This week, a delegation from the Navajo Nation Council met with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in Washington — only two months after Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren welcomed him to the tribal capital in Window Rock.
Less than 100 days in, leaders like Navajo Nation Council Delegate Brenda Jesus, are already impressed with President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Interior Department, saying “Secretary Burgum was very open, and sat down to actually listen.”
Jesus, who chairs the tribe's Resources and Development Committee, joined Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley and fellow lawmakers. They talked about water, uranium, and most of all, oil and gas near Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.
Burgum’s Biden-appointed predecessor, Deb Haaland, banned drilling for two decades around the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023. But now, the Navajo Nation is asking the new administration to undo it. If not, thousands of tribal allottees could lose an estimated $194 million in royalties during the two-decade moratorium.
“We pretty much brought that back to the forefront of the Department of Interior, and our request was to resend the public law land withdrawal for Chaco,” said Jesus. “The discussion went very well.”
While Haaland — who is now running to become New Mexico's next governor — visited more than 300 tribes during her historic term as the Interior's first Indigenous Cabinet secretary, Jesus claims Burgum has done more “meaningful tribal consultation” in three months compared to the last four years.
“[Haaland] always sent Bryan Newland for no more than 15-20 minutes, but really couldn’t say anything because it was already told to us what topics we needed to talk about,” Jesus elaborated. “Whereas with this setting, being allotted an hour and half or more, we brought the issues to the table.”
“I really do believe that the consultation is more present here,” she added. “Although this administration has only been in for a little over three months — just by observation — they really want to work with tribes in Indian Country.”
While in the nation's capital, the Navajo delegation also scheduled meetings with the U.S. Department of Energy, EPA, Council on Environmental Quality and Federal Energy Regulation Commission.
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