Opinion ID: 2818924
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Jemez Pueblo

Text: The following facts are taken directly from the Complaint, which we accept as true and view in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Casanova v. Ulibarri, 595 F.3d 1120, 1124-25 (10th Cir. 2010) (Rule 12(b)(6)); Holt v. United States, 46 F.3d 1000, 1002 (10th Cir. 1995) (Rule 12(b)(1)). 4 4 A Rule 12(b)(1) motion “to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction (continued...) -5- The ancestral Jemez people have used and occupied the lands of the Valles Caldera National Preserve and the surrounding areas in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico since at least 1200 CE. 5 The ancestral Jemez, whose descendants comprise the modern Jemez Pueblo, a federally recognized tribe, have for more than 800 years been the predominant and primary occupants and land users of the Jemez Mountains, including the Valles Caldera National Preserve and the greater Rio Jemez watershed. The Valles Caldera is a dormant crater of a supervolcano located at the center of the Jemez Mountains. The crater rim itself is twenty miles in diameter and is surrounded by four high-mountain valleys and eleven resurgent volcanic domes. The crater rim, high-mountain valleys, and volcanic domes are 4 (...continued) take[s] two forms:” either a “facial” or a “factual” attack. Holt, 46 F.3d at 1002. A “facial attack on the complaint’s allegations as to subject matter jurisdiction questions the sufficiency of the complaint,” and in reviewing a facial attack “a district court must accept the allegations in the complaint as true.” Id. In reviewing a factual attack, “a party may go beyond allegations contained in the complaint and challenge the facts upon which subject matter jurisdiction depends,” which does not allow a reviewing court to “presume the truthfulness of the complaint’s factual allegations.” Id. at 1003. Instead, it gives the court “wide discretion to allow affidavits, other documents, and a limited evidentiary hearing to resolve disputed jurisdictional facts.” Id. Here, the district court accepted the allegations in the Complaint as true and did not hold an evidentiary hearing. We therefore also accept as true the factual allegations of the Complaint. 5 CE stands for “of the common era.” Chicago Manual of Style 468 (16th ed. 2010). Using the Common Era is an alternative way of expressing the concept denoted by AD and is used as a “neutral” chronological term that is “not specifically anchored in Christianity and therefore sensitive to all and any of the world’s religions and belief systems.” Macmillan Dictionary, http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/buzzword/entries/common-era.html (last visited January 21, 2015). -6- located within the exterior boundaries of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The Jemez Pueblo is made up of the ancestral Jemez populations of Towaspeaking pueblos, including the Pecos Pueblo and the Jemez Pueblo village of Walatowa. The ancestral Jemez Pueblo’s aboriginal title allegedly included the Rio Jemez drainage and the Valles Caldera, an area known to the Pueblo Jemez as the “western Jemez homeland.” 6 Aplt. App. at 9 ¶ 17. The western Jemez homeland includes a portion of the land at issue in this case within the Valles Caldera National Preserve and covers an area of more than 1,100 square miles in and around the Jemez Mountains. It includes the entire Rio Jemez drainage system above Walatowa, the modern Jemez Pueblo village, and sections of the Rio Puerco drainage west of the Jemez Mountains. The western Jemez homeland contains ancestral Jemez Pueblo villages, sacred areas, and ceremonial shrines where the ancestral Jemez have lived since migrating from the mesa and canyon country to the northwest prior to 1200 CE. The Jemez Pueblo’s oral history refers to the area to the northwest and describes the great southern migration to its western Jemez homeland. Archeological investigations in the western homeland have found at least sixty pueblo villages linked with a network of trails and many thousand farmhouse sites, agricultural 6 In its Complaint, the Jemez Pueblo explains that references to the “‘western Jemez homeland’ . . . are synonymous with references to the ‘Jemez Pueblo aboriginal Indian title area.’” Aplt. App. at 9 ¶ 18. -7- fields, ceremonial sites, sacred areas, mineral procurement areas, camp sites, and other areas associated with the ancestral Jemez. The ancestral Jemez population in the western homeland has ranged from about 10,000 to 15,000 during the prehistoric period and from 7,000 to 10,000 during the Spanish colonial period. The ancestral Jemez maintained an extensive network of agriculture and farming practices in the Valles Caldera and Jemez Mountains. The Valles Caldera contains many important sacred areas and religious sites of the traditional ancestral Jemez culture and the area is greatly valued by the Jemez Pueblo as a spiritual sanctuary. The ceremonial sites and gathering areas are still actively used by the Jemez Pueblo today and are crucial to the continuing survival of traditional Jemez Pueblo culture and religion. Ancient religious pilgrimage trails link Walatowa to sites within the Valles Caldera, including Redondo Peak and sacred springs, and the Jemez Pueblo members continue to make religious pilgrimages to these sites to leave prayer offerings and conduct rituals. The Jemez Pueblo hunt societies make lengthy visits to the Valles Caldera to hunt and conduct religious ceremonies and initiations of new members. Moreover, the mineral and hot springs within the Valles Caldera are used by the Jemez Pueblo’s medical societies for healing. The Jemez continue to rely on the Valles Caldera for many critical resources, as they have done for more than 800 years, including the land and water for livestock; plants and animals on the land for subsistence living; timber for -8- construction and firewood; mountain and forest shelter from the elements; plants, herbs, and roots for medicine; aspen and willow for drums and ritual objects; oak, cherry, and mahogany for bows and ritual objects; rosewood, plums, and reeds for arrows; obsidian and chert for stone tools; minerals for paint and pigments; spring water and evergreens for ceremonial rites; large and small game for ceremonial use; and feathers for ceremonial use and for arrows. The Jemez Pueblo alleges that by this native occupancy and use it has established aboriginal title to the lands at issue in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The Jemez Pueblo acknowledges that Congress enacted legislation in 1860 authorizing the Baca heirs to select up to five square tracts of vacant land totaling up to 496,447 acres anywhere within the Territory of New Mexico in order to settle a Mexican land grant dispute with the town of Las Vegas. An Act to confirm Private Land Claims in the Territory of New Mexico of June 21, 1860, Pub. L. No. 36-197, 12 Stat. 71 (1860 Act). The Baca heirs’ first selection, Baca Location No. 1, included approximately 99,289 acres of land in and adjacent to the Valles Caldera, which was subsequently confirmed by both the Surveyor General’s Office and the federal land department without notice to the Jemez Pueblo. Aplt. App. at 17. Notwithstanding a determination by the Surveyor General of New Mexico that the land was “vacant,” the Jemez Pueblo alleges the lands included in the Baca Location No. 1 were “exclusively possessed, used and occupied by Jemez -9- Pueblo pursuant to the Pueblo’s aboriginal Indian title,” id. at 18 ¶ 82, and that the “Baca heirs received these lands subject to the continuing aboriginal Indian title of Jemez Pueblo,” id. at 18 ¶ 83. Moreover, the Jemez Pueblo alleges that it continued to use and occupy the Valles Caldera for traditional purposes without any opposition or interference from the Baca family. In 2000, pursuant to the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 (Preservation Act), Pub. L. No. 106-248, § 102, 114 Stat. 598, codified at 16 U.S.C. §§ 698v to 698v-10, 7 the United States purchased the property interests of the Baca heirs’ successors in interest – the Dunnigan family – in approximately 94,761 acres of the land in the Baca Location No. 1 in order to establish the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The Jemez Pueblo alleges that the United States purchased this property interest subject to its continuing aboriginal Indian title, and that shortly thereafter the government began limiting the Jemez Pueblo’s access to the land.