Monday, February 4, 2013

OVERLOOKED CLERICAL ERRORS--How and Why The Federal Government Unlawfully Wound Up With More than 24,000,000 Acres of New Mexico Public Land (Trespassers on Our Own Land, Chapter 18)


-18-

The Court Of Private Land Claims

Grandpa, I told my teacher what you had told me about the size of the San Joaquín del Río de Chama, Juan Bautista Valdez and La Petaca Grants before the government took the land and how many acres they wound up with. I told him you had mentioned so many numbers I was having a hard time remembering them and he suggested we could make it easier to understand if we divided all the acres you talked about by 640, the number of acres in a square mile to try and make it clearer how unfair the government had been. I divided all the acreage we've been talking about and it made a big difference for me. Can I go over the numbers before we move on to something else?
 
Sure. 
 
I'll start with some of the grants that received patents from Congress before the Court of Private Land Claims got involved. The Maxwell and Sangre de Cristo Grants were supposed to be limited under Mexican lawto eleven square leagues or approximately 153 square miles each. The Maxwell Grant wound up with 2,679 square miles—2,527 more than it was entitled to and the Sangre de Cristo received 1,562 square miles—1,408 more than it should have had.
 
The Pablo Montoya and Preston Beck, Jr. Grants were only entitled to 76 square miles each yet the Pablo Montoya received 1,024 square miles and the Preston Beck, Jr. wound up with 498.
 
Those four grants together were entitled to 358 square miles and they wound up with 5,762—5,300 square miles more than they were supposed to have.

The grants on page 113 of the GAO Report, the Cañón de Carnué, Cañón de Chama [San Joaquín del Río de Chama], Don Fernando de Taos, Town of Galisteo, Petaca, San Miguel del Bado and the Santa Cruz were treated just the opposite—they were entitled to 1,776 square miles. Guess how many they wound up with, Grandpa?
 
How many, Hijo?

They only wound up with 26 square miles. The remaining 1,750 square miles wound up belonging to the government..

Did you figure the square miles for the Juan Bautista Valdez?

Sure did.

We used an estimate of 147,500 acres for the Juan Bautista. If the government had confirmed all the acreage Spain actually granted to the San Joaquin, the La Petaca and the Juan Bautista Valdez there would have been  approximately 810,000 acres—that means they should have received over 1,266 square miles.

How much did they actually get, Hijo?

Six and a half square miles, Grandpa—6.5 of the 1,266 square miles they had been granted forty years before the United States even claimed to have any interest in New Mexico.

After we'd done the math, my teacher pulled out a copy of the census for the San Joaquín del Río de Chama that showed there were more than 400 people living there in 1880—in more than 140 homes. He said, like you had said earlier, Grandpa—they even had a school and a cemetery, but that all there is now are a bunch of National Forest signs—no houses—no schoolhouse, no cemetery—just Forest Service signs. The settlement that had been there for over 80 years is nothing but dust.

Last Monday my teacher brought a copy of the Sunday Albuquerque Journal to class. After he read an article about what the government is doing at a cemetery at Fort Craig, near Socorro, he told us that it's interesting how the Bureau of Reclamation can spend hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars at a Cemetery recovering the remains of more than60 men, women and children—promising to provide them decent burials at the National Cemetery—but at the same time it won't spend a dime fixing up the San Joaquín del Río de Chama Cemetery—and the other land grant cemeteries around the state.

I saw the story you're talking about, Hijo. It was interesting to compare what the government was willing to do at Ft. Craig with what it isn't willing to do for our grants. When you stop to think about how the Forest Service has ignored the condition of the land grants it becomes clear how unimportant our ancestors are to the government.

To make it even worse many of the men who were born, lived and are buried on the San Joaquín and the other grants—fought as volunteers for the Union during the Civil War. They were veterans like the government claims some of the remains at Ft. Craig were, yet our volunteers continue to be ignored.

From what the article said, Hijo, the remains the government was finding at Ft. Craig weren't even Civil War casualties—a lot of the ones they identified didn't even get to New Mexico until after the battle at Glorieta, after the end of the Civil War.

Here's something I think our heirs will find interesting. It's a comparison of  President Roosevelt's 1905 Proclamation establishing the Jémez Forest Reserve with the one President Harrison used to set aside the Pecos River Forest Reserve in 1892.

The first difference was that Harrison's proclamation number 316 had a township and range description of the land being withdrawn while Roosevelt's Jemez Forest Reserve proclamation didn't have a description—just a simple grid map, but that's not all. Harrison's proclamation had a paragraph that read:

Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all land which may have been prior to the date hereof embraced in any valid Spanish or Mexican grant or in any legal entry or covered by any lawful filing duly made in the proper United States land office …. 

Roosevelt's proclamation for the Jémez Forest Reserve skipped that paragraph, Hijo. Even though the San Joaquín, Juan Bautista and La Petaca grants had been removed from the government maps they still physically existed. Since Roosevelt wanted all of the land in the three grants he probably left that paragraph out intentionally so questions about our grants wouldn't slow him down.

But you better believe that both proclamations say the same thing when it comes to timber. The words are slightly different but they make the same point. President Harrisons proclamation for the Pecos River Forest Reserve had this to say:

And whereas the public lands in the Territory of New Mexico within the limits hereinafter described are in part covered with timber, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving said lands as a public reservation. 

Now listen to how that part of Roosevelt's Jémez Proclamation read: 

And whereas, the public lands, in the Territory of New Mexico which are hereinafter indicated, are in part covered with timber, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by setting aside said lands as a public reservation …

Both show how important the timber was—and that the forests should be placed in public reservations.

Before we go to something else I want to read a Joint Memorial the New Mexico Legislature passed on February 4, 1905 and sent to Congress. 

To The President of the United States Protesting Against

The Creation of the Río De Jémez Reserve. 

That the said reserve has been established and set apart without the several thousands of people who live within the boundaries thereof and are mostly affected thereby, ever having any notice of the intent to establish it, and without being given any opportunity to protest against the same.  

That the said reserve embraces a section of country almost as large or larger in area than the state of New Jersey … and including within its outer boundaries large tracts of land that are absolutely non-forest in character, and valuable only for mining, agricultural and grazing purposes, besides fifteen or more towns and villages and a large number of farms and stock ranches … 

Your memorialists further represent that New Mexico's chief industry is that of sheep raising and that the territory has within the last four years, advanced from the fourth to the first place in the nation as a wool producer, and that a large portion of the country so included in this forest reserve has been for nearly a half a century last past the principal grazing ground for a large number of flocks [sic] of the territory and from which grazing ground all sheep will be thereby excluded, thus irreparably injuring the owners thereof as well as the territory at large. 

That the establishing of this reserve practically amounts to the confiscation of all the ranches and homes of the people living within the boundaries thereof, and although they established themselves there more than fifty years ago and endured the great hardships and risks in the accumulation of the property they possess, they are to be driven out to begin life anew.… 

Wherefore, your memorialists respectfully and earnestly pray that all that portion of the Río de Jémez reserve that lies within Taos and Río Arriba counties, may be restored to the public domain and consequent location and entry, relieving the people who will suffer thereby so much in consequence of the establishment of said reserve over such a large area of land of non-forest country: … 

I'm glad we found that memorial, Grandpa, it makes it clear the New Mexico Legislature was against Roosevelt setting up the Río de Jémez Reserve. Do we have any other information that President Roosevelt was setting up reserves the people didn't want?
 
Here's one we can start with:
 
In January1907, there was considerable opposition to a Presidential proclamation that reserved thousands of acres of prime Douglas-fir timberlands in northern Washington State. The local press