Neighborhoods Speak Out on the Proposed Sandia Transfer
The Tierra Monte, Evergreen Hills and Sandia Heights neighborhoods, totaling nearly 2,300 households, border or are within the proposed transfer area. They have come together to oppose the transfer of land in the Sandia Mountains and to reiterate that the 2003 Trust Act settled the ownership claim between Sandia Pueblo and all parties.
Read each neighborhood’s statement:
For 20 long years, the Albuquerque community wrestled with the question of who owned the Sandia Mountains. The three neighborhoods were intimately involved in this litigation as part of the Sandia Mountain Coalition and worked closely with interested parties, including Sandia Pueblo, to negotiate the settlement that was ultimately enacted by Congress in 2003.
That settlement established the T’uf Shur Bien Preservation Trust Area “in perpetuity.” It stated that all Pueblo claims to the land were “permanently extinguished” and that “the United States’ title to the Area is confirmed.” It laid out in detail how the Trust Area would be managed into the future, including specific rights and interests granted to the Sandia Pueblo and a formal dispute process to follow when issues came up.
Today, the neighborhoods do not view the 2003 settlement as temporary. To them, “in perpetuity” means exactly that.
People with very different lives and histories came together around the Sandias in 2003. Twenty-three years later, they’re all still neighbors, they still love this mountain and they still share the responsibility of taking care of it together.