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72 The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century the 1924 act; this new law also increased the compensation to the Pueblo.49 Section 9 of the Pueblo Lands Act of 1933proved to be imperative to defining the water rights of the Pueblo Indians. It held: "Nothing herein contained shall in any manner be construed to deprive any of the Pueblo Indians of a 'prior right' to the use of water from streams running through or bordering on their respective Pueblos for domestic , stock-water, and irrigation purposes for the lands remaining in Indian ownership, and such water rights shall not be subject to loss by nonuse or abandonment thereof as long as title to said land shall remain in the Indians."bo Although the legislative measures of 1924 and1933restored much of the land to the Pueblo people, the state of New Mexico viewed the measures as taking land away from many of its citizens. On the other side, the Pueblo complained that the board operated using fixed values of $35 per acre even though much of the good valley land had been appraised by the board itself at more than $100 per acre.51 In the context of the monetary value system of American capitalism, the Pueblo communities believed their land was worth much more. In the context of their own value system, the land of their ancestors was considered invaluable, especially to their future generations. By the mid-1930s, the immediate conflict was over, but the competitionfor land has continued to this day-a competition that is made even more significant by the limited water and the dry environment of the area. The southwestern part of the United States continually thirsts for water to supply its increasing needs. This desire has become seriously evident since the mid-1980s,and water on the lands of the Pueblo communities is becoming increasingly attractive for white farmers, for energy companies that need it to send coal through huge pipes to faraway cities, and for basic industrial uses in the Southwest. As a result, the Pueblo communities have to fight aggressively in the courts, much as they fought in war centuries ago, to protect their precious water supplies. Ironically, past politics overshadowed the inherent strength of the Pueblo communities and the importance of water in the Southwest, and the mainstream society's version of history has only reinforced this. The Rio Grande and the Colorado River supply most of the natural water in the southwestern region of the United States. Due to the arid climate, with temperatures frequently soaring above the 100degree mark, water has always been a precious commodity. History has recorded the efforts of numerous peoples and nations to capture the precious water belonging to the Pueblo communities. The Spanish arrived as the first European conquerors to invade the Pueblo South- Strugglefor Pueblo Water Rights in the Southwest 73 west in quest of jewels, silver, and gold. As conquistadors led Spanish armies against the Pueblo communities, the Spanish crown exercised its presumed power over the Pueblo and their lands. Although the Spanish were not immediately interested in the water supplies, they claimed Pueblo land and placed it under Spanish authority. The same story of greed was repeated when the Mexicans and the Americans controlled the Southwest. Yet in spite of all the imperialistic drives for land and water resources in the Southwest, the Pueblo communities continued to preserve their sovereignty, which they found essential to protecting their lands and water rights. In the early-twentieth-century controversy over these matters, as the Bursum bill became a political focus involving Republican influence ,the true origin of the issues of water and irrigated lands within Pueblo domain were overshadowed. Nonetheless, the Pueblo communities endured-proving the strength of the internal cohesiveness of these Indian people and demonstrating anew that "community"is an essential element for survival. The individual, family, and community composed the tribe or nation that determined native identity. Before long, however, another generation of Indians in the Klamath Tribe of the Pacific Northwest would also struggle to protect its own vitalnatural resource-timber-anditsidentity against the threat posed by a federal policy called termination. NOTES 1. Bertha P. Dutton, American Indians in the Southwest (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983),p. 9. 2. "Nefas and Narrandum," Zbos Valley News, March 4,1923,Folder 4, Box 8,Holm 0.Bursum Papers, Special Collections, University of New Mexico Library, Albuquerque. 3. According to the "Recopilaci6n," the Spanish crown expected the...

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