%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Sangre de Cristo Land Grant http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sangre-de-cristo-land-grant <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Sangre de Cristo Land Grant</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-12-02T12:49:45-07:00" title="Thursday, December 2, 2021 - 12:49" class="datetime">Thu, 12/02/2021 - 12:49</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sangre-de-cristo-land-grant" data-a2a-title="Sangre de Cristo Land Grant"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fsangre-de-cristo-land-grant&amp;title=Sangre%20de%20Cristo%20Land%20Grant"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Sangre de Cristo land grant was a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mexican-land-grants-colorado"><strong>Mexican land grant</strong></a> possessed in January 1844 by Narciso Beaubien and Stephen Luis Lee. Covering almost 1.4 million acres in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-luis-valley"><strong>San Luis Valley</strong></a> and <strong>Sangre de Cristo Mountains</strong> in southern Colorado, the grant gave rise to the first permanent settlement in Colorado in the town of <strong>San Luis</strong> (originally San Luis de la Culebra) in 1851. The Sangre de Cristo land grant was among the first and few Mexican land grants to be approved in its entirety by the US Supreme Court.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado’s longest-running land dispute concerns descendants of the families originally hired to settle the grant. In 2002 the <strong>Colorado Supreme Court</strong> ruled in favor of the descendants’ access to firewood, pasturage, and timber on the privately owned Cielo Vista Ranch (formerly Taylor Ranch). Cielo Vista’s owner appealed the decision, and the descendants successfully defended their claim in the Colorado Court of Appeals in 2018.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>History</h2>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Establishment</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Sangre de Cristo land grant spanned the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and San Luis Valley, a high alpine desert in southern Colorado. With its rivers and abundant wildlife, the valley was the traditional spring and summer hunting ground for the <strong>Nuche</strong> (<a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a>), <strong>Apache</strong>, and other Indigenous peoples. During the time of nominal Spanish and later Mexican rule of the region, the presence of <strong>Utes</strong> in the San Luis Valley deterred permanent European settlement there.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>It was only in the late stages of Mexican rule that the San Luis Valley saw a permanent Hispano presence. Mexico awarded land grants in the area to encourage settlement to check the rapid expansion of the United States. The Sangre de Cristo land grant was petitioned by Narciso Beaubien and Stephen Luis Lee in late 1843, awarded a week later, and possessed in January 1844. Both men were killed in the Taos Pueblo Uprising of 1847. The following year, Narciso Beaubien’s father, <strong>Carlos Beaubien</strong>, bought his son’s and Lee’s portion of the grant after their death, making him the sole owner of the entire 1.4-million-acre Sangre de Cristo land grant.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Early Settlement</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Carlos Beaubien settled the land by recruiting immigrants from New Mexico, mostly from the Taos valley, and inviting German and French merchants to build trading posts along the Costilla and Culebra Rivers. Settlers were awarded <em>varas</em>, privately owned long-lots of land along major creeks and fertile fields. The first colonization effort involved about one hundred <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/terminology-latino-experience-colorado"><strong>Hispano</strong></a> families who established the town of San Luis de la Culebra in 1851 as a central location among the <em>varas</em>. Families also had rights to use common land, which extended beyond the lowland <em>varas</em> to the foothills, forests, and mountains. Common land could be used for collecting firewood, ranching, hunting, fishing, lumber, and other communal purposes. The communal land in San Luis was known then as La Sierra and continues to be called as such by locals today.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Beaubien’s settlement was consistent with Spanish and Mexican custom, which envisioned communal land, called the <em>ejido</em>, accessible to all villagers. The <em>ejido</em> remains an important concept in current Mexican property law, recognized as an almost sacred cooperative system of shared land use and usufructuary rights, which allows nonowners to derive benefit from the property. Beaubien also produced written documents that reflected the Spanish and Mexican conception of land rights: deeds for individual <em>varas</em> and a covenant letter (known as the “Beaubien document”) that listed all settlers, guaranteeing their rights to use but not own the communal highlands.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1848, the same year that Carlos Beaubien gained sole ownership of the Sangre de Cristo land grant, the United States won the Mexican-American War. The <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/treaty-guadalupe-hidalgo"><strong>Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</strong></a> gave Americans control of thousands of square miles of northwest Mexico, including the Sangre de Cristo land grant and much of the rest of what is now Colorado. The terms of the treaty obligated the US government to honor all existing Spanish and Mexican land grants. While this did not happen in most cases, the Sangre de Cristo land grant was approved by Congress in 1860. At that time, the area had about 1,700 Hispano residents. Carlos Beaubien continued to award land to settlers until his death in 1864.