Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas at White Mesa Ute Sacred Walk: An Offering to Mother Earth

Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, encouraging walkers.

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas at White Mesa Ute Sacred Walk

An Offering to Mother Earth

Transcribed by Censored News

"Every step that you take on this Mother Earth is a sacred step, every step is a prayer, every step is an offering, every inch of this Mother Earth is Turtle Island, it has the remains of our Ancestors, every one of these people that are here today, people from this area, people from the surrounding area, the Indigenous People."

Standing next to Ute Grandmother Thelma Whiskers, Ofelia said, "She looks like she is by herself, but from generations since the beginning of the Earth, her ancestors are standing behind her."

Dine' Challenge Biden's Approval of Fracking Greater Chaco

Advocates challenge Biden double-down on Trump-era fracking on sacred land in Greater Chaco

Coalition statement

October 25, 2022

Today, a group of Diné and conservation groups challenged the Biden administration’s approval of fracking on nearly 45,000 acres—70 square miles—of the Greater Chaco region of northwest New Mexico. In April, the groups entered a legal agreement with the Biden administration under which it reconsidered these leasing decisions given the fracking’s close proximity to homes and within the sacred Sisnaateel Mesa Complex, central to Diné cosmology and akin in importance to Jerusalem, Mecca, or the Bodhi Tree in India. Betraying Interior Sec. Deb Haaland’s “Honoring Chaco” initiative, the Bureau of Land Management rubber-stamped approvals for this leasing in August.