STATE News:
SANTA FE — July 21, 2026, Rep. Derrick J. Lente (D-Sandia Pueblo) called on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, the State Historic Preservation Officer, and the New Mexico Legislature to stand together in opposition to the federal government’s proposal to revoke Public Land Order No. 7923 and the protections it provides for the Greater Chaco Landscape.
The Land Order, issued in 2023, prevents new oil, gas, and mineral leasing for 20 years on more than 336,000 acres of federal public land within a ten-mile buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. This safeguard is the result of years of tribal advocacy, government-to-government consultation, and federal environmental and cultural review to protect a living cultural landscape that remains central to the identity, history, and religious practices of the Pueblo, Hopi and other Tribal Nations across the region.
The U.S. Department of the Interior began the process of reconsidering the protection last fall. In March, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) public scoping period—during which agencies, tribes, and members of the public can flag concerns—was open for a mere seven days. Last week, the BLM released a draft Environmental Assessment (DOI-BLM-NM-F010-2026-0002-EA) proposing a full revocation of the leasing ban, unwinding a protection that took years to build in a matter of weeks.
“Chaco is not a bargaining chip, and it is not an ordinary parcel of federal land. It is the ancestral home of our people and a place of continuing ceremony and prayer,” Rep. Lente said. “When the federal government only gives a one-week comment window on an effort to reverse two decades of cultural protections, that is not adequate consultation and it is not good government.
“As a Pueblo person and as a legislator, I refuse to stay quiet while our tribal sovereignty is ignored and our sacred lands are opened to extraction.”
The New Mexico House of Representatives has already gone on record in defense of Chaco. During the 2017 Legislative Session, the House adopted House Memorial 70, “reaffirming New Mexico’s commitment to protecting and preserving tribal, cultural and historical Sites and resources in the greater Chaco Canyon landscape,” which Rep. Lente introduced in his first session in office. The memorial called on the U.S. Department of the Interior to honor its government-to-government consultation obligations and to refrain from new leasing and permitting in the Greater Chaco Landscape without prior tribal consultation. It directed that copies be shared with the Secretary of Cultural Affairs, the Secretary of Indian Affairs, the Governor, and New Mexico’s congressional delegation – the same New Mexico leaders Rep. Lente is calling on today.
“Nearly a decade ago, I asked this state to stand behind Chaco, and the House of Representatives did,” Rep. Lente said. “That commitment did not expire, and neither did the threat to our lands.
“I am calling on the Governor to make New Mexico’s opposition unmistakable and to direct the resources of the state toward defending this landscape. I am calling on the Department of Cultural Affairs and our State Historic Preservation Officer to use their full authority in the federal review process, including their formal role under the National Historic Preservation Act, to insist that the cultural harm of this proposal be honestly studied and honestly weighed. And I am calling on my colleagues in the Legislature to stand with the Pueblos and with the communities of the greater Chaco region.
“New Mexico built these protections together. We should defend them together,” he concluded.
Rep. Lente also urged New Mexicans who share these concerns to make their voices heard by submitting comments during the draft Environmental Assessment comment period that closes on July 29, 2026.
Representative Derrick J. Lente represents District 65 in the New Mexico House of Representatives and has served since 2017. He chairs the House Taxation and Revenue Committee and is a member of the Legislative Finance Committee. He is a member of Sandia Pueblo.
