I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6487 
To provide for greater consultation between the Federal Government and 
the governing bodies of land grant-mercedes and acequias in New Mexico 
and to provide for a process for recognition of the historic-traditional 
boundaries of land grant-mercedes, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 24, 2018 
Mr. BEN RAY LUJA´N of New Mexico introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To provide for greater consultation between the Federal Gov-
ernment and the governing bodies of land grant-mercedes 
and acequias in New Mexico and to provide for a process 
for recognition of the historic-traditional boundaries of 
land grant-mercedes, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Land Grant and Acequia Traditional Use Recognition 
and Consultation Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.— 
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Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Definitions. 
Sec. 4. Notice and comment. 
Sec. 5. Guidance on permit requirements. 
Sec. 6. Notification to permit applicants; compliance with NEPA. 
Sec. 7. Assistance to governing bodies. 
Sec. 8. Spiritual and cultural sites. 
Sec. 9. Process for recognition of historical-traditional use boundaries of quali-
fied land grant-mercedes. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) From the 17th to the mid-19th centuries, 
the Governments of Spain and Mexico made grants 
of land to individuals, groups, and communities 
throughout the Southwest United States to promote 
settlement in frontier lands. 
(2) The key land ownership feature for a land 
grants-merced was common lands, meaning lands 
that were not individually owned but were considered 
‘‘commons’’ for use by all local residents to provide 
the necessary resources to sustain the entire commu-
nity. 
(3) On February 2, 1848, the United States 
and Mexico ended the Mexican-American war by 
signing the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and 
Settlement (commonly known as the Treaty of Gua-
dalupe Hidalgo), in which Mexico formally relin-
quished to the United States claims to over 790,000 
square miles of land now constituting all or part of 
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Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, 
Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. 
(4) The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo included 
provisions under article VIII for the protection of es-
tablished property rights, including community land 
grants located in the new territories, and the United 
States and Mexico further affirmed these protections 
in the Protocol of Queretaro. 
(5) Although the Senate struck article X of the 
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo as negotiated, the 
United States clarified in the subsequent Protocol of 
Queretaro that ‘‘these grants . . . preserve the legal 
value which they may possess’’ and the grantees in 
the new territories retained their property rights. 
(6) As noted by the Government Accountability 
Office in the 2001 report GAO–01–951, ‘‘The Pro-
tocol specified the United States’ position that land 
grant titles would be protected under the treaty and 
that grantees could have their ownership of land ac-
knowledged before American tribunals.’’. 
(7) In the second half of the 19th century, the 
United States enacted various laws establishing 
processes to review property claims in the new terri-
tories, such as the Act of July 22, 1854 (10 Stat. 
308; ch. 103), that created the office of Surveyor 
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General of New Mexico and the Act of March 3, 
1891 (26 Stat. 854; ch. 539), that created the Court 
of Private Land Claims. 
(8) The established processes differed from 
State to State, and a history of problematic surveys 
and corruption may explain why there was so much 
acreage lost by community land grants and why so 
few survived into modern times as self-governing en-
tities administering intact common lands. 
(9) Studies have concluded that for land grant 
communities and community members to survive in 
the non-cash economies prior to the mid-20th cen-
tury, it was essential that they have access to the 
common land resources of their own private 
inholdings, which provided a complete resource base 
for successful small-scale family farming and stock- 
raising activities, upon which the local economy was 
based. 
(10) New Mexico’s community land grants, now 
known as land grant-mercedes, are an important 
part of the State’s culture and history and have been 
recognized under the Kearny Code of 1846 and sub-
sequent territorial laws of New Mexico and New 
Mexico State law. 
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(11) Article 2, section 5 of the constitution of 
New Mexico states, ‘‘The rights, privileges and im-
munities, civil, political and religious guaranteed to 
the people of New Mexico by the Treaty of Guada-
lupe Hidalgo shall be preserved inviolate’’, providing 
powerful constitutional protection for the rights of 
the State’s land grant communities. 
(12) Water delivery systems known as acequias, 
or community ditches, are a centuries-old system 
used for water distribution, introduced to New Mex-
ico by the Spanish in the 16th century, to allow for 
farming to sustain the needs of the community, cre-
ating a cultural landscape and way of life centered 
around local agriculture. 
