Pueblo Lands Act

Aboriginal land title in New Mexico is unique among aboriginal title in the United States. Congressional legislation was passed to define such title after the United States acquired this territory following war with Mexico (1846-1848. But, the Supreme Court of the New Mexico Territory and the United States Supreme Court held that the Nonintercourse Act did not restrict the alienability of Pueblo lands.

When the Supreme Court reversed its position in 1913, the land title to much of the state was called into question. Congress responded in 1924 and 1933 with compromise legislation to extinguish some aboriginal title and to establish procedures for determination and compensation.

After making contact with the Pueblo in 1541, the Spanish generally acknowledged the property rights of the people. In 1689, the King of Spain granted some type of formal title to the Pueblo.

Mexico ceded most of modern-day New Mexico to the United States in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Three years later, in 1851, Congress explicitly extended the Nonintercourse Act to the territory of New Mexico. Despite this, during the territorial period, the highest court in the territory three times, and the U.S. Supreme Court once, consistently held that the Pueblo could sell their lands without Congressional consent.

New Mexico became a state in 1912. The enabling act provided: "'Indian' and 'Indian country' shall include the pueblo Indians of New Mexico and the lands now owned and occupied by them." The New Mexico Constitution provided a similar guarantee to Pueblo land tenure:

The people inhabiting this state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title . . . to all lands lying within said boundaries owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, the right or title to which shall have been acquired through the United States, or any prior sovereignty; and that until the title of such Indian or Indian tribes shall have been extinguished the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition and under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the congress of the United States.

In United States v. Sandoval (1913), the Supreme Court recanted nearly all of its analysis from United States v. Joseph (1877). By the time of the Sandoval decision, the Senate estimated, 3,000 non-Indians had purchased Pueblo lands. The prevailing legal view was that the Pueblo could not obtain ejectment against those settlers. Congress responded with the Pueblo Lands Act of 1924.

...
Wikipedia