[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1634 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1634

  Congratulating Taos Pueblo, its leaders and its people, on the 40th 
       Anniversary of the return of their sacred Blue Lake lands.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 16, 2010

Mr. Lujan submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Congratulating Taos Pueblo, its leaders and its people, on the 40th 
       Anniversary of the return of their sacred Blue Lake lands.

Whereas Taos Pueblo Indians have occupied their present homeland in northern New 
        Mexico since time immemorial, and their central village there is the 
        oldest continuously inhabited structure in North America;
Whereas Spanish rule was established over the Taos Pueblo territory in 1598 
        under laws recognizing Indian possessory rights; Mexico occupied and 
        assumed sovereignty over the territory in 1821, confirming Indian 
        possessory rights; and, in 1848, sovereignty over the territory passed 
        to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which 
        guaranteed protection of all property rights recognized by Spanish and 
        Mexican law;
Whereas, nevertheless, in 1906, illegally and without the consent of Taos 
        Pueblo, the United States Government appropriated the Pueblo's sacred 
        Blue Lake lands and made them a part of Carson National Forest, a 
        serious threat to and interference with the free and unmolested practice 
        of their religion by the people of Taos Pueblo;
Whereas Taos Pueblo began at once after this illegal taking a long and 
        courageous and, at the time, seemingly hopeless struggle to regain title 
        to these lands, sacred to them and an integral part of their cultural 
        and religious life;
Whereas, in 1965, the United States Indian Claims Commission affirmed that the 
        United States Government had unjustly taken Taos Pueblo's Blue Lake 
        lands and preparations were made to compensate the Pueblo in money for 
        the illegal taking, a move which the Pueblo rejected, still demanding, 
        instead, a return of the lands themselves;
Whereas because of the steadfast efforts of the Taos Pueblo leaders and people 
        through the years, their unanswerable moral and religious arguments, and 
        their principled refusal to accept nothing short of return of the Blue 
        Lake lands, more and more American organizations and leaders, public and 
        private, began to join in the Blue Lake cause and to take to heart the 
        words of the great old Cacique of Taos Pueblo at the time, the late Juan 
        de Jesus Romeo: ``Our Blue Lake wilderness keeps our water holy and by 
        this water we are baptized . . . If our land is not returned to us, if 
        it is turned over to the government for their use, then it is the end of 
        Indian life. Our people will scatter as the people of other nations have 
        scattered. It is our religion that holds us together''; and
Whereas almost unbelievably and against all odds, because of their own 
        unyielding fight and because their cause was just, the people of Taos 
        Pueblo finally won out, and legislation returning 48,000 acres of their 
        sacred Blue Lake lands to them cleared its last congressional hurdle and 
        passed the Senate in December 1970 and, the same month, was signed into 
        law by the President of the United States, who said at the time: ``This 
        bill indicates a new direction in Indian affairs in this country . . . 
        in which there will be more of an attitude of cooperation rather than 
        paternalism, one of self-determination rather than termination, one of 
        mutual respect'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) congratulates Taos Pueblo, its leaders, and its people, 
        on the 40th Anniversary of the return of their sacred Blue Lake 
        lands;
            (2) recognizes the long and courageous struggle of the Taos 
        Pueblo leaders and people through the years that brought about 
        this ultimate and greatly important success; and
            (3) encourages the observation of this anniversary, so 
        important to Taos Pueblo as well as to all American Indians and 
        tribes, with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
                                 <all>