The Biden administration conveyed its intention Monday to pause new oil and gas drilling for twenty years within a ten-mile radius of the Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, which already prohibits oil and gas drilling within its borders, drawing objections from the 24th Navajo Nation Council, which represents allottees of oil and gas leasing within the perimeter and which favors a five-mile protective radius instead. Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Dark Sky Park, contains structures inhabited by the ancient Puebloan peoples from roughly 850 to 1250 AD. The administration’s announcement comes after Congress approved a one-year ban on oil and gas leasing within a ten-mile perimeter of the park as part of the 2021 spending bill passed in December 2020. According to a press release from the Department of the Interior, the proposed move “would not affect existing valid leases …