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Ownership, 1864–1960</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>When Beaubien died, his heirs sold the land grant to former Colorado territorial governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-gilpin"><strong>William Gilpin</strong></a> and included communal land rights protections in their legal agreement. Gilpin did not respect Beaubien’s covenant, however, and sold both private and communal land in subdivisions to investors. Eventually, much of the grant was acquired by the Costilla Estates Development Company, which owned the land from 1902 to 1960. From Gilpin’s ownership through 1960 there were several attempts to develop the land, including mining ventures, and to restrict, harass, and obstruct the communal use of land by original settlers. Communal customs, though, remained mostly unchanged in practice. However, the Costilla Estates Development Company did redistribute water rights, favoring some properties over others and resulting in the reduction of farmed land in the region.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Taylor Ranch Conflicts</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Changes to common land use began after 1960, when <strong>Jack Taylor</strong>, a North Carolina investor and lumberman, bought 77,000 acres of the communal highland, La Sierra, which became known as Taylor Ranch. Within months of buying the ranch, Taylor filed a claim in US District Court to clear his title of all competing claims from other ownership, which was awarded in 1967. Meanwhile, he also began enclosing his ranch to restrict outside access and use. Several conflicts ensued over the years. Hispano villagers were intimidated, beaten, and harassed, and Taylor himself was shot.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Taylor’s actions precipitated a movement for land and resource rights among local Hispanos, spearheaded by the <strong>Land Rights Council</strong>, formed in 1978 in San Luis. For more than a century, US courts had denied the claims of Hispanos in land grant cases and facilitated the work of Anglo-Americans in gaining ownership to land grants throughout the American Southwest. In 1981 the descendants of the original settlers brought forward legal action (<em>Rael v. Taylor</em>) asking for legal recognition of their historic rights to use the land.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After decades of failed legal challenges to reclaim lost access, in the 2002 <em><strong>Lobato v. Taylor</strong></em> case, the Colorado Supreme Court surprisingly reversed decades of precedent by awarding successors of grant settlers renewed access to La Sierra for grazing, firewood, and timber but not for fishing, hunting, and recreation. The court took into consideration Spanish and Mexican legal customs, recognized injustices in past decisions, and set a precedent with great significance to property rights law in the American Southwest. In 2003 the court issued an additional ruling directing the trial court to identify all landowners who have access rights to Taylor Ranch. The process of identification of landowners ended in 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By that time, Taylor had left the scene. He sold the ranch to Enron executive Lou Pai in 1996, who in turn sold it in 2002 to two owners who renamed it Cielo Vista Ranch. In 2017 Cielo Vista was sold for $105 million to Texas millionaire William Harrison, its current owner. He immediately filed an appeal of the ruling regarding landowner access to the ranch. In 2018 the Colorado Court of Appeals not only denied Harrison’s claim but determined that more heirs to the original settlers should be identified and given access to the land. Currently, more than 5,000 heirs have been identified and given access, though many no longer live in the region to exercise those rights. Individuals are given keys that allow them to enter the ranch at designated gates.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The original Sangre de Cristo land grant resembles the current borders of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/costilla-county"><strong>Costilla County</strong></a>. It is a place rich in history, traditions, and natural resources. As of 2019 the population stood at 3,887, with more than 60 percent of citizens claiming Hispano heritage. Castilian Spanish is commonly spoken there, and its inhabitants preserve a Spanish-inflected culture with unique food, music, folklore, and folk art, including weaving and the creation of santos and bultos (carved and painted religious images). The village of San Acacio is <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/capilla-de-viejo-san-acacio"><strong>home to a mission church</strong></a> that is generally considered the oldest non-Indigenous religious space in Colorado that is still in use today. La Vega, adjacent to the town of San Luis, is Colorado’s only communal pasture, established in 1851 and still used by descendants of the original settlers. San Luis is home to the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/timeline-date/san-luis-peoples-ditch"><strong>People’s Ditch</strong></a>, an 1852 acequia that is Colorado’s oldest <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/water-law"><strong>water right</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Outside the historic settlements in the valley, a large portion of the Sangre de Cristo land grant became Trinchera Ranch, Colorado’s largest contiguous ranch and a land conservation easement managed by <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-parks-and-wildlife"><strong>Colorado Parks and Wildlife</strong></a>. Cielo Vista Ranch remains privately owned and offers access to private hunting and hiking.