I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5374
To settle the land claims of the Pueblo of Santo Domingo.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 3, 2000
Mr. UDALL of New Mexico introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Resources
A BILL
To settle the land claims of the Pueblo of Santo Domingo.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Santo Domingo Pueblo
Claims Settlement Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings:
(1) For many years the Pueblo of Santo Do-
mingo has been asserting claims to lands within its
aboriginal use area in north central New Mexico.
These claims have been the subject of many law-
suits, and a number of these claims remain unre-
solved.
(2) In December 1927, the Pueblo Lands
Board, acting pursuant to the Pueblo Lands Act of
1924 (43 Stat. 636) confirmed a survey of the
boundaries of the Pueblo of Santo Domingo Grant.
However, at the same time the Board purported to
extinguish Indian title to approximately 27,000
acres of lands within those grant boundaries which
lay within 3 other overlapping Spanish land grants.
The United States Court of Appeals in United
States v. Thompson (941 F.2d 1074 (10th Cir.
1991), cert. denied 503 U.S. 984 (1992)), held that
the Board ‘‘ignored an express congressional direc-
tive’’ in section 14 of the Pueblo Lands Act, which
‘‘contemplated that the Pueblo would retain title to
and possession of all overlap land’’.
(3) The Pueblo of Santo Domingo has asserted
a claim to another 25,000 acres of land based on the
Pueblo’s purchase in 1748 of the Diego Gallegos
Grant. The Pueblo possesses the original deed re-
flecting the purchase under Spanish law but, after
the United States assumed sovereignty over New
Mexico, no action was taken to confirm the Pueblo’s
title to these lands. Later, many of these lands were
(E) the authorization of the appropriation
of $15,000,000 over 3 consecutive years which
would be deposited in a Santo Domingo Lands
Claims Settlement Fund for expenditure by the
Pueblo for land acquisition and other enumer-
ated tribal purposes.
(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act
shall be construed to effectuate an extinguishment of, or
to otherwise impair, the Pueblo’s title to or interest in
lands or water rights as described in section 5(a)(2).
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) FEDERALLY
ADMINISTERED
LANDS.—The
term ‘‘federally administered lands’’ means lands,
waters, or interests therein, administered by Federal
agencies, except for the lands, waters, or interests
therein that are owned by, or for the benefit of, In-
dian tribes or individual Indians.
(2) FUND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the Pueb-
lo of Santo Domingo Land Claims Settlement Fund
established under section 5(b)(1).
(3) PUEBLO.—The term ‘‘Pueblo’’ means the
Pueblo of Santo Domingo.
(4) SANTO
DOMINGO
PUEBLO
GRANT.—The
term ‘‘Santo Domingo Pueblo Grant’’ means all of
the lands within the 1907 Hall-Joy Survey, as con-
firmed by the Pueblo Lands Board in 1927.
(5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means
the Secretary of the Interior unless expressly stated
otherwise.
(6) 
SETTLEMENT
AGREEMENT.—The 
term
‘‘Settlement Agreement’’ means the Settlement
Agreement dated May 26, 2000, between the De-
partments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Justice
and the Pueblo of Santo Domingo to Resolve All of
the Pueblo’s Land Title and Trespass Claims.
SEC. 4. RATIFICATION OF SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.
The Settlement Agreement is hereby approved and
ratified.
SEC. 5. RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES AND CLAIMS.
(a) RELINQUISHMENT, EXTINGUISHMENT, AND COM-
PROMISE OF SANTO DOMINGO CLAIMS.—
(1) EXTINGUISHMENT.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph
(2), in consideration of the benefits provided
under this Act, and in accordance with the Set-
tlement Agreement pursuant to which the
Pueblo has agreed to relinquish and com-
promise certain claims, the Pueblo’s land and
trespass claims described in subparagraph (B)
are hereby extinguished, effective as of the date
specified in paragraph (5).
(B) CLAIMS.—The claims described in this
subparagraph are the following:
(i) With respect to the Pueblo’s claims
against the United States, its agencies, of-
ficers, and instrumentalities, all claims to
land, whether based on aboriginal or recog-
nized title, and all claims for damages or
other judicial relief or for administrative
remedies pertaining in any way to the
Pueblo’s land, such as boundary, trespass,
and mismanagement claims, including any
claim related to—
(I) any federally administered
lands, including National Forest Sys-
tem lands designated in the Settle-
ment Agreement for possible sale or
exchange to the Pueblo;
(II) any lands owned or held for
the benefit of any Indian tribe other
than the Pueblo; and
(III) all claims which were, or
could have been brought against the
United States in docket No. 355,
pending in the United States Court of
Federal Claims.
(ii) With respect to the Pueblo’s
claims against persons, the State of New
Mexico and its subdivisions, and Indian
tribes other than the Pueblo, all claims to
land, whether based on aboriginal or recog-
nized title, and all claims for damages or
other judicial relief or for administrative
remedies pertaining in any way to the
Pueblo’s land, such as boundary and tres-
pass claims.
(iii) All claims listed on pages 13894–
13895 of volume 48 of the Federal Reg-
ister, published on March 31, 1983, except
for claims numbered 002 and 004.
(2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this
Act (including paragraph (1)) shall be construed—
(A) to in any way effectuate an extinguish-
ment of or otherwise impair—
(i) the Pueblo’s title to lands acquired
by or for the benefit of the Pueblo since
December 28, 1927, or in a tract of land
of approximately 150.14 acres known as
the ‘‘sliver area’’ and described on a plat
which is appendix H to the Settlement
Agreement;
(ii) the Pueblo’s title to land within
the Santo Domingo Pueblo Grant which
the Pueblo Lands Board found not to have
been extinguished; or
(iii) the Pueblo’s water rights appur-
tenant to the lands described in clauses (i)
and (ii); and
(B) to expand, reduce, or otherwise impair
any rights which the Pueblo or its members
may have under existing Federal statutes con-
cerning religious and cultural access to and
uses of the public lands.
(3) CONFIRMATION OF DETERMINATION.—The
Pueblo Lands Board’s determination on page 1 of
its Report of December 28, 1927, that Santo Do-
mingo Pueblo title, derived from the Santo Domingo
Pueblo Grant to the lands overlapped by the La
Majada, Sitio de Juana Lopez and Mesita de Juana
Lopez Grants has been extinguished is hereby con-
firmed as of the date of that Report.
(4) TRANSFERS PRIOR TO ENACTMENT.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with the
Settlement Agreement, any transfer of land or
natural resources, prior to the date of enact-
ment of this Act, located anywhere within the
United States from, by, or on behalf of the
Pueblo, or any of the Pueblo’s members, shall
be deemed to have been made in accordance
with the Act of June 30, 1834 (4 Stat. 729;
commonly referred to as the Trade and Inter-
course Act), section 17 of the Act of June 7,
1924 (43 Stat. 641; commonly referred to as
the Pueblo Lands Act), and any other provision
of Federal law that specifically applies to trans-
fers of land or natural resources from, by, or on
behalf of an Indian tribe, and such transfers
shall be deemed to be ratified effective as of the
date of the transfer.
(B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in
subparagraph (A) shall be construed to affect
or eliminate the personal claim of any indi-
vidual Indian which is pursued under any law
of general applicability that protects non-Indi-
ans as well as Indians.
(5) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The provisions of para-
graphs (1), (3), and (4) shall take effect upon the
entry of a compromise final judgment, in a form and
manner acceptable to the Attorney General, in the