Taos Pueblo fought for decades for sacred lake santafenewmexican/news/trail_dust/trail-dust-political-fight-preceded-blue-lake-s-return-to/article_79b54844-7e9a-5790-bd15-d9d6de23e008.html Of New Mexico’s 19 pueblos, Taos is among the most conservative in preserving traditional ways and religious ceremonies. Its huge adobe apartment blocks are the very last ones to rise to five stories, as many pueblos did when the Spaniards first saw them in the 1540s. For generations, the 1,500 or so Pueblo residents of Taos have made an annual pilgrimage in August to their holy lake. There they hold secret rites, including the Red Deer dance, from which all outsiders are rigorously excluded. Soon the lake began to suffer abuse from campers, fishermen and others. When the Pueblo people arrived for their ceremonies, they would find beer cans and similar trash, along with blackened stone rings left from campfires. For them, such thoughtlessness was intolerable. As early as 1924, the federal Public Lands Commission had offered Taos $300,000 to give up its ancient claims to the mountains and Blue Lake. The offer was refused. In 1933, the pueblo was happy to have Congress grant it a 50-year special-use permit for 32,000 acres surrounding Blue Lake. The Forest Service, however, still had ultimate jurisdiction, and it continued to allow public recreation in the area. The problems grew. By 1961, timber interests and developers were beginning to eye the neighboring mountains. Taos religious leaders were in a panic, and they decided to launch an all-out campaign to secure complete title to Blue Lake and a substantial buffer. Villagers went doggedly to work and started to raise money. Petitions would have to be made to Congress, representatives sent to Washington, again and again, and public support enlisted. Such an effort could not be carried out cheaply. Over the next decade, the campaign slowly gained momentum. Eloquently, the pueblo appealed to the nation for understanding and support. Among the new allies won to the Taos Pueblo cause was Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who pledged his help. Also joining were the National Council of Churches, the American Civil Liberties Union and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. Nevertheless, strong opposition emerged. Opposed to giving the pueblo any land outright were the U.S. Forest Service, sportsmen, the timber industry and conservation groups. They charged that the Taos Pueblo had engineered a national campaign based on “emotion, sympathy and sentiment,” and that if a proposed bill to grant them 48,000 acres was passed, then other pueblos, as well as Apaches and Navajos, would initiate claims to national forest lands. That was very much a concern of New Mexico’s powerful Sen. Clinton P. Anderson. He introduced a weaker bill to set aside 1,640 acres around Blue Lake as a sort of religious preserve for the pueblo. In the final stage of the legislative battle, President Richard Nixon came out in support of the Taos position. He even gave the pueblo governor a black cane, symbol of hereditary office. On Dec. 2, 1970, after heated debate, Congress returned Blue Lake and 48,000 acres to Taos Pueblo. Two weeks later, President Nixon, with a flourish of his pen, signed the bill into law. In Taos, the astounding news was greeted by a ringing of the old mission bell. Amid laughter and tears, people crowded the rooftops, poured through the streets and filled the church to offer thanks. It was a day never to be forgotten. Pueblo Gov. John Reyna declared: “Some people in Washington knew the Indian road. They know the way we always have gone. Now we keep our land as it was meant to be!”
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 10:05:57 +0000
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