Tierra o Muerte (Land or Death) sign outside of Tierra Amarilla. (Einar Einarsson Kvaran/Wikimedia)
Posted on 05/02/2016 4:56:28 PM PDT by CedarDave
On June 5, 1967, the Alianza Federal de Mercedes – which translates to Federal Land Grant Alliance – led by Reies Lopez Tijerina stormed the courthouse in Tierra Amarilla with the intention of freeing nearly a dozen members of their group who had been arrested two days earlier and to make a citizens’ arrest of prosecuting District Attorney Alfonso Sanchez.
The two-hour confrontation resulted in a prison guard being shot through the cheek and a sheriff’s deputy severely beaten. It ended when the 20 or so raiders escaped with two hostages.
The famous raid was inspired in part by ill will between the land grant activists and the U.S. Forest Service. And, nearly 50 years later, relations between the Forest Service and Hispanic landowners in parts of northern New Mexico remain a tinderbox.
“There is no trust of the Forest Service. There have been too many wrongs,” said Moises Morales, now Rio Arriba County clerk, who was Tijerina’s body guard at the time of the courthouse raid. And his feelings haven’t changed.
“They stole 32 million acres of land without the approval of Congress with the flick of a pen,” he said of what he maintains was the U.S. government’s systematic acquisition of property begun by President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration – property granted to Spanish settlers of the Southwest by the king of Spain hundreds of years before there was an America. “We have a right to this land.”
The latest iteration of this ancient dispute involves a Forest Service process to rewrite its management plan for the entire Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico ...
And part of the rewrite process involves whether to designate more areas as wilderness – which could put the land off-limits to land-grant heirs’ traditional uses ...
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
For those who might like to learn more about the raid and conflicts that still remain to this day, below are two link that I recommend reading.
“Reies López Tijerina and the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid”
Tijerina pulled up at Bode’s Store in Abiquiu as my Dad and I were about to leave. Dad had met him before and called him over to the pickup and as Tijerina walked over, Dad put his .44 Magnum on the dashboard for him to see and asked “Reyes, do you have a problem you want to discuss with me?” “No, nothing at all” was the reply.
I remember when this took place, the the Alianza Federal de Mercedes. Once while driving through there I saw a graffiti on the back of a billboard, “Tierra O Muerte!” I knew what it meant.
Tierra Amarilla and Chama have grown and new business is coming in. It might not be a good idea to run them off. As a Hispanic from the area said many years ago, only the old still dream of having a “Ranchero” there.
Interesting point, when I lived at Farmington, I met a man who had surveyed the area many years before. He said the local Hispanics wanted the survey, and he found many of the large Ranch owners had let their fences stray as much as 100 yards into the old Rio Arriba Land Grant areas.
***...property granted to Spanish settlers of the Southwest by the king of Spain hundreds of years before there was an America.
But the Indians reclaimed the land in 1680 and killed the Spanish in that area!
I visited Chama in 1995 and was amazed to see steam locomotives hauling freight. I felt like I had gone through a time warp back to the 1920’s.
That is the Cumbres and Toltec RR. Their biggest source of revenue is tourism on the line from Chama to Antonito, CO.
Great stuff, thanks for posting. The real New Mexico is much better than what folks want to dress it up as... a bit rough at times, but all the better for it.
Ted Turner is proud to announce luxury , eco-lodging for his rich Hollywood pals , to fly in on their private jets ...
Vermejo Park Ranch is located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado and spans over 590,000-acres
With private access to .. half million acres of ecologically diverse wildlands surrounding Truth or Consequences ..
“The real New Mexico is much better than what folks want to dress it up as... a bit rough at times, but all the better for it”.
Very well said. Thanks.
Now I need a flat red chile enchilada with a fried egg on top and enjoy the smell of a Pinon fire.
NM list PING!
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The courthouse event sounds like the inspiration for the storyline of the Clint Eastwood/Robert Duvall movie, Joe Kidd.
My father used to lease land on the CO side directly north of Vermejo from CF &I. At the time, their elk herd would move into our area and we would have some good hunting.
My first wife and I had our honeymoon at Vermejo to fish on several of the several lakes located above the lodges. Ole Ted ran all the beef cows off and inserted his bison.
Beautiful place.
A CEO I know spent time there a couple of years ago.
When he told me Td Turner owned it, and how much area it occupied , I looked it up and was surprised, by the massive area.
It may be the largest privately owned acreage in this country.-Tom
My family and I spent the night in Tierra Amarilla summer of 1990 waiting for a local mechanic to return to his shop...he lived up in the hills...
Friendly kind people that we met...we were tourists from Tejas...( ; )
I didn’t tell my wife their 1967 history until we drove through down town and observed the new buildings
on our way out of town.
I believe they should have control and use of the communal property given to the community by the Spanish land grants.
It used to be much larger back when the Penz Oil Co owned it. In exchange for some tax savings, they gave up almost 500 K acres to the state of New Mexico, if my memory serves me.
It’s very complicated.
I had an elk depredation hunt in that area a year ago. They seemed to enjoy making up lies with a lot of detail to send us on a wild goose chase. No cooperation at all, even they are required to get landowner tags. We got 3 for 3 in spite of their efforts.
Turner has amassed 2 million acres over the past two decades to become the largest private landowner in the country
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1931858/posts
Here is short video you might enjoy watching:
Cumbres & Toltec - Three Engine Freight Train
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