OCR Text |
Show TABLE 3.-Area and ownership of land in Rio Grande Basin In New Mexico above Elephant Butte. 1938 Land status National forest..................... Grazing districts.................... Pueblo grants and Indian reservations. Pueblo (Indian) purchase area....... Other proposed purchase areas (non-In- dian use)........................ Other Federal lands................ Total Federal................. State and local public............... Privatel........................... Grand total. Area Acres 2, 524, 050 1, 588,700 1, 426, 380 440,300 462,500 288,880 6, 730, 810 796, 720 5, 083, 470 12,611,000 Per- cent 20 12 11 4 4 2 53 7 40 100 1 Includes 2,811,000 acres in land grants. Source: Department of Agriculture. were superimposed upon Spanish land grants and pueblo lands which had their origin in the 1600's. When the United States took over this part of New Mexico, It honored those early grants. It later placed Indians on reservations, some of which were superimposed on pueblo lands. To aid in building up local governments, Con- gress granted New Mexico four sections in each township. To encourage the construction of transcontinental railroads, Congress gave alter- nate sections of public lands for distances of 10 to 40 miles on each side of the right-of-way to the railroads. Nearly 10 percent of the Middle Rio Grande watershed is owned by the railroads. In the meantime, however, all public lands were open to entry under different homestead acts. As a result, large acreages of the public domain passed into private holdings. Later forest reservations, now national forests, were created. There were no Federal public lands in Texas. The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 2 authorized the establishment of grazing districts. During World 'Act of June 28, 1934, 48 Stat. 1269, 43 U. S. G. 315-3150-1. 58 grazing districts embracing 135 million acres of vacant, unappropriated, unreserved public lands have been established in the ten western States. Sec. 7 of this act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior in his discretion to examine and classify public lands within or outside of a, grazing district which are more valuable or suitable for the production of agricultural crops than for the production of native grasses and forage plants or more valuable or suitable for any other use than for the use provided for under this act. Such lands shall not be subject to disposition, settlement or occupation until after the same ha~ve been classified and opened to entry. 328 War II many public lands were set aside for other purposes, as for the Atomic Energy Commission, Department of the Army, and the like, with the result that the ownership pattern of Federal lands is growing as complex as that of private land. Spanish land grants were made to both com- munities (pueblos) and individuals. They were in large blocks, some several hundred thousand acres in area. Many of the community lands have been sold but some, usually the core, are intact. In the middle Rio Grande and upper Pecos, many individual tracts have become increasingly small through family bequests of holdings. When family property is broken up it is usually divided length- wise, giving each strip, no matter how narrow, a contact on its life line-either an irrigation ditch or a living stream. Some of these ribbon farms may be a mile long and only a few feet wide. An individual may own several such strips which are several miles apart. This land ownership has its counterpart in livestock grazing, as many families and operators own less than 10 animals. Economic conditions on some Indian lands are not of the best, largely because of the nature of the lands in the reservations. The few thousand acres of the Jicarilla Reservation in the basin are mostly range. Of the 1,105,000 acres of the United North and South Pueblos, nearly 5,000 acres are dry farmed, and 18,000 irrigated. The irrigated area could be greatly increased if more water were available. Some of the Indian range lands, both within and without the reservations and pueblos, are eroding as a result of misuse. The land in crops is insufficient for Indian needs. New Mexico has in some cases endeavored through land exchange to consolidate its holdings. Many scattered State tracts of 640 acres or larger are intermingled with other lands, public and private. Most of these lands are administered primarily for revenue, and are available for sale or lease. Many factors have contributed to the deplorable watershed conditions found in the Rio Grande. Among them are public land policies. The various laws relating to Federal lands have resulted from different legislative policies which have originated at different periods in our national history. Laws were passed to meet specific conditions existing at the time. Different committees in different Con- gresses have handled various phases of legislation affecting our public lands, with the result that there is today a patchwork of legislation, many features of which are conflicting. Furthermore, |