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/simmonds-ricardo" hreflang="und">Simmonds, Ricardo</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mexican-land-grants" hreflang="en">mexican land grants</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/san-luis-valley" hreflang="en">San Luis Valley</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sangre-de-cristo-land-grant" hreflang="en">Sangre de Cristo Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sangre-de-cristo-mountains" hreflang="en">sangre de cristo mountains</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cielo-vista-ranch" hreflang="en">Cielo Vista Ranch</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jack-taylor" hreflang="en">Jack Taylor</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-gilpin" hreflang="en">William Gilpin</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/carlos-beaubien" hreflang="en">Carlos Beaubien</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/narciso-beaubien" hreflang="en">Narciso Beaubien</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/stephen-luis-lee" hreflang="en">Stephen Luis Lee</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Richard D. Garcia and Todd Howland, “Determining the Legitimacy of Spanish Land Grants in Colorado: Conflicting Values, Legal Pluralism, and Demystification of the Sangre de Cristo/<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=ti%3A%22Rael%22" title="Find in a library with WorldCat"><em>Rael</em></a> Case,” <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=ti%3A%22Chicana/o%20Latina/o%20Law%20Review%22" title="Find in a library with WorldCat"><em>Chicana/o Latina/o Law Review</em></a> 16, no. 1 (‎1995).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ryan Golten, “<em>Lobato v. Taylor: How the Villages of the Rio Culebra, the Colorado Supreme Court, and the Restatement of Servitudes Bailed Out the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</em>,” <em>Natural Resources Journal</em> 45, no. 2 (2005). </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Keith W. Lindner, “Returning the Commons: Resource Access and Environmental Governance in San Luis, Colorado” (PhD diss., Syracuse University, 2012).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Keith W. Lindner, “The Struggle for La Sierra: Sovereignty, Property, and Rights in the San Luis Valley,” <em>Political Geography</em> 33 (2013).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Richard L. Nostrand, <em>The Hispano Homeland </em>(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>M. L. Stoller, “Grants of Desperation, Lands of Speculation: Mexican Period Land Grants in Colorado,” <em>Journal of the West</em> 19, no. 3 (1980).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dorceta E. Taylor, <em>The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection</em> (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>“<a href="http://www.southwestbooks.org/sangredecristo.htm">Landmark Ruling on the Sangre de Cristo Grant</a>,” Center for Land Grant Studies, June 24, 2002. </p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 02 Dec 2021 19:49:45 +0000 yongli 3651 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Mexican Land Grants in Colorado http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mexican-land-grants-colorado <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Mexican Land Grants in Colorado</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-07-06T16:34:55-06:00" title="Monday, July 6, 2020 - 16:34" class="datetime">Mon, 07/06/2020 - 16:34</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mexican-land-grants-colorado" data-a2a-title="Mexican Land Grants in Colorado"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fmexican-land-grants-colorado&amp;title=Mexican%20Land%20Grants%20in%20Colorado"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>From the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, the king of Spain and the Mexican government awarded land grants to individuals and communities throughout the American Southwest. All seven of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado"><strong>Colorado</strong></a>’s land grants, comprising more than 8 million acres, were awarded by the Mexican government after 1821. They are all near the state’s southern border, with three lying in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-luis-valley"><strong>San Luis Valley</strong></a> and five sharing territory with New Mexico. Land grants in Colorado and throughout the southwestern United States have fostered shared identity, cultural heritage, and conflict that extend into present-day debates about race, language, ancestry, and land ownership.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>History of Land Grants in the Southwest</h2>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Spain, 1540–1821</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1540 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out from Compostela in New Spain (Mexico) and conquered native pueblos near modern-day Santa Fe, claiming all lands to the north, including Colorado, for the Kingdom of Spain. The first <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/spanish-exploration-southeastern-colorado-1590–1790"><strong>Spanish explorers to reach Colorado</strong></a> were Juan de Humana and Francisco Leyva de Bonilla, who in 1594 progressed as far as the Purgatoire River, and Juan de Zaldívar, who reportedly entered the San Luis Valley in 1596.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>It was only in 1598, however, that the Spanish established a permanent settlement in what is now the United States, when Juan de Oñate proclaimed all lands north of the Rio Grande as the province of Santa Fé de Nuevo Mexico. Oñate established the <em>encomienda</em> system of property rights, which gave conquistadors the right to land and labor (including Indigenous people) in exchange for “protecting” the land and its subjects.