Four Square Leagues: Pueblo Indian Land in New Mexico

10. The Pueblo Lands Board

267 c h a p t e r 1 0 The Pueblo Lands Board W hen special attorney for the Pueblos Richard Hanna began filing ejectment actions in federal court against non-Indians residing on Pueblo lands in 1919, the issue of non-Indian trespass on Pueblo lands was finally brought into full focus. An understanding of the interplay of litigation, legislative activity, administrative intrigue, and pressure-group lobbying that led to the enactment of the Pueblo Lands Act and the subsequent proceedings of the Pueblo Lands Board is essential to an understanding of how the Pueblos came to lose approximately 45,000 acres of their grant lands to non-Indian settlers and thousands more due to the misconduct of the Pueblo Lands Board itself.1 After the Sandoval decision in 1913, “every possible means to evade the consequences of the . . . decision was utilized by those non-Indians who were in possession of Pueblo lands.”2 Tensions were growing, especially after Francis Joy completed his surveys of the non-Indian claims at each pueblo. Although only intended to show the extent of the claims, the non-Indians viewed Joy’s surveys as confirming their titles, and they began erecting fences on the boundaries shown on his plats. The Pueblos began tearing the fences down. One such incident at Tesuque Pueblo, when a “band of Tesuque Indians dismantled about 2 miles of fence recently erected” by a new resident of the area, nearly led to bloodshed.3 The first efforts to legislate a solution to the growing conflict came in the closing weeks of the 66th Congress in early 1921. John B. Payne, the outgoing Democratic secretary of the interior, forwarded a chapter 10 268 proposed bill that would invalidate any non-Indian claim to Pueblo lands not approved by the secretary of the interior (that is, effectively all of them) to Senator Charles Curtis, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. The bill would also have imposed a patronizing regime of secretarial authority over the Pueblos’ internal affairs. At about the same time, retiring New Mexico congressman Benigno C. Hernandez introduced a bill in the House that would have provided for the validation of nearly all non-Indian claims to Pueblo lands,withoutcompensation to thePueblos,andthecreationofathree-member commission empowered to issue patents to every non-Indian who could show occupancy of Pueblo land for at least ten years prior to New Mexico statehood. Although neither bill was acted on, they set the stage for the fight to come. Interestingly, two concepts embodied in Hernandez’s bill—the three-member commission and the occupancy requirement of a number of years—became part of the final act.4 When the new Congress convened on 4 March 1921, Republicans controlled both Houses and the White House as well, marking a change in the political lineup that became critical for the outcome of the Pueblo land issue. Former New Mexico senator Albert B. Fall became secretary of the interior and in his place, New Mexico governor Merritt Mechem (1921–1923) appointed Fall’s political rival, Holm O. Bursum of Socorro, as senator. Fall previously had little involvement in the Pueblo land issue, but Bursum saw it as a potent weapon in the special election for the Senate seat he faced in the fall against Richard H. Hanna; he therefore made himself the champion of the non-Indian settlers. Soon after taking office, on 1 June 1921, Bursum introduced a bill that would confirm the titles of all non-Indians who could show continuous occupancy of tracts of pueblo lands of 160 acres or less for ten years prior to the passage of the act and would bar the United States or the Pueblos from taking any legal action intended to recover such lands. The Pueblos were to receive no compensation for their loss of lands. This bill was seen as blatantly one-sided and went nowhere.5 Six weeks later Bursum tried again with a bill more similar to Hernandez’s proposal, under which a three-member commission would review the non-Indian claims and those claimants who could show occupancy during the ten-year period prior to statehood would receive clear titles. Even those whose occupancy commenced after statehood could obtain title if they had deeds or the “implied consent” of the Pueblo, or if they had made improvements on the land. 269 THE PUEBLO LANDS BOARD That, too, failed to...