Threatening the integrity of the Chaco Culture National Historic Park and UN World Heritage site in north central New Mexico is the perfect example of how deep the Republican Party has sunk into mean-spirited political cussedness.
The Trump administration is in the process of revoking a Biden-era Public Land Order signed by then Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that prohibits oil and gas drilling on some 330,000 acres of federal public land around Chaco Canyon, according to Oil and Gas Watch. That land provides a ten-mile buffer zone between the architectural masterpieces of Chaco Canyon and the massive fracking enterprise polluting and uglifying the natural gas-rich San Juan Basin.
If Trump Republicans have their way, the buffer zone could be cut in half or eliminated altogether. They don’t seem to be scheming this atrocity for economic reasons. The San Juan Basin is estimated to produce some 67% of New Mexico’s natural gas, generating some $300 or $400 million plus in annual revenues. Fracking in the ten-mile buffer zone might produce something close to $3 million in yearly revenue, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the basin.
If this threat to Chaco Canyon isn’t about money, what’s it about? It can only be an act of political bullying that is a direct assault on the cultural integrity of our blue voting state, and of blue leaning sovereign Pueblo nations that are vehemently opposed to reducing or eliminating the buffer area that protects their sacred landscape. Without it, the monuments to the Pueblo’s Anasazi heritage could be turned into what Pueblo leaders are calling an industrialized sacrifice zone.
It’s possible that without the buffer, fracking — with all its noise, lights, fumes, machinery, digging and thumping — could take place right up next to such fragile masonry treasures as Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Alto, Casa Rinconada and many more. This would severely compromise the aesthetic and natural serenity of the site, damage the irreplaceable “ruins” and all but wreck the educational and recreational benefits of the canyon to the public.
Screwing the public like that would be perfectly in keeping with Republican policy these days, which works overtime to turn the federal government into a punishing, vengeful, oppressive, demeaning and purposefully intimidating menace, devoid of conscience and any sense of public service.
So of course, Republicans in power would dream up the ruination of a public treasure that provides peace, solace and an often intense experience of enlightenment about the genius of a culture that has flourished here for millennia. Elitist Trumpers just don’t give a damn about how government can serve the wellbeing of the public. They use government as an instrument of coercion and religious conformity. I’ll bet the revenue to be gained from fracking the buffer zone wouldn’t begin to cover a variety of government “expenses,” for example, all the high living of the FBI director, including his plane flights to the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics to revel in the prowess of the US hockey team to the tune of about $100,000, according to the Huffington Post.
In a state like New Mexico that thrives on its cultural resources, Chaco Canyon is the jewel in the crown. As a sacred Puebloan landscape, to harm it in any way is a sacrilege. As landscape architect and scholar Baker Morrow wrote in the prologue to “Anasazi Architecture and American Design,” published in 1997 by UNM Press, “by the eleventh century A.D., a simple love for masonry buildings and a tremendous facility in creating them had allowed the Anasazi to develop a highly stylized regional tradition having many local variants. . . . The Anasazi frequently oriented their towns and key buildings to the cardinal directions. Moreover, startling evidence suggests that the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon may have organized many of their buildings and building complexes in patterns that are harmonious with the cycles of the sun and the moon, thus bringing architecture firmly into the service of ritual. . . . The modern Pueblos represent an unbroken tradition that is now well over a thousand years old. A close look also suggests that the celebrated ‘Santa Fe’ style might more accurately be called ‘Anasazi traditionalism’ because it continues to evoke the spirit of the region more deeply than any other building approach.”
In the epilogue to the same book, I wrote that “Anasazi architecture has an important role to play in the future of American society. Unlike Spanish-Pueblo Revival style architecture in Modern Santa Fe, or Colonial American architecture in Williamsburg, however, Anasazi architecture has more to contribute to the health of the future than history lessons or Disneyesque ‘imagineering.’ . . . (T)he ecological sensitivity and savvy of Anasazi designers is a model for restructuring fundamental Euroamerican concepts of land use and site selection as post-industrial America struggles to retrofit its dysfunctional cities and suburbs for environmental efficiency and cost-effective sustainable growth. The basic Anasazi land-use strategy of adapting the built environment to the conditions and contours of the natural environment, working with natural forms and cycles rather than considering them obstacles to overcome, has immense philosophical and practical value in the future.”
The insulting and frivolous nastiness of a Republican move to damage the serious meaning and beauty of Chaco Canyon’s historic sites is indicative of the wretched values that have come to soil and pollute American conservatism in the 21st century.
*Nullius in verba: take nobody’s word for it
We must stop this threat. It’s like planning something similar at Tikal or Angkor Wat. Chaco is a treasure we must protect. Thank you, V.B., as always for keeping a focus on this danger.
Readers can enhance their Chaco experience by reading Chaco Body a beautiful poetry book.