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The encomienda system ended after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. When the Spanish returned to Santa Fé thirteen years later, they introduced a new form of land rights based on individual and community land grants called <em>mercedes</em>. Settlers, including Pueblo natives, could petition the territorial governor for land and be awarded rights in the name of the king of Spain. Several individual land grants covering thousands of acres were awarded to the aristocratic elite. Communal grants were often awarded to the lower classes (soldiers, mestizos, and pueblos) and located around the periphery of the province, intended to act as a buffer for indigenous groups.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Spanish land grants never extended into present-day Colorado because the presence of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/treaty-abiquiú"><strong>Utes</strong></a> in the San Luis Valley deterred Spanish settlement there. The first recorded petition for a land grant in present-day Colorado dates to 1814, when a request for land that extended into southwest Colorado was rejected under Spanish rule.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Mexico, 1821–48</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, it continued to use the land grant system developed by Spain to encourage the settlement of its borderlands. For Mexico, however, the main threat was not native people but the rising influence of the United States. It was the American threat that led Mexico to secure its borders through an aggressive policy of land grants.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Overall, seven grants amounting to more than 8 million acres were awarded in what became Colorado. Most of these were awarded by New Mexico governor Manuel Armijo in a two-year period from 1841 to 1843. In late 1843, Armijo awarded 5.5 million acres within six weeks as he rushed to name Mexican citizens as landowners on properties that extended north to the Mexican border with the United States at the Arkansas River. While Colorado’s land grants are few in number, they stand out for their size: it is home to the largest land grant ever awarded in the New Mexico Province and later confirmed by the United States government.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>The history of land grants in the American Southwest was transformed by the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1845 the United States annexed Texas, which <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territoryhttps:/coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>included parts of today’s Colorado</strong></a>. Soon thereafter, boundary disputes with Mexico led the American government to provoke the Mexican-American War in 1846. In 1848 the United States won the war, and in the resulting <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/treaty-guadalupe-hidalgo"><strong>Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</strong></a> it gained control of thousands of square miles of northwest Mexico, which eventually formed part or all of the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The terms of the treaty obligated the American government to honor all existing Spanish and Mexican land grants. In practice, however, that did not happen. The US Surveyor General’s Office and the Court of Private Land Claims often dismissed grant claims, owing to imprecision and legal ambiguity. In New Mexico, only 6 percent of land grants were recognized by US courts. Of the land grants that were legally recognized, much was subsequently lost through illegal appropriations and legal but unjust means of deceit and fraud. Many times, well-funded companies and individuals, such as the “Santa Fé Ring” of Anglo lawyers and politicians, wrangled the legal titles to large grants and sold them at a profit.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In addition to their contested ownership, many of the land grants in question were occupied by indigenous peoples, especially the Ute Indians, who had lived there for centuries. For decades before the Mexican War, the Utes had defended their lands from would-be Spanish and Mexican colonists. After the war, however, the presence of the US military in the region convinced local Utes to sign the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/treaty-abiqui%C3%BA"><strong>Treaty of Abiquiú</strong></a> with the United States in 1849. Until that year, the Utes thwarted most nonnative occupation of the land grants, especially in the San Luis Valley.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Colorado’s Land Grants</h2>&#13; &#13; <p><em>1. Tierra Amarilla</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>In April 1832, Manuel Martínezand his children petitioned for a grant in northwestern New Mexico, extending into what is now southwestern Colorado, west of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-juan-mountains"><strong>San Juan Mountains</strong></a>. In July Martinez received 594,515.55 acres. The US surveyor general approved the grant in 1856, and it was confirmed by Congress in 1860. Santa Fé lawyer Thomas Catron acquired nearly all the land in 1883.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>2. Conejos (Guadalupe)</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Almost entirely in Colorado, the Conejos grant spanned from northern New Mexico into the San Luis Valley. The grant was petitioned in 1832 on behalf of forty families, approved in 1833, and later revalidated and possessed by eighty-three families in 1842. The grant encompassed 2.5 million acres, making it Colorado’s second largest. Under the US government, the grant was eventually rejected entirely in 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>3. Beaubien and Miranda (Maxwell)</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1841 a recently naturalized Mexican citizen named Carlos (Charles) Beaubien partnered with Guadalupe Miranda, a Mexican government official in Santa Fé, to petition for land in northern New Mexico, extending into Colorado east of the <strong>Sangre de Cristo Mountains</strong>. Newly naturalized citizens sought to partner with Mexican officials to receive grants and to increase the size of grants, which was technically restricted by Mexican law to 48,712 acres per person. Beaubien and Miranda possessed the 1.7 million–acre grant in 1843. The entire grant was subsequently owned by Lucien B. Maxwell, who inherited half from Beaubien, his father-in-law, and bought the other half from Miranda in 1858. The Maxwell grant was approved by Congress in 1860 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1887.