More than 20 indigenous youth and environmental justice allies ran 50 miles from the Bureau of Land Management Rio Puerco Field Office in Albuquerque to the BLM state headquarters in Santa Fe on June 20. The #RunningForOurLives run symbolizes the public’s growing outrage against oil and gas development in Greater Chaco and across New Mexico.
The run occurred the same day as the Bureau of Land Management plans to lease more land for fracking via an online oil and gas sale. Close to 40,000 acres of public and tribal land throughout the state, including more than 37,000 acres of the Greater Chaco landscape, are up for oil and gas leasing.
Running through spiritual relay racing is a custom and long-held tradition for Tribal Nations of the Southwest. Runners ran through Sandia, Santa Ana, San Felipe, Cochiti, and San Domingo Pueblos between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, ultimately helping to deliver a letter to BLM calling for landscape-level protections for Greater Chaco.
Read the press release.
See photos and videos here.
