History of the Ownership and Management of Tijeras Pueblo

Abstract

Across seventy years of research, the site of Tijeras Pueblo has become an important place for understanding the transformations that impacted Rio Grande Pueblo society during the fourteenth century A.D. During that time, the course of research at the pueblo has been guided in part by its changing ownership and management of the site. While the first investigations were conducted while the site was privately owned federal acquisition of the pueblo facilitated the major excavations that took place there in the late 1960s and 1970s. As federal objectives for research evolved with new legislation, the involvement of Native Americans resulted in a major shift in how the last excavations in 2000 were conducted. While sustained interest in Tijeras Pueblo has been driven by its role in addressing major questions about the course of Pueblo history, its ownership and management have shaped, and continue to shape, how we know this important place.

A lo largo de setenta años de investigación, el sitio del pueblo Tijeras ha llegado a ser un lugar importante para comprender las transformaciones que impactaron la sociedad del pueblo Río Grande durante el siglo XIV D.C. Durante ese tiempo, el transcurso de la investigación en el pueblo se ha guiado en parte por los cambios de propiedad y de gestión del sitio. Si bien las primeras excavaciones se llevaron a cabo mientras el sitio estaba en manos privadas, la adquisición federal de la tierra que rodea Tijeras pueblo facilitó las principales excavaciones que tuvieron lugar allí a finales de los años 60 y los 70. Mientras los objetivos federales para la investigación evolucionaron con la nueva legislación, la participación de los indígenas americanos resultó en un cambio principal en cómo realizaron las últimas excavaciones en 2000. Si bien el interés sostenido en el pueblo Tijeras ha sido impulsado por su papel en abordar las principales preguntas sobre el curso de la historia de la sociedad Pueblo, su propiedad y su gestión han moldeado, y continúan dando forma, a cómo conocemos este importante lugar.

KEYWORDS:

• Tijeras Pueblo
• Forest Service
• Ancestral Pueblo
• Middle Rio Grande Valley
• land ownership
• cultural resource management
• NAGPRA
• history of archaeology

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the assistance of Kurt Anscheutz and Sandra Arazi-Coambs in helping to find information on Pueblo and Spanish land ownership perspectives. Roger Norton, former Lands Specialist for the Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands, obtained invaluable information on Tijeras Pueblo’s twentieth century ownership changes. Will Reed, former Southwestern Region Archeologist, shared files on the management of Tijeras Pueblo during the late 1960s. Earlier drafts of this paper was reviewed by and greatly improved upon by comments from Arazi-Coambs, Judith Habicht-Mauche, Cynthia Herhahn, and an anonymous reviewer. The abstract was translated into Spanish by Martha Heard. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.

Disclosure Statement

The first author is a current employee, and the second author is a retired employee, of the Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands, which is the unit of the USDA Forest Service that manages Tijeras Pueblo and whose past management practices are subjects of this paper. The first author’s institutional affiliation is listed for identification purposes only. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Notes

1 Juan Analla y Candelaria does not appear among the individuals listed on the patent awarded for the Cañon de Carnue Grant in 1903, but names of both the Anaya (an alternate spelling for the surname Analla) and Candelaria families are present.

2 After its merger with portions of the Datil National Forest in 1931, the Manzano National Forest was rechristened as the Cibola National Forest.