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>4. Vigil and St. Vrain (Las Animas)</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado’s largest land grant spanned 4.1 million acres from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/arkansas-river"><strong>Arkansas River</strong></a>. <strong>Ceran St. Vrain</strong> was a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fur-trade-colorado"><strong>fur</strong></a> trapper from St. Louis who became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1831 and partnered with Cornelio Vigil, a Taos justice of the peace, to petition for a vast expanse of land on December 8, 1843. The grant was awarded one day later and taken possession of on January 2, 1844. The claim was approved by Congress in 1860, then adjusted by Congress in 1869 based on the acreage limit of Mexican law, which American jurisdictions sometimes enforced to reduce the size of grants. Some of the remaining land was claimed in small quantities by later immigrants, but most was repossessed by the US government as public domain. </p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>5. Gervacio Nolan</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Canadian-born fur trapper Gervacio Nolan settled in Taos, became a trader, and married a Hispano woman. He was among the first outsiders to petition for Mexican citizenship. He also petitioned for the northernmost grant in Colorado, which flanked the St. Charles River between the Wet Mountains and the Arkansas River east of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a>. Cornelio Vigil awarded the grant to Nolan in 1843, but the exact size—anywhere from 300,000 to 1 million acres—is disputed, and the boundaries were not established in writing. The grant was approved by the US surveyor general in 1861, albeit for the much smaller amount of 48,712 acres, and confirmed by Congress in 1870. Some of the rest was claimed by later immigrants, but most of the land was repossessed by the US government as public domain and designated for settlement.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>6. Sangre de Cristo</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Sangre de Cristo grant was petitioned by Narciso Beaubien and Stephen Luis Lee in late 1843, awarded a week later, and taken possession of in January 1844. Four years later, Narciso Beaubien’s father, Carlos Beaubien, original owner of the Maxwell grant, bought his son’s Sangre de Cristo grant, which spanned more than 1 million acres in the San Luis Valley and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, mostly in Colorado. The grant was approved by Congress in 1860 and sold to former Colorado territorial governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-gilpin"><strong>William Gilpin</strong></a> in 1864.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>7. Baca Grant #4</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1823 Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca, a descendent of explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza, petitioned the Mexican government for 500,000 acres of land in present-day Las Vegas, New Mexico. Driven from their grant by Navajo raids, the Bacas returned in 1835 to discover their land settled by ranchers and homesteaders. The Bacas disputed the occupation for decades under two different national governments, but in 1860 Congress established the town of Las Vegas on the settlers’ behalf. To compensate the Bacas, the United States offered them five 100,000-acre parcels of land in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. In 1864 <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/crestone"><strong>Baca Grant #4 was awarded in the San Luis Valley</strong></a> after a petition from the Baca family lawyer, John S. Watts, was accepted. Watts was subsequently awarded ownership of the grant as payment for his legal services. Most of the grant is now part of the Baca National Wildlife Refuge and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-sand-dunes-national-park-and-preserve"><strong>Great Sand Dunes National Park</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Colorado Land Grants Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Today most of the former Colorado land grants are privately owned, including several large ranches, or are public lands such as national forests, wilderness areas, national parks, Bureau of Land Management parcels, state wildlife areas, and state trust lands. Yet their complex history—used by American Indians, claimed by Spanish explorers, bestowed on Mexican citizens, and bought or homesteaded by American immigrants—remains the source of deeply rooted feelings of ownership, belonging, and conflict. To this day, disputes continue over issues of use, ownership, race, memory, and justice regarding the land grants.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1960s, Reies Lopez Tijerina established the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Land Grant Alliance) to ensure all the heirs of the land grants covered by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo knew their rights. In 1967 activists led by Tijerina stormed a courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, to protest abuses involving the Tierra Amarilla land grant, which included territory in southern Colorado. The attackers shot and wounded a state police officer and jailer, beat a deputy, and took the sheriff and a reporter hostage. Tijerina was arrested but ultimately acquitted of charges directly related to the raid.