On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with Brian Vallo, chairman of the Chaco Heritage Tribal Association, about the escalating fight to protect Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Davey opened the conversation by noting that while people are confronting racism, displacement and political repression around the world, the continued attacks on Indigenous people in the United States are too often ignored. Chaco Canyon, he emphasized, is not simply an archaeological landmark. It is sacred ancestral land whose cultural and spiritual importance stretches back thousands of years.
Vallo explained that Chaco Canyon and the surrounding landscape are connected to 19 Pueblo tribes, as well as other Indigenous nations across the Southwest. The region includes prayer sites, pilgrimage routes and places tied to oral histories, ceremonies and the continuation of Pueblo life. “We need to have access to these places because of their cultural and spiritual significance,” Vallo said. Yet oil and gas drilling, fracking and federal leasing have already damaged irreplaceable cultural sites, endangered water and exposed nearby residents, including members of the Navajo Nation, to harmful pollutants.
The discussion also examined tribal sovereignty and the government to government relationship between Native nations and the federal government. Vallo described that relationship as a “sacred trust” rooted in the recognition of tribes as independent sovereign nations. He warned that the Trump administration is undermining that trust while threatening to overturn a Biden era public land order protecting a ten mile buffer around Chaco Canyon. Removing the order could open additional federal land to oil and gas leasing.
Davey connected the attempted destruction of Chaco to a broader campaign of historical erasure. Vallo noted that Chaco was heavily excavated during the early 1900s, when Indigenous ancestors, burial belongings and cultural objects were removed. Tribes are still working to repatriate and rebury those ancestors while fighting to protect the land from further desecration.
Despite the threat, Vallo stressed that Native communities are prepared to resist through organizing, advocacy and litigation. “It’s a constant fight, it’s a constant battle, but we do prevail,” he said. He urged listeners to learn about Chaco Canyon and submit public comments to the Bureau of Land Management opposing the removal of its protections.
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.