(13) In New Mexico, acequias are governed by 
a centuries-old form of water governance, known as 
acequias, that are political subdivisions of the State 
and are composed of a board of private land owners 
that are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance 
of the acequias and for monitoring and admin-
istering surface water rights along the acequia. 
(14) In New Mexico, acequias have created a 
cultural landscape and way of life centered around 
local agriculture, water governance, and a custom of 
sharing scarce water. 
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SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) COMMUNITY
USERS.—The term ‘‘commu-
nity user’’ means— 
(A) with respect to a qualified acequia, an 
individual who is the legal owner of a water 
right on a qualified acequia; and 
(B) with respect to a qualified land-grant 
merced, an heir as defined by N.M. Stat. § 49– 
1–1.1. 
(2) GOVERNING BODY.—The term ‘‘governing 
body’’— 
(A) with respect to a qualified acequia, 
means the board composed of private land own-
ers (known as commissioners) for such qualified 
acequia, as provided in N.M. Stat. § 73–2–12 
and recognized as a political subdivision of the 
State under N.M. Stat. § 73–2–28; and 
(B) with respect to a qualified land grant- 
merced, means the board of trustees charged 
under State law with the control, care, and 
management of the qualified land grant-merced. 
(3) HISTORICAL-TRADITIONAL
USE
BOUND-
ARY.—The term ‘‘historical-traditional use bound-
ary’’, with respect to a land grant-merced, means 
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the boundary recognized under the process described 
in section 10. 
(4) PATENT
BOUNDARY.—The term ‘‘patent 
boundary’’, with respect to a land grant-merced, 
means the boundary in the official survey that ac-
companied the land patent issued by the United 
States for a land grant-merced claim at the conclu-
sion of the adjudication process required by the 
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 
(5) QUALIFIED ACEQUIA.—The term ‘‘qualified 
acequia’’ means a waterway in the State recognized 
as an acequia or a community ditch under State or 
Federal law, including the diversions, storage facili-
ties, and easements of such waterway. 
(6) QUALIFIED
LAND
GRANT-MERCED.—The 
term ‘‘qualified land grant-merced’’— 
(A) means a community land grant issued 
under the laws or customs of Spain or Mexico 
that received a patent from the United States 
or has been recognized under State law; and 
(B) includes land— 
(i) with respect to a land grant- 
merced that has not completed the process 
under section 10, within the patent bound-
ary of such land grant-merced; and 
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(ii) with respect to a land grant- 
merced that has completed the process 
under section 10, the historical-traditional 
use boundary of such land grant-merced. 
(7) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the State 
of New Mexico. 
(8) SECRETARY CONCERNED.—The term ‘‘Sec-
retary concerned’’ means— 
(A) if the qualified acequia or qualified 
land grant-merced concerned is located on land 
under the administration of the Secretary of 
Agriculture, or adjacent to such land, the Sec-
retary of Agriculture; or 
(B) if the qualified acequia or qualified 
land grant-merced concerned is located on land 
under the administration of the Secretary of the 
Interior, or adjacent to such land, the Secretary 
of the Interior. 
SEC. 4. NOTICE AND COMMENT. 
(a) NOTICE AND COMMENT PROCESS.—Not less than 
90 days before the Secretary adopts, amends, or revises 
a management plan for, or before the Secretary conducts 
an action for which a detailed statement is required under 
section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) to be conducted on, 
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any Federal land that contains any portion of a qualified 
land grant-merced, or any Federal land that is adjacent 
to or nearby a qualified land-grant merced, the Secretary 
concerned shall— 
(1) provide written notice and an opportunity 
for comment to— 
(A) the governing body of the qualified 
land grant-merced using the mailing address 
and electronic address on file in the database 
established under subsection (c); and 
(B) the relevant State agency thats pur-
pose is to serve as a liaison between land 
grants-mercedes and the Federal Government; 
(2) hold not less than 2 meetings with the gov-
erning body of the qualified land grant-merced on 
the proposed adoption, amendment, or revision of 
the management plan, or the proposed action, within 
the immediate vicinity of the qualified land grant- 
merced; and 
(3) not less than 30 days before each public 
meeting, notify the governing body of the qualified 
land grant-merced of the date, time, location, and 
subject matter of such public meeting. 
(b) NOTIFICATION OF FINAL PLAN.—Not less than 
10 days after the Secretary adopts, amends, or revises a 
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