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado’s longest-running land dispute concerns descendants of the families hired by Narciso Beaubien to settle the Sangre de Cristo land grant in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/costilla-county"><strong>Costilla County</strong></a>. Locals who call themselves <em>herederos</em>—heirs or descendants—long used the upland areas in common, basing their claim on the Spanish and Mexican custom of respect for the <em>ejido</em>, or common land not subject to private ownership within a land grant. In 1960 this tradition came into conflict with Anglo concepts of property rights when Jack Taylor bought the land and forbade access and use. In 2002 the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of the descendants’ access to pasturage and timber on the privately owned Cielo Vista Ranch (formerly Taylor Ranch). Cielo Vista’s owner appealed the decision, and the descendants successfully defended their claim in the Colorado Court of Appeals in 2018.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the former land grants cover a diverse and important ecological area spanning the Rio Grande and its tributaries, the high desert of the San Luis Valley, and the towering peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Range, some of the former grants have become private ranches dedicated to conservation. Part of the Maxwell grant is now the 600,000-acre Vermejo Park Ranch, owned by media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner, who has dedicated the ranch (among other uses) to conservation in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. A portion of the Sangre de Cristo land grant became Trinchera Ranch; in 2005 the Forbes family (of <em>Forbes</em> magazine fame) placed 80,000 acres of the ranch in a conservation easement, and in 2012 new owner Louis Bacon, a billionaire investor, donated 90,000 acres to form the Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/simmonds-ricardo" hreflang="und">Simmonds, Ricardo</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/san-luis-valley" hreflang="en">San Luis Valley</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mexican-land-grants" hreflang="en">mexican land grants</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/new-mexico" hreflang="en">new mexico</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mercedes" hreflang="en">mercedes</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/manuel-armijo" hreflang="en">Manuel Armijo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/treaty-guadalupe-hidalgo" hreflang="en">treaty of guadalupe hidalgo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/tierra-amarilla-land-grant" hreflang="en">Tierra Amarilla Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/conejos-land-grant" hreflang="en">Conejos Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/beaubien-and-miranda-land-grant" hreflang="en">Beaubien and Miranda Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/maxwell-land-grant" hreflang="en">Maxwell Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/vigil-and-st-vrain-land-grant" hreflang="en">Vigil and St. Vrain Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/nolan-land-grant" hreflang="en">Nolan Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sangre-de-cristo-land-grant" hreflang="en">Sangre de Cristo Land Grant</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/baca-grant-4" hreflang="en">Baca Grant #4</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cielo-vista-ranch" hreflang="en">Cielo Vista Ranch</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Ralph Carr, “Private Land Claims in Colorado,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> 25, no. 1 (January 1948).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>William deBuys, <em>Enchantment and Exploitation</em>: <em>The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range</em> (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Gussie Fauntleroy, “<a href="https://crestoneeagle.org/land-water-grass-animals-history-of-the-baca-grant-part-i/">Land, Water, Grass, and Animals: History of the Baca Grant, Part I</a>,” <em>Crestone Eagle, </em>August 2013.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Richard D. Garcia and Todd Howland, “Determining the Legitimacy of Spanish Land Grants in Colorado: Conflicting Values, Legal Pluralism, and Demystification of the Sangre de Cristo/<em>Rael</em> Case,” <em>Chicana/o Latina/o Law Review</em> 16, no. 1 (‎1995).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>LeRoy R. Hafen, “Mexican Land Grants in Colorado,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> 4, no. 3 (May 1927).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jake Kosek, <em>Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico</em> (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The San Luis Valley:</em> <em>Land</em> <em>of the</em> <em>Six-Armed</em> <em>Cross</em>, 2nd ed. (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John R. and Christine M. Van Ness, eds., <em>Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in New Mexico and Colorado</em> (Manhattan, KS: Sunflower University Press, 1980).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Alan Prendergast, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/decades-long-battle-over-historic-cielo-vista-ranch-in-costilla-county-headed-back-to-court-10739661">Decades-Long Battle Over Historic Ranch Headed Back to Court</a><em>,” Westword</em>, September 5, 2018.  </p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 06 Jul 2020 22:34:55 +0000 yongli 3364 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org