Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Return of Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo: A New Day for American Indians

Establishment of the central village as their permanent residence. This central village of Pueblo de Taos is the oldest continuously inhabited place in America.

The Spanish explorer Francisco de Coronado led the first expedition up the Rio Grande Valley, and named the Sangre de Cristo (“blood of Christ”) mountains.

Spanish rule was established; Spanish law recognized Indian possessory rights to the territory used and occupied. However, the 300,000 acres occupied by Taos Puebloans, at the time stretching across Taos, Colfax, and Mora counties, was encroached upon through large grants made by the Spanish Crown and the appropriation of small acreages by squatters.

The Mexican Revolution resulted in Mexican sovereignty over New Mexico. The Mexican government confirmed Indian possessory rights to occupied territory under the Treaty of Cordova and the Mexican Declaration of Independence. However, the loss of land continued to accelerate under Mexican control with rampant bribes of corrupt administrators to produce fraudulent titles.

Sovereignty passed to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which guaranteed protection of property rights recognized by Spanish and Mexican law.

Yellowstone National Park and Yosemite National Park were created.

Tragically, between arrival of the Spanish and this date, due to disease and political oppression, the Tribe’s population from an estimated 20,000 at Spanish arrival dropped to 400 or 500 people.

Theodore Roosevelt was elected and became America’s first conservation-conscious president, setting aside 150 million acres of land as forest reserve and protecting 85 million acres in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. In the spirit of the rising conservation movement, the people of Taos Pueblo voiced a need for the protection of the Blue Lake watershed to the Bureau of Biological Survey when mining, timbering, and overgrazing became obvious threats with the increasing occupancy of the area.

The United States Government appropriated the Blue Lake area and made it part of the Carson National Forest. The Taos Pueblo supported this additional protection with the specific request of single-use for the Tribe in the Blue Lake watershed area. Without intention by Theodore Roosevelt or the Tribe, this proclamation actually stripped the Taos Pueblo of the aboriginal title, gave the sacred land to the federal government, and made it subject to the policies of the National Forest Service (NFS).

One of the central tenets of the Forest Service is a multiple-use land policy that encourages behaviors directly in conflict with the Taos Pueblo relationship with nature. The NFS encouraged recreational use, the production of resources, grazing, stocking lakes with fish, cutting roads and trails, authorizing mineral extraction and timbering, and manipulating vegetation to improve water yields. The Taos Pueblo, in contrast, believed that nature imparted to their ancestors the proper and perpetual modes of behavior toward the land and that departing from that behavior is sacrilegious.The livelihood of the Taos Pueblo, then and now, is rooted in the interrelationship of people and land: the people give homage to and fructify the land through prayer and ceremony; the land in turn nourishes and sustains the people.

Problems arose between the National Forest Service and the Pueblo Indians. The NFS issue permitted outsiders to use the Blue Lake watershed without warning to the Pueblo, resulting in the interruption of private sacred ceremonies. A key teaching of Pueblo ancestors is to keep the tribal religious knowledge secret. In fact, Pueblo natives believe that to reveal aspects of their religion to outsiders is to weaken it. Outsider presence in the place of rituals and ceremony constituted a great threat to the proper performance of duties and a serious invasion of religious privacy. The NFS also cut trails, stocked fingerling trout in Blue Lake to encourage fishing, and allowed non-Indian cattle to begin grazing the watershed, resulting in the destruction of centuries-old exclusive rights.

The Pueblo Lands Act was passed to investigate all private claims to Indian land and determine the authenticity of land title. Authenticity was based on continuous occupancy since 1902 with title and payment of taxes or continuous occupancy since 1889 with payment of taxes but without title. If a title was confirmed, the board determined the amount to be paid to a tribe for land lost.

The committee found that the Pueblo was not appropriately compensated for Indian lands settled by non-Indians. The Pueblo offered to waive compensation awarded for Indian lands settled by non-Indians if they could acquire the title to the Blue Lake area. But the Tribe received neither compensation nor title. A double-cross, discovered many years later, occurred when the Land Board made the Tribe’s waiver of payment a matter of official record, but recorded nothing about the waiver’s contingency upon the return of Blue Lake.

A Cooperative Use Agreement was signed between the Tribe and NFS after a series of uneven negotiations. Further deception took place in this agreement, when the draft was amended later to include only a portion of the Blue Lake watershed, cheating the Pueblo out of 7,000 acres in an effort to protect the grazing interests of Anglo cattlemen. Recreational use continued to increase in the Blue Lake watershed including the construction of a cabin, outhouse, garbage pits, and horse corrals at the lake.

An investigation of the efficacy of the 1927 Pueblo Lands Act was undertaken and found that the Lands Board paid non-Indian claimants the fair market value of the land they had lost while paying Indians only one-third of the market value.

