La Voz de Aztlan Exclusive

United States Government to Review
New Mexico Land Grants
Under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

Albuquerque, Nuevo Mexico (January 31, 2001) - (ACN) La Voz de Aztlan has learned from Juan José Peña, Vice-Chair of the Hispano Roundtable de Nuevo Mexico, that the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) has released an Exposure Draft of a report that will review land grants that were issued by Spain and later by the Republic of Mexico. The land grants were to be honored by the U.S. under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo that was signed at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848.

The Exposure Draft seeks input from Nuevo Mexicanos that have a claim for land under the treaty or that wish to submit comments, information or documentation on the matter. This is a great victory for all Nuevo Mexicanos and specially for Reies Lopez Tijerina founder of the Alianza Federal de Mercedes which in 1967 led a valiant bloody fight in Tierra Amarilla for land rights under the treaty. Tijerina and other leaders of land grant rights hope that the same government review occurs in California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado and other regions that were ceded by Mexico under the treaty.

In this report, the first in a series, the U.S. government agreed to (1) define the concept of community land grants and (2) identify the types of community land grants in New Mexico that meet the definition. Subsequently, the government will describe the procedures established to implement the treaty, identify concerns about how the treaty was implemented, and what alternatives may be available to address these concerns. Any Nuevo Mexicano who may have a claim to land is encouraged to obtain a copy of the Exposure Draft. This can be done in the following way (first copy is free):

1. Pick one up in person in Room 1100, 700 4th St. NW, Washington, D.C.

2. Request by U.S Mail to U.S. General Accounting Office, Washington,D.C. 20548

3. By telephone at (202) 512-6000 or TDD (202)512-2537

4. Request a copy from La Voz de Aztlan through e-mail at Treaty@Aztlan.Net The copy will be sent as an attachment as a .pdf file. You will need Acrobat Reader that can be downloaded for free from http://www.adobe.com

5. Consult the Hispano Roundtable de Nuevo Mexico website at http://www.hrtnm.org for further information

If you have comments, information or supporting documentation about the matters included in the Exposure Draft you should send them during the comment period that ends on April 2, 2001. These comments, information or documentation can be sent by e-mail to landgrants@gao.gov, fax to 202-512-7703, or mail to Office of General Counsel, U.S. General Accounting Office, 441 G Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20548 Attention: Alan R. Kasdan

All comments should contain your name, address, phone number, fax, e-mail address, interest in land grants (e.g. claimant, heir, scholar, government official, or interested organization), and supporting documentation. For comments via e-mail, supporting data should be subsequently sent to Mr. Kasdan by fax or at the address above.

The following is the cover letter of the Exposure Draft addressed to Senator Pete Domenici and Senator Jeff Bingaman:

January 24, 2001

The Honorable Pete Domenici
The Honorable Jeff Bingaman
United States Senate

From the end of the seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, Spain (and later México) made land grants to individuals, towns, and groups to promote development in the frontier lands that now constitute the American Southwest. In New Mexico, these land grants fulfilled several purposes: to encourage settlement, reward patrons of the Spanish government, and create a buffer zone to separate hostile Native American tribes from the more populated regions of New Spain. Spain also extended land grants to several indigenous pueblo cultures, which had occupied the areas granted long before Spanish settlers arrived in the Southwest. Under Spanish and Mexican law, common land was set aside as part of the original grant for the use of the entire community. Literature on land grants in New Mexico and popular terminology generally distinguish between two kinds of land grants: “community land grants” and “individual land grants.” Our research identified a total of 295 grants made by Spain and México during this period. Appendix I in the Exposre Draft contains a list of these grants.

With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which formally ended the Mexican-American War, the United States assumed control over vast new territories, including much of what is now the state of New Mexico. Under the treaty, the United States agreed to recognize ownership of property, including the ownership of land grants, in the ceded areas. Over the next half century, the United States developed procedures to validate land grants in the territory of New Mexico in order to implement the treaty provisions. Whether the United States carried out the provisions of the treaty, especially with regard to community land grants, has been a controversial issue for generations. Many persons, including grantee heirs, scholars, and legal experts, still claim that the United States did not protect the property of Mexican-Americans and their descendants, particularly the common lands of community land grants. They charge that the common lands were lost in many ways and that this loss threatened the economic stability of small Mexican-American farms and the farmers’ rural lifestyle.

Concerned that the Congress and the courts have validated only about 25 percent of the total land grant claims in New Mexico and that most of the lost lands stemmed from community land grants, you asked us to answer several questions concerning community land grants and procedures under the treaty. In this report, the first in a series, we agreed to (1) define the concept of community land grants and (2) identify the types of community land grants in New Mexico that meet the definition. Subsequently, we will describe the procedures established to implement the treaty, identify concerns about how the treaty was implemented, and what alternatives, if any are needed, may be available to address these concerns.

To define community land grants, we reviewed land grant documents filed with the U.S. government; Spanish colonial, Mexican, and current New Mexican laws; federal, state, and territorial court cases; and the land grant literature. To identify land grants meeting the definition of community land grants, we reviewed U.S. records on Spanish and Mexican land grant claims; literature on land grants, including materials on specific grants; and federal court cases. We also spoke with scholars, legal experts, and grant heirs familiar with the issues. For the most part, we relied on English translations of Spanish documents in U.S. government files and other sources. Our identification of a land grant as a community land grant in this report, however, does not constitute our opinion as to the validity of any land grant claim. Many of these land grants have already been subject to congressional review or court adjudication. Appendix II of the Exposure Draft contains a complete description of our methodology.

We are issuing this report as an Exposure Draft in English and Spanish to gather and to identify information on community land grants that was not readily available to us in published research and public documents. We would also like to obtain comments about our definition and our identification of community land grants. We will use such information and comments when preparing our final report. The NOTICE located on the inside cover of this report provides information about how additional copies of the Exposure Draft can be obtained and when and to whom comments should be sent.

Figure 1: Territory Ceded by México Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.