[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 25, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7545-S7546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DOMENICI (for himself and Mr. Inouye):
  S. 2917. A bill to settle the land claims of the Pueblo of Santo 
Domingo; to the Committee on Indian Affairs.


           SANTO DOMINGO PUEBLO CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACT OF 2000

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, Santo Domingo Pueblo is one of the 
largest Indian pueblos in New Mexico. It is located north of 
Albuquerque and South of Santa Fe, about midway between the two. For 
about 150 years, some 80,000 acres have been in dispute with 
neighboring Indian pueblos, Spanish land grants, and private land 
holders. Many of these disputes have been in court, but remain 
unsettled.
  I am pleased to inform my colleagues that three years of negotiations 
have produced a settlement agreement. Our legislation would ratify that 
agreement, thus resolving a complex land ownership situation in New 
Mexico.
  The initial Spanish land grant establishing the Santo Domingo Pueblo 
Grant was issued in 1689. When this Spanish grant was surveyed in the 
mid-19th century, approximately 24,000 acres of land to the east of the 
current reservation boundary were erroneously excluded. The excluded 
lands are now held in private deeds and public lands, but not by Santo 
Domingo Pueblo.
  The Pueblo of Santo Domingo purchased the Diego Gallegos Spanish Land 
Grant to expand its reservation on the west end. That purchase excluded 
some privately held lands and overlapped with both the San Felipe and 
Cochiti Pueblos.
  Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands have also 
been claimed by Santo Domingo Pueblo.
  The global settlement we are endorsing, resolves the complex set of 
title disputes between Santo Domingo, the Pueblos of San Felipe and 
Cochiti, the federal government, and private land holders.
  In return for both money and land, the Santo Domingo Pueblo will 
waive their land claims and remove the clouded title for private land 
holders. This settlement envisions a monetary settlement of $23 
million. Of that amount, $8 million would be payable from the Judgment 
Fund. The remaining $15 million would be from appropriated accounts 
over a three year period at $5 million per year, beginning in FY 2002.
  Approximately 4500 acres of BLM land would be conveyed to Santo 
Domingo Pueblo, and the Pueblo would have an option to purchase 7000 
acres of Forest Service land for the agreed upon price of $3.7 million.
  Three lawsuits will be settled by this legislation. The first is 
Pueblo of Santo Domingo v. United States. This case is over 50 years 
old and was filed under the Indian Claims Commission Act (ICCA). In 
this action, the Pueblo asserts monetary claims against the United 
States for trespass, lost use, and breach of the ICCA's ``fair and 
honorable dealings'' provision by the United States. The Pueblo's 
claims, based on its Spanish land grants, involve more than 80,000 
acres of land. Our legislation affirms the compromise award of $8 
million for these claims and also includes the Pueblo's stipulated 
settlement of the ICCA case.
  The second lawsuit is Pueblo of Santo Domingo v. Rael. This issue 
stems from the Pueblo's purchase of the Diego Gallegos Grant. The 
Pueblo sought possession of land from a private landowner in the same 
grant. The Federal District court for the District of New Mexico 
entered judgment for the Pueblo. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit ordered 
the Rael action held in abeyance until the Government intervened in 
Rael or judgment was entered in the overlapping ICCA case. To date, 
neither has occurred. The settlement legislation will resolve the 
issues in the Rael case.
  The third lawsuit to be settled by this legislation is United States 
v. Thompson. In this case, the United States sought to enforce the 
Pueblo's title against third-party owners who trace their titles to 
overlapping land grants. In 1991, the Tenth Circuit held that the 
United States' claim for the Pueblo was time-barred. The Court of 
Appeals, however, found that the Pueblo Lands Board had ignored an 
express Congressional directive in its determination that the overlap 
lands were not the Pueblo's lands.
  The Court of Appeals did not resolve the ownership question, again 
due to the time bar. These overlap lands are currently in the 
possession of non-Indians and in the Army Corps of Engineers. This 
global settlement will resolve the ownership questions in favor of the 
private landowners and the Army Corps of Engineers in the overlap area.
  The global nature of this settlement will put all these issues to 
rest. Assuming the Congress agrees with our legislation, the next step 
would be entry of the stipulated settlement of the ICCA case and 
dismissal with prejudice of the Pueblo's existing quiet title action in 
Rael. The Pueblo of Santo Domingo would then receive both the money and 
the lands agreed to in this settlement agreement. In addition to 
waiving its ICCA claims and the Rael case, the Pueblo agrees to waive 
other existing land claims.
  In this settlement agreement, the Congress would ratify and resolve 
the Pueblo's land claims with finality and do so in a principled way 
which serves the interests of all parties. The Pueblo of Santo Domingo 
boundaries have been in dispute since the mid-19th century. This 
settlement resolves the Pueblo of Santo Domingo claims once

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and for all, and clearly delineates the Pueblo's boundaries. I urge my 
colleagues to support this legislation.
                                 ______