Courtroom Slugfest Nears as Drilling Creeps Toward Ancient Chaco World

"CHACO CANYON, N.M. -- Kyle Tisdel and Samantha Ruscavage-Barz sift through rocks beside a dusty road in New Mexico's high desert, searching for remnants of life a thousand years past.

With the nearest meager town of Cuba an hour away, they're off the beaten path by any standard. But to them, these dirt roads surrounding Chaco Canyon are the front lines of a monumental battle pitting ancient Pueblo culture against the modern world's thirst for oil.

This region of northwest New Mexico, about 75 miles south of Farmington, holds the United States' most extensive collection of Pueblo ruins -- hundred-room houses, astronomy-aligned architecture and ancient petroglyphs -- many of which are protected within the canyons and mesas of Chaco Culture National Historical Park."

Ellen M. Gilmer reports for EnergyWire July 13, 2015.