SENATE MEMORIAL 30

54th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2020

INTRODUCED BY

Roberto "Bobby" J. Gonzales

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING AND CELEBRATING THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RESTORATION OF ITS SACRED BLUE LAKE AND SURROUNDING LANDS TO THE PUEBLO OF TAOS.

 

     WHEREAS, in 1970, at the request of President Richard Nixon, the congress of the United States restored the sacred Blue lake and its surrounding lands to the Pueblo of Taos; and

     WHEREAS, this restoration was the culmination of a sixty-four-year struggle by the Pueblo of Taos to regain the sacred Blue lake and surrounding areas that had been wrongfully taken from the Pueblo of Taos in 1906; and

     WHEREAS, this restoration was the first time that a large acreage of wrongfully taken land was restored to an American Indian tribe; and

     WHEREAS, this restoration was a symbolic act that transformed federal Indian policy to give new respect to the practice of Native American religion by American Indian tribes and led to the enactment of federal legislation to protect the exercise of religious freedom by those tribes; and

     WHEREAS, passage of Public Law 91-550 provided a precedent for the restoration of land to other Indian tribes; and

     WHEREAS, the Pueblo of Taos will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of Public Law 91-550 in a national gathering at the Pueblo of Taos on September 19, 2020;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the fiftieth anniversary of the restoration of Blue lake to the Pueblo of Taos be recognized and celebrated; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the governor of the Pueblo of Taos.

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