Santa Clara Pueblo floats federal role to resolve access dispute
Rep. Luján reads letter from Gov. Chavarria at Española meeting, calls it turning point in long-running standoff
ESPAÑOLA — Local and state governments have long been at odds with area pueblos over rights on way on public roads that go through tribal lands, creating conflict and deep divisions between Native Americans and nonIndians who have lived side by side for generations.
In at least one community in the heart of the Española Valley, the two opposing forces may have finally found a point they can agree on: The federal government is largely to blame for the mess and should help clean it up.
The problem is rooted in the Pueblo Lands Act that Congress passed in 1924, which allowed non-Indians who could show they had long occupied pueblo lands to obtain title to those properties. But Congress made no provision for road or utility easements on those lands, and it wasn’t until recent decades that the tribes started to question what they say is the trespass over pueblo lands and demand compensation.
“Compensation has apparently become a major stumbling block for getting the current road and utility trespasses resolved,” Santa Clara Pueblo Gov. J. Michael Chavarria wrote Monday in a letter to U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján.
“It seems to us that the fairest solution would be for the United States to assume at least a substantial portion of the compensation burden for easements to be granted to the various governmental entities,” Chavarria added. “How that would be accomplished could be a complex matter, and ordinary ‘fair market value’ appraisals would plainly be inappropriate in this context, because pueblo land is not for sale. … The point, though, is that the United States, being largely responsible for the existence and persistence of this problem, ought to help solve it.”
Chavarria also wrote in the letter that he wanted to clear up “a great deal of misinformation” by people with ulterior motives.
“It has been reported to us repeatedly
that private persons are being told, often by public officials who should know better, that the pueblo is denying persons who lives on or near such roads access to their homes, or that we are charging such persons or threatening to charge such persons for access rights, or that such persons cannot sell or refinance their homes because the pueblo will not guarantee access rights,” he wrote. “I am hoping … to set the record straight on these matters.”
In a telephone interview late Tuesday, Chavarria said the pueblo has no plans to deny anyone access to their property.
“We’re not going to go that far,” he said.
In November, the pueblo asked the state Department of Transportation for $600,000 in exchange for a 25-year easement agreement for N.M. 369 — a narrow road known by locals as the Upper San Pedro and Lower San Pedro loop around the community — with an option to renew for one additional 25-year term.
The matter remains unresolved.
“NMDOT’s Office of General Counsel and attorneys for Santa Clara Pueblo have meet numerous times to discuss NM 369,” a state official wrote in a statement sent to the congressman. “In the third quarter of 2017, NMDOT forwarded maps to the BIA and Santa Clara Pueblo attorneys for review and comments. The NMDOT continues to receive comments on the mapping from BIA as recently as March of this year. The NMDOT is still addressing the latest comments.”
Asked whether the pueblo was open to granting an easement in perpetuity, which elected officials and residents alike say will avoid potential confrontations in the future, Chavarria was noncommittal.
“We’re open to negotiations,” he said. “I guess that’s as far as I can go for now.”
Luján, who read portions of Chavarria’s letter at a community meeting Monday night that drew more than 300 people, said the letter represents a turning point in the ongoing dispute over road easements and residents’ inability to obtain title insurance.
The recognition by Chavarria that the federal government should have a role in settling the dispute “is the first time that I’ve received communication like this from a pueblo governor in the instance of a road easement issue,” Luján said.
“I think that’s critically important because there’s now, I think, on the table an opportunity to work collectively,” the congressman told a standing-room-only crowd at the Nick Salazar Center for the Arts at Northern New Mexico College.
In an interview, Luján said he agreed that the federal government needs to play a role.
“We all have an important role,” he said. “I’ve continued to push amendments and legislation in these particular areas, and I’ll continue to do that as well until we’re able to find a final resolution to this issue.”
Adan Trujillo, Rio Arriba County attorney, said he was “encouraged” by Chavarria’s letter.
“That letter to me indicated a desire and willingness to work with us in a way that I haven’t heard before,” he told the audience.
“When you have a problem of that magnitude, it’s not fair for the pueblo to waive their right to fair market value compensation for those easements that are legally theirs,” he added. “It’s not fair that the county or the local governments that didn’t have a hand in that would have to shoulder the burden on the backs of their residents decades later. That’s not fair, and it’s not right. So, when you look at a situation where both parties have large dogs in the fight without the ability to make headway one way or the other, we really do need an entity like the federal government that is responsible for that to step in and say, ‘We will help you figure this out.’ ”
The dispute over road and utility easements on tribal lands has created bad blood between Natives and their neighbors.
Luján said he is “terrified” by the division the issue has created in Northern New Mexico communities.
“Early on, there were threats of violence in some of the communities,” he said in an interview after Monday’s meeting.
“I’m really worried,” Luján added. “I’m worried because of racist things that are sometimes sprayed on signs or written, stories that have been shared with me where there have been disagreements with students in school.
“The fabric of our community is clearly been torn at,” he said, “and I shared this with the secretary of interior. I’ve shared this with the Bureau of Reclamation, with my colleagues as well. This really worries me, and that’s why this has to be brought to a permanent and final resolution.”