for sensitive areas. Our efforts are ongoing and we will continue to meet with federal and tribal officials and hope to get all parties—BLM, BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), Navajo Nation, and other groups—to the table to agree on programmatic protection for this irreplaceable landscape.
View EcoFlight’s film on protecting the Greater Chaco Landscape here.
7 thoughts on “Touring the Majestic Chaco Landscape”
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Please let us know what we can do to help and spread the word about any dangers to the Chaco landscape.
After nearly forty years of CRM experience in NPS I would recommend you consider the long term approach of listing them as NHL Multiple District, or Heritage Area.
Thank you for your advocacy. The pace of encroachment seems to be escalating.
Thanks for the comments. The best way to help is to write or call Senators Udall and Heinrich and Congressman Lujan and urge them to protect the Greater Chaco Landscape.
Mark Barnes – we are looking into a NR nomination as a means of protection for this fragile landscape.
Thanks for the info. I feel that it is vital that Chaco be preserved !!! As a contract archaeologist a few decades ago, I know that developers are not always honest and may have ulterior goals or motives.
Hasn’t Chaco been referred to World Heritage Foundation ? Can Chaco be purchased or placed in a public trust?
Let me know what I can do to help.
On behalf of the Plateau Sciences Society, a non-profit organization based in Gallup, New Mexico, I would like to commend your efforts to bring to the public’s awareness the dangerous side-affects of the oil/gas industry’s current mining technology commonly referred to as “fracking”. The Bureau of Land Management’s decision to approve at least 239 applications for permission to drill into our local Mancos Shale/Gallup formations needs to be challenged — and right now! The Plateau Sciences Society lends it’s full support to the coalition of conservation groups that is attempting to do just that.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is protected as a World Heritage Site. The lands at risk are beyond the NPS Park boundary, across a mix of jurisdictions including BLM, State of NM, Navajo Nation, and Navajo allotted.
Thanks for your support, Martin! I know you were active in the early days of Navajo Nation cultural work.