The Biden administration on Monday proposed banning new oil and gas drilling projects for 20 years in and around Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, The Washington Post reports. The area is rich in oil and gas, but it's also a sacred tribal site.
Biden announced the move at the White House Tribal Nations summit where he also signed an executive order telling his Cabinet to come up with a strategy to improve public safety, health, education, and justice for Indigenous Americans. He also promised that his administration would work with tribes to incorporate their "tribal ecological knowledge into the federal government's scientific approach." "
No group of Americans has created and cared more about preserving what we inherited than the tribal nations," Biden said. "We have to continue to stand up for the dignity and sovereignty of tribal nations."