OCR Text |
Show 27 good Catholics, good farmers, good citizens, not troublemakers- rather than what good Pueblo Indians they were. It also appears, in retrospect, that the legislature and the courts granted and upheld the granting of those privileges that could be advantageous to other citizens of New Mexico and a disadvantage to Pueblo Indians and disallowed rights and privileges that could have resulted in broadening the base of experience needed to acquaint members of the Pueblo communities with the American way of life: The normal political practices of citizens, the give and take at the ballot box, the bringing of pressures to secure privileges, as well as the questioned right to part with their land, to pay taxes, etc. As early as December, 1847, the legislative body assembled in New Mexico under the Kearney Code found that the various Pueblos were possessors of "certain lands and privileges to be used for the common benefit," that they "constituted bodies politic and corporate," and that "they and their successors shall have perpetual succession, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, bring and defend in any court of law or equity all such actions, pleas, and matters," etc., as they might pertain to lands and property they claimed "and to resist any encroachment, claim or trespass made," etc. (Act of Legislative Assembly, December, 1847. Compiled Laws of New Mexico, as cited in Federal Indian Law, 893). The thing that was found lacking in all of these legislative and early court actions was the special protection of the central government against third parties required under Spain and Mexico and requested by Calhoun of the United |