Santa Ana Pueblo reacquires 60,000 acres of ancestral land

In a ceremony eight years in the making, the Santa Ana Pueblo and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Southwest Regional Office officially signed a huge Sandoval County tract into trust June 12 at Prairie Star Restaurant.

The 60,000-acre tract of prime ancestral land hit the market in 2016, and Santa Ana Pueblo leaders immediately went to work to reacquire the land, known as the Tamya Kwii Kee Nee Puu (pronounced: Quicky Pooh). The land had been privatized and grazed for more than a century.

Eight years later, the pueblo and federal officials signed the tract into trust, which prohibits any commercial or gaming development on the property, said Patricia Mattingly, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Southwest regional office.

The land, formerly known as the King Alamo Ranch and owned by the family of former New Mexico Gov. Bruce King, holds a deep traditional importance to the pueblo.

“This is our land that our ancestors walked on,” former Santa Ana Gov. Joseph Sanchez said.

“The pueblo of Santa Ana is thrilled to reacquire our ancestral land and take stewardship of the property to preserve our historical and cultural activities,” Santa Ana Pueblo Gov. Myron Armijo said. “The 60,000 acres is being signed into trust to support our posterity and the future generations of our pueblo.”

The signing of the trust signifies legal ownership and stewardship of the land to preserve the pueblo’s ancestry and culture. The land represents ancestral farming and hunting grounds of the Tamayame people and was later used for traditional grazing. The 60,000 acres is bordered on the west by Rio Puerco and the pueblo of Laguna, on the east by Rio Rancho Estates, on the north by the pueblo of Zia and on the south by private lands.

Santa Ana Pueblo purchased the property for about $33 million in 2016.

“The pueblo is resolute that the property will remain in its natural state as a habitat for wildlife,” Mattingly said. The land is home to elk, mountain lions, mule deer, pronghorn and other wildlife that the Pueblo now is nurturing with water sources, called “guzzlers.”

The official signing of the trust was attended by nearly 100 people, including speakers from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, PNM, legal representatives associated with the trust, Santa Ana Pueblo government officials and representatives for U.S. Congress members Melanie Stansbury, Martin Heinrich and Teresa Leger Fernandez.

The trust also provides federal protections for the land that were unavailable previously, Santa Ana Gov. Myron Armijo said.

At the time of the purchase, the land was badly damaged by overgrazing, illegal dumping and hunting. The land also was scarred by off-road vehicle use and profit-hunters searching for Native American artifacts, Armijo said.

Some of that misuse has been curbed since the Pueblo purchased the land. But under the new trust protections, the Pueblo’s eight conservation officers now will have enhanced authority to arrest vandals and trespassers without relying on local law enforcement, Armijo said.

The trust designation also is expected to provide greater protections for the property’s Puebloan ruins, petroglyphs and artifacts that the Santa Ana consider their cultural heritage.

“It's a little sad that we have to purchase our land back, but we never know when we're gonna leave this earth. When that day comes, what we did today is to protect the future that's yet to come, and I think that's very important for our people,” former Santa Ana Gov. Glenn Tenorio said. “What we do today is for tomorrow, for the unborn children that are yet to come. I'm very thankful. Today is a great day for the pueblo. It’s the day that we’ve been looking for for the last eight years. And it finally came today to where we can actually accept our land wholeheartedly.”

Olivier Uytterback of the Albuquerque Journal contributed to this report.