Community weighs in on proposed ancestral land swap

LAS CRUCES — Turnout was high at a public meeting last week regarding an amended proposal for a land swap between the state and the Mescalero Apache Tribe.

New Mexico’s State Land Office, which manages state trust land amounting to millions of acres, is contemplating a land exchange with the Mescalero Apache Tribe. The initial proposal involved a 330-acre parcel of land in east Las Cruces, south of Tortugas Mountain, but the proposal ran into opposition from local residents who spoke out at a November town hall attended by Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard and tribal council president Thora Walsh Padilla. 

Last month, the State Land Office announced a new meeting focusing on a different site:  approximately 320 acres of land on the opposite side of the city, near the Doña Ana County Fairgrounds, city airport and Interstate 10.

County Manager Scott Andrews disclosed in February that the county was in talks with the tribe about managing an amphitheater venue planned for the fairgrounds as part of a $35 million general obligation bond measure approved by voters last year.

On Feb. 25, Garcia Richard and Walsh Padilla presented the amended proposal to a crowded ballroom at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, heard public input and answered questions.

“I look forward to seeing you in court,” said one man who insisted ancestral land exchanges are illegal.

The office’s attorneys say the exchanges are permitted under state trust rule and cited previous exchanges with the Navajo Nation, Pueblo of Cochiti, Santa Ana Pueblo and Ft. Sill Apache under three commissioners elected from different parties.

Garcia Richard, a Democrat, completes her second term at the end of this year and is barred by the state Constitution from running again.

If Garcia Richard approves the exchange, the tribe would purchase land of equal appraised value and then trade it for the trust land. The State Land Office could then lease the exchanged land for revenue benefiting public schools, hospitals and other state trust beneficiaries.

The repatriated land would become the tribe’s property, but would not automatically be added to the Mescalero Apache reservation, which requires a lengthy federal process. Any use of the land in the meantime would be subject to local zoning and land use rules.

As for the parcel near Las Alturas, Garcia Richard said the tribe could apply for recreational access permits with the same limitations as for thousands of other permit holders, including universities, public agencies and recreationists. The permits do not allow camping, commercial activity, offroad vehicles, open fires or removal of native plants, among other restrictions.

As for the land by the fairgrounds — currently vacant and bearing evidence of offroad vehicle tracks, alcoholic beverage bottles and ammunition casings — Walsh Padilla said commercial development was a definite possibility if an exchange is approved, but that no specific plans were in place and any development would be a long-term proposition. She also pledged to work with the city and the county to make sure any development would be compatible with municipal planning.

Thanks mix with accusations

Several speakers applauded the commissioner and the tribe for listening to residents and modifying the proposed exchange. State Rep. Doreen Gallegos, a Democrat whose district includes Las Alturas, called the modified proposal a “win-win” for the community and the tribe.

Other speakers accused the tribal council of secretly plotting to develop a casino and demanded details of ceremonial practices contemplated for the site near Tortugas. Walsh Padilla repeatedly stated she would not be drawn into public explanations or defenses of the tribe’s traditions.

In a livestreamed public address last October, Walsh Padilla pointed out that a new casino would require reopening its gaming compact with the state and might adversely affect its Inn of the Mountain Gods establishment in Mescalero. The tribe also manages hospitality and entertainment enterprises that do not involve gambling, such as the Rocket City Family Fun Center in Alamogordo. 

A few commenters criticized what they characterized as misinformation and stereotypes about Native Americans among some opponents.

“I’m so sorry that tonight you walked into a room full of ugliness and ignorance … and deep, deep disrespect,” state Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla, said at the microphone. Moments after she made her remarks, she was approached twice by visibly angry men, one of whom was overheard saying, “The only ugliness I heard tonight came from you,” standing very close to the lawmaker in a room with little uniformed security present.

“The perception they would do something deceptive or illegal really bothered me,” Las Alturas resident Jeffrey Shepherd said in an interview after the meeting.

A historian at the University of Texas at El Paso, Shepherd teaches courses on U.S. continental expansion and Indigenous history. While Shepherd regarded the parcel near him as unsuited for any development, he said the proposed exchange represents an investment of effort and faith by the Mescalero Apache.

“I’ve looked at these documents from the 19th century, when the military was chasing Apaches in this area and in west Texas and forcefully removing them from the area, rounding them up, locating them on the reservation, and that’s a very painful story,” Shepherd said. “For them to travel down here, in their homeland where their ancestors lived, and to hear people be dismissive of their honest claims was very difficult to hear.”

It is uncertain how soon Garcia Richard will announce her decision on whether the exchange moves forward.

Algernon D’Ammassa is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.