HOUSE MEMORIAL 24

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Ray Begaye

A MEMORIAL

ACKNOWLEDGING THE FORT SILL, CHIRICAHUA-WARM SPRINGS APACHE TRIBE'S ABORIGINAL TERRITORY IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO.

     WHEREAS, members of the federally recognized Fort Sill, Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache Tribe are the descendants of the Mogollon Apaches, Mimbres Apaches, Copper Mine Apaches, Warm Springs Apaches and Chiricahua Apaches tribes whose aboriginal territory, former reservation and Indian title lands included much of southwest New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, those tribes maintained aboriginal and Indian title to their land in New Mexico and Arizona until the final surrender of the great Apache Geronimo, his war party and the remaining tribal members to the United States military on September 4, 1886; and

     WHEREAS, the entire tribe was taken into captivity in 1886 and remained in captivity until 1913, when the surviving members were released, with two-thirds of the members transferred to the Mescalero Apache Tribe reservation, thus becoming members of that tribe, and the remaining members released in Oklahoma, becoming federally recognized as the Fort Sill Apache in 1976; and

     WHEREAS, the members of the Fort Sill, Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache Tribe continuously sought to return to their aboriginal homelands in New Mexico, which were the lifeblood and heritage of the tribe; and

     WHEREAS, the spirits of the ancestors of the Fort Sill, Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache Tribe, including Cochise, Geronimo, Victorio, Lozen, Naiche and Mangas Coloradas, are interwoven into the fabric of New Mexico's history and culture; and

     WHEREAS, a major triumph for the Fort Sill, Chiricahua- Warm Springs Apaches in returning to their homeland was the purchase of thirty acres in Akela Flats, Luna county, New Mexico, which was subsequently taken into trust by the federal government on behalf of the Fort Sill, Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apaches in 2002;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the Fort Sill, Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache Tribe has land held in federal trust status within its former aboriginal territory in southwest New Mexico as acknowledged by the Indian claims commission and affirmed by the United States court of claims in Fort Sill Apache Tribe v. United States; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the chair of the Fort Sill, Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache Tribe, the governor, leaders of the twenty-two Indian Nations, tribes and pueblos in New Mexico and the New Mexico congressional delegation.

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