“We never gave up.”
As Our Land Weekly readers well know, in 2016, the Pueblo of Santa Ana paid the King family more than $30 million to buy back some of the tribe’s ancestral lands northwest of current day Rio Rancho. When they bought the lands, the tribal council resolved they would be used only for traditional purposes.
Since then, eight tribal administrations have worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to incorporate those lands into their sovereign reservation. That work has been difficult and expensive, and included everything from resurveying the lands and cleaning up ordnances the U.S. military left behind during WW II training exercises to working with PNM on rights-of-way to trying to heal the land from heavy cattle grazing.
But last week, the Pueblo of Santa Ana hosted a signing ceremony — and the U.S. Department of the Interior finally transferred more than 60,000 acres from fee to trust lands. During the event, Gov. Myron Armjio spoke, as well as former governors, lieutenant governors, and other leaders — including some of the people featured in our documentary, “Ancestral Connections.”
Former Gov. Nathan Garcia recalled that while working for the pueblo’s Department of Natural Resources, he walked the entire boundary of Tamaya Kwii Kee Nee Puu, and now, as a conservation officer, he’s helping protect it. “We’re going to do great things with this property, as we restore it on many levels,” he said. “We never gave up. We kept pushing BIA, and today it paid off.”
By the way, what does it matter to transfer the land from fee to trust? A lot. But just for starters: The pueblo has had to pay county taxes on the lands and also lacked certain policing authorities. And now, for example, archaeological sites and sacred sites can be fully protected under federal laws.
You can read more about last week’s signing ceremony from the Associated Press’s Susan Montoya Bryan and also Source NM’s Austin Fisher.
New Mexico’s fire season is in full swing, and the Salt and South Fork fires are burning on Mescalero Apache and U.S. Forest Service lands around Ruidoso. According to State Forestry, regarding the South Fork Fire:
“The Village of Ruidoso is under mandatory evacuation. US 70 is closed from mm 249 (intersection NM 244), 4 miles east of Mescalero, to mm 258, 2 miles east of Carrizo. The only available evacuation route is on Sudderth to Highway 70, leading out to Roswell.”
By the time folks read this newsletter, I’m sure there will be updated information, so I’ll just point you to a few key resources:
• Incident Map URL: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=e2c6d99f914c44cbb18b75e73beef035
• Information about shelters and evacuations:
https://www.facebook.com/villageofruidoso
https://www.facebook.com/mescaleroapachetribe
Here’s some information for the Salt Fire: “Evacuation orders will remain in effect overnight for: Chatto Bluff, Apache Summit, Fantasy Lane, homes along Highway 70 from Highway 244 to the east Reservation line, Bear Canyon, and Snow Canyon.”
The most important thing I learned while reporting on the fires in 2022 — that I really need to reiterate — is that when evacuation orders are issued, it doesn’t necessarily mean your home is in immediate danger. It means that you have an opportunity to leave before your escape routes are too dangerous or inaccessible.
A couple of weeks ago, Source NM’s Danielle Prokop came into the NMPBS studio to conduct an interview with U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. The two were talking about thet senator’s longtime efforts to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to cover New Mexico downwinders. Expansion of RECA is super important, and I also wanted to note that Prokop asked another really important question. Luján’s father died of cancer, the senator believes, as the result of exposure from his work as an ironworker and welder at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“You have been a long and steady advocate for expanding RECA since your time in the House and again in the Senate,” she said. “You also support the work of the national laboratories, including plutonium pit production at Los Alamos. How do you square these things?”
Luján answers the question, and while it’s a deeply unsatisfying answer, it’s not a surprising one to hear from a New Mexico politician. You can watch the full interview over on YouTube.
Over on The Hotshot Wake Up (subscription required), there’s a report that the Silver City Smokejumper Base has been closed. According to that website, “All the photos and sewing machines have been removed from the facility, and everything has been transferred to Albuquerque. No official reason for its closing has been given publicly.” The website has another followup about it, too. But when I reached out to the Gila National Forest, I was told that it has not closed. According to public information officer Maribeth Pecotte, “We will be moving the table and seeing [sic] machines from the loft space at the tanker base to the cache later this year, because they are no longer necessary with the modern chutes that are used. We are trying to make more efficient and effective use of limited space at the tanker base.”
Oh, and sorry, folks, According to NOAA, El Niño is officially over and we’re in neutral conditions while waiting for La Niña to develop, probably by July through September. Meanwhile, river levels are dropping. And sheesh, what’s going on in the Gila? According to the USGS gauge near Gila, the river’s barely trickling out of the wilderness area.
Some more news:
• “LANL plans to release highly radioactive tritium to prevent explosions. Will it just release danger in the air?” (Alicia Inez Guzmán, Searchlight NM)
• “U.S. Considers Expanded Nuclear Arsenal, a Reversal of Decades of Cuts” (Julian E. Barnes and David E. Sanger, The New York Times)
• “State to test alert sirens in fire-damaged county amid flash flood risk” (Patrick Lohmann, Source NM)
• “New Mexico officials tell lawmakers the state needs more money invested in water infrastructure” (Danielle Prokop, Source NM)
• “Enviro group files ethics complaint; request for board member removal” (Danielle Prokop, Source NM)
• “Environmental groups sue feds over cows in Valles Caldera” (Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican)
• “Santa Fe County officials tout fire prevention to help get home insurance” (Maya Hilty, Santa Fe New Mexican)
• “Dam vital for water storage faces long delay in renovation” (Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican)
• “‘Thumb on the Scale’: Big Oil Aims to Cash in on Hydrogen Tax Credits – with Natural Gas” (Adam M. Lowenstein, DeSmog)
• “Dozens of Groups Push FEMA to Recognize Extreme Heat as a ‘Major Disaster’” (Manuela Andreoni, The New York Times)
If you’re interested in participating in public processes:
• The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is holding two public meetings to discuss the 10-year review and revision of the State Wildlife Action Plan for New Mexico. You can register now for the July 29 meeting in Albuquerque and register for the July 30 meeting in Las Cruces.
• The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission launched the online open house option for Main Stream New Mexico, which the agency describes as a “series of statewide open house meetings designed to involve communities in proactive water management strategies.” There are still six in-person open houses, too. To find out more, visit the ISC’s Main Stream New Mexico website.
• New Mexico State Parks is holding more meetings on its plans to raise fees. You can find out more on their website.
Lastly, just a couple more things for you to listen to or read. I love this Corinne Segal piece, “Reaching the Light of Day,” in Orion Magazine. It reminds me of some of the things I learned while reading Erica Gies’s book, “Water Always Wins.” And definitely check out the interview with Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer and member of Pakistan’s Climate Change Council, that aired on Living on Earth last week. I keep thinking about something Alam said: “Climate change is everything change. This is it. This is the coolest summer of the rest of our lives.”
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