JEMEZ PUEBLO, N.M.—Expressions of excitement and relief filled the room as Pueblo of Jemez leaders and community members joined the U.S. Department of the Interior to celebrate a settlement agreement that upholds the pueblo’s entitlement to ancestral land inside the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
“This is our church, the Valles Caldera,” Jemez Pueblo Gov. Peter Madalena said on Sunday during a celebration to close the pueblo’s 12-year fight in federal court to secure part of the national preserve for current and future members of the pueblo.
Among the acreage affected is Banco Bonito, approximately 3,035 acres inside the national preserve in north central New Mexico. It is a landscape that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland described during the ceremony as “irreplaceable,” with mountains, rolling hills and wildlife.
In 2012, the tribe sued the United States over ownership and access to all lands within the 88,900-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve. As the case made its way through court hearings and appeals, the pueblo narrowed its claims to four areas, including Banco Bonito.
The land is ancestral to the pueblo but was privately held beginning in the 1860s until the United States bought the property in 2000 from the owners, according to court documents.
In the pueblo’s complaint, they argued that they never gave up the land and were never consulted about its ownership. Additionally, the area connects them with their creation and they continue to use the area for many purposes.
“Jemez Pueblo’s right of possession, use and occupancy has not been extinguished by conquest, voluntary cession or voluntary abandonment or by any express act of the United States Congress purporting to take or extinguish Jemez Pueblo’s aboriginal Indian title,” the complaint states.
David Yepa, general counsel for the pueblo, explained that the pursuit of reclaiming ancestral land was talked about for generations. When the United States pursued purchasing the land in the late 1990s, the pueblo supported it because it was the strategy that could one day allow them to get the land back, he said.
“Today, this is it,” Yepa said.
Valles Caldera became a national preserve on December 19, 2014. The National Park Service, a bureau within the Interior Department, honored its 10th anniversary last week.
The settlement agreement, signed by the parties in October, recognizes the pueblo’s right to occupy and use Banco Bonito for cultural, traditional and religious purposes. It also has the park service retaining management of Banco Bonito, which will remain accessible to the public.
“It is where we farmed and lived for hundreds of years,” Madalena said. “Securing our aboriginal lands is crucial to the survival of our pueblo, and our traditions and culture.”
The settlement agreement creates a permanent partnership between the pueblo and the park service.
“We are happy to be on this better path with the United States and we are grateful to be able to celebrate with everyone this significant accomplishment that our entire community and the United States have worked very hard on,” Madalena said.
Haaland joined dignitaries from the pueblo in a visit to Banco Bonito on Sunday morning. When they arrived at the event inside the Walatowa Fitness Center, the secretary was greeted with hugs from community members. A member of the pueblo presented her with gifts of artwork.
“That agreement will ensure that the pueblo can return to Banco Bonito to practice the songs, dances and other uses that have coexisted with this place long before it was ever called the United States,” Haaland said.
It is also another example of the work the Interior Department under the Biden administration has done to engage collaboratively with tribal nations to improve management of public lands that comprise ancestral land.
Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, one of the 19 pueblo Native American communities in New Mexico. She is in the final weeks of her role as Interior Secretary, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, a role she was selected for by President Joe Biden four years ago.
“When I became secretary, this was the kind of moment I hoped for—federal leaders and tribal nations standing together in collaborative management of this unmatched landscape,” Haaland said.
She added that this is her last trip to her home state as Interior Secretary.
New Mexico’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján came from Washington, D.C. to attend the ceremony.
Luján commended pueblo leadership and members for educating United States officials about the land that was taken from them.
“While I’m here to congratulate all of you, I’m also here to say sorry,” he said. “Because it should not have taken all of these years for the United States government to do what is right.”
Jorge Silva-Bañuelos, superintendent of Valles Caldera National Preserve, has built a relationship with the pueblo through his work, including learning about the importance of Valles Caldera.
“The Jemez people are warriors, and they will always fight for what they believe in,” Silva-Bañuelos told the audience. They have a “deep, deep love” for Valles Caldera, he said, to loud applause.
Both those traits factored into the pueblo starting the legal fight for the right of occupancy in 2012, he added.
“This settlement really marks an opportunity for a new chapter in partnership, in collaboration and I see this as really the beginning of deepening the relationship between the pueblo and the National Park Service,” Silva-Bañuelos said.
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Madalena, the pueblo’s governor, recognized attorneys, tribal council members, religious leadership and the Interior Department for their work on the settlement agreement.
The celebration and gathering also honored elders, grandparents and parents who made sacrifices to ensure the pueblo’s survival, Madalena added.
Christina West, a partner with Barnhouse Keegan Solimon & West, the law firm that represented the pueblo, said many individuals had a role in the settlement agreement, including the land recovery committee and personnel at the Interior Department.
“I think the Biden administration has gone above, beyond what I’ve often seen in terms of working for Indian Country,” said West, who is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
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Noel Lyn Smith
Fellow, Outrider Foundation and Roy W. Howard
Noel Lyn Smith is a Diné (Navajo) reporter. Her maternal clan is Honágháahnii (One-Walks-Around Clan), and paternal clan is Hashtł’ishnii (Mud Clan). Her reporting has focused on all aspects of the Navajo Nation. Her favorite topics include the tribal government and the environment. She reported about the Gold King Mine spill, water issues, threats to sacred sites and coal mining, including the tribe’s purchase of the Navajo Mine. She looks forward to expanding her understanding of Indigenous communities while working for Inside Climate News as part of a year-long fellowship funded by the Outrider Foundation and the Scripps Howard Fund. Noel was a staff reporter with the Farmington Daily Times in northwest New Mexico and with the Navajo Times in Window Rock, Arizona. Her work has also appeared in ICT, formerly Indian Country Today. She took a break from her career to earn a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Noel is the first recipient of a partnership between the Cronkite School, the Indigenous Journalists Association and ICT to complete a master’s degree program at Cronkite. Her bachelor’s degree is in journalism from Northern Arizona University. This story was produced with support from the Outrider Foundation.