On May 31, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee recommended that the title be restored to the Pueblo Indians. The House passed House Resolution 4014, the “Pueblo Relief Bill”, acknowledging that the Pueblo people were paid $382,000 less than they were owed because of the redaction of the Blue Lake watershed clause that took place in the 1927 agreement. It is also decided that the Tribe did not have a single-use patent to the area via the existing agreement but instead had the right to apply for a conditionally renewable fifty-year use-permit, which would leave authority for managing the watershed in the hands of the NFS.

After two years of negotiations over acreage, the Tribe gained the fifty-year use rights to 30,000 acres for grazing, obtaining water, wood, and timber, and for ceremonial religious observances. They were also granted exclusive use for three days during August with two-weeks notification to the Forest Service. Through these rights, non-Indian persons could still use the Blue Lake watershed for recreational use through governor permissions. The Forest Service was permitted to improve the forest in the area, while the Tribe was to patrol the watershed and oversee fire suppression. At this point, the Forest Service continued to behave with disregard for the Taos Pueblo and the Tribe carried on as if they were granted a single-use permit, both incorrect stances in the eyes of the law that resulted in years of constant conflict.

These years were filled with repeated failed attempts to regain the Blue Lake watershed by the Taos Pueblo.

Frank Waters published, The Man Who Killed the Deer, a novel telling the story of a Pueblo Indian who killed a deer on what was historically Indigenous land and was arrested by the Forest Service. This book gained national popularity and over the following 25 years inspired thousands to support the Pueblo struggle for the return of Blue Lake.

The Pueblo filed a suit before the Indian Claims Commission (ICC), seeking judicial support for the validity of its claim. The ICC was a special court to which tribes could present claims for land they had lost and for which they had received inadequate compensation. Taos Pueblo tribal members Seferino Martinez, Governor Star Road Gomez, and Paul Bernal, recently returned from WWII, led this new enlivened pursuit. John Collier, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Oliver La Farge, President of the Eastern Association on Indian Affairs also joined as important players in the fight for the return of Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo.

Stress over the inaction of the ICC caused infighting and staff turnover amongst the Blue Lake attorneys. An exploratory hearing was held every year by the Commission to establish facts, during which featured witnesses from the tribe testified to the “original Indian title” of the watershed with ceremonial use for themselves, their fathers, and their grandfathers. These witnesses included tribal members John Concha, Seferino Martinez, Julian Lujan, Antonio Mirabal, Hilario Reyna, Manuel Cordova, and Cesario Romero. Anthropologist Florence Hawley Ellis who excavated the oldest midden pile of the Taos Pueblo testified, and the Head of Records Division at New Mexico State Archives Dr. Myra Ellen Jenkins also provided expert testimony on land use patterns during Spanish and Mexican sovereignty. Due to too many ICC cases, the claim continued to lay dormant and the trial was postponed. House bills to amend the acreage of the current usage agreement were also put forth at that time and failed.

Both parties presented oral arguments. Throughout this time period, the Taos Pueblo was fighting the battle on another front with local politics and public views. The tides of public opinion changed quickly and were difficult to combat. Many efforts were made by the Blue Lake team to bring in Taoseños, news outlets, and influential figures. Multiple public relations campaigns were undertaken with nationally distributed printed media, and petitions were circulated that generated favorable coverage in papers from The Taos News to The New York Times and multiple television networks. Taos support groups were created that featured local influencers like John Collier, Charles and Mary Brooks, and Joan Huggins Reed. Local attorney Stephen A. Mitchell was also hired to work as a community liaison.

These community outreach efforts resulted in support for Taos Pueblo by the Taos Town Council and the influential ditch associations and supervisors of soil conservation. The Pueblo also secured the backing of national Indian organizations and the Association of American Indian Affairs publicly supported their cause. This campaign was remarkable in American history for the ecumenical spirit involving leading church authorities in support of aboriginal Indian religion including the National Council of Churches, the Archbishop of Santa Fe, the President of NMCC, the Chair of Commission on Law and Social Action of the American Jewish Congress, and prominent clergymen – both Catholic and Protestant – who wrote on behalf of the Pueblo after the Blue Lake team headed their claim on the basis of religious freedom.

Sometimes public opinion of the Taos Pueblo and Native Americans in general was out of the hands of the Tribe. The Taos County Commission waged a formidable public relations war pushing concerns about Pueblo control of water rights that would come with the title to the watershed. At different points during this sixty-four-year battle, opponents spread malicious misinformation about “animalistic” ritual behavior and peyote ceremonies taking place at the Taos Pueblo, as well as disparaging opinions about tribal members taking children out of school for religious ceremonies.

On Sep 8, the Indian Claims Commission affirmed that the U.S. government took the area unjustly from its rightful Indian owners. Next for the Blue Lake team was to approach the New Mexico delegation to develop a bill that would convey to them a trust title to 50,000 acres.

On March 15, S.3085 legislation to return the sacred area to the Pueblo was introduced in Congress by Sen. Clinton P. Anderson of New Mexico “by request” to indicate his lack of support. The bill died without action in the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Subcommittee.

