About 1000 years ago, indigenous people built an elaborate network of great houses, kivas, and grand roads centered on Chaco Canyon, in the middle of the San Juan Basin of present-day New Mexico. Today, the region is one of the nation's most productive oil and gas basins. It is also the setting of a collision between burgeoning energy development and archaeology, as new discoveries reveal the importance of the larger landscape in understanding Chacoan society.
Taking advantage of advances in drilling technology, more than 4000 new wells will be developed in the area in the coming years, predicts the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages development of federal mineral resources. Late last month, a federal judge issued a decision that may encourage the sale of oil and gas leases and eventual drilling near the Chaco Culture National Historical Park and known ancient roads. As a coalition of environmental and tribal groups mulls an appeal, they also await a new management plan from BLM, due as early as next month. With President Donald Trump's administration pushing for more oil and gas development on public lands, they worry the new plan may favor development at the expense of cultural and environmental protection...