Number: 1984-32
WHEREAS, the Santa Cruz Spring tract of 25,000 acres was acquired by the United States in 1848 under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican War; and
WHEREAS, the federal government subsequently purchased the acreage in 1934 and 1935 under emergency relief acts that authorized the Department of Agriculture to buy private land during the depression to save the owners from bankruptcy; and
WHEREAS, the land was initially supervised by the Soil Conservation Service to restore worn out soils and depleted vegetation that had resulted from overgrazing by livestock; and
WHEREAS, the Santa Cruz Spring tract was assigned to the Forest Service in 1953 and made part of the Santa Fe National Forest by law in 1972; and
WHEREAS, the Pueblo de Cochiti Indian tribe in New Mexico has filed a claim on this tract alleging fraud and duress as reported on an 1818 Spanish Colonial Court finding at a time before the U.S. had sovereignty over the area; and
WHEREAS, the validity of this claim has not been adjudicated;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in annual meeting assembled March 15-18, 1984, in Atlanta, Georgia, op- poses the transfer of the 25,000 acres of the Santa Cruz Spring tract embodied in H.R. 3259 to the Pueblo de Cochiti; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that public lands in the United States must be protected against land claims that circumvent legitimate adjudications and land titles.