Politicians were also beginning to rally behind the Blue Lake cause. Steward Udall, a popular and well-known interior secretary, took personal interest in the cause; New Mexico Governor David Cargo worked from behind the scenes to support the Blue Lake team before publicly advocating for the cause; Senator Robert Kennedy publicly advocated passage of S. 3085; and, near the end, Senator Fred Harris, Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon joined the cause. The bill became known as one with “unlikely bedfellows” as the bench became increasingly bipartisan with Senate majority whip Robert Griffin (R), Ted Kennedy (D), Senator Fred Harris (D), and Senato Barry Goldwater (R).

This was the beginning of a series of bills and hearings that went before the House of Representatives and Senate with significant movements forward and disappointing setbacks. Senator Clinton P. Anderson was regarded as the biggest enemy to the return of Blue Lake and was one of the primary reasons that the bill was stuck in the Senate for years. The trials were full of dramatic testimony, powerful allies putting forth support, rude and inexcusable treatment of Pueblo elders by government officials, and brave and inspiring testimony by members of the Taos Pueblo. Those who testified included Gov. John Reyna, Seferino Martinez, Paul Bernal, the American Friends Service Committee and Indian Rights Association, the Committee on Indian Work of the National Council of Churches, and the Executive Director of the Association on American Indian Affairs.

On May 10, Rep. James A. Haley, chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, introducedH.B. 3306, to restore the sacred area to the Pueblo and was passed unanimously. On June 22, a Justice Day celebration was held by the Taos Pueblo with other tribes, with the keynote speech from the chief of the powerful Navajo tribe. After this, the bill died again in the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Subcommittee at the hands of Senators Clinton P. Anderson and Lee Metcalf.

On Jan 3, the Blue Lake Bill was reintroduced by Rep. James A. Haley as H.B. 471 on the first day of the Ninety-first Congress.

On Jan 26, the National Congress of American Indians Executive Committee endorsed H.R. 471 and called for presidential support from President Richard Nixon as the cornerstone of a new Indian policy. The last holdouts, the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Budget, finally compromised under public and White House pressure. Thirty-six Indian leaders from around the country sent telegrams to Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon requesting that they publicly endorse the return of Blue Lake to the Taos Pueblo

In a breathtaking move, Juan Jesus de Romero, the Cacique of Taos Pueblo, the tribe’s highest priest in religious affairs, appeared for testimony before the U.S. Congress. The Cacique did not make public appearances but worked within the Pueblo to keep the sacred quest alive in the internal religious life of his people. Joining him in the final march of this battle were tribal members Quirino Romero, James Mirabal, and Paul Bernal.

On July 8, President Nixon announced support for H.R. 471 as the first element of his new Indian policy. One day later, on July 9, 1970, hearings opened before the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs on H.R. 471 and Senator Anderson’s diminished alternative, S. 750. This hearing featured unspeakable behavior by Senator Lee Metcalf who appeared drunk and an aging and unwell Clinton P. Anderson. The Cacique delivered inspiring testimony that was said to captivate the entire room. In response to the accusation that this was only an issue of concern for the elders of the tribe, Gilbert Suazo, as representative of the Taos Pueblo youth, presented to the subcommittee a statement signed by almost all of the younger Taos tribal members, calling for the return of Blue Lake. Metcalf treated the Pueblo men with complete disrespect, speaking disparagingly of “medicine men springing up everywhere.”

The Cacique left the hearing very angry, returning to the Pueblo to spend all night and day praying in the kiva with all of his strength and energy. Testifying at this hearing were members of the Taos Town Council, the Taos Soil and Water Conservation District, the American Indian Advisor to the Republican National Committee, Senator Stewart Udall, members of the Wilderness Society, the Blue Lake National Committee, representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council of Churches, and more nationally prominent citizens and organizations.

On July 25, a Second Justice Day was held to honor President Nixon and Vice President Agnew. A cane was presented to the tribe from Nixon as a symbolic gesture and is carried by the Cacique of the Taos Pueblo to this day.

On Aug 27, the Senate Subcommittee favorably reported to the full Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs regarding both H.R.471, which grants trust title to 48,000 acres comprising Blue Lake and access routes from the Pueblo, and S.750 Senator Clinton P. Anderson’s alternative, which grants an exclusive-use area of 1,640 acres around Blue Lake, but without exclusive access thereto. With this report, the Bill was finally free of the Senate Subcommittee after four years. On Dec 2, 1970 the Senate killed Anderson’s substitute measure, 56 to 21, and approved H.R 471, 70 to 12, finally ending the battle for the return of Blue Lake.

On Dec 15, ten days before Christmas, President Nixon signed H.R. 471 into Public Law 91-550. After signing, Nixon presented the pen to the beaming Cacique. The results of this decision reverberated through the country.

On November 18, this new public law effectively reversed government policy on Indian affairs when Congress passed P.L. 93-638, introducing a new era of self-determination for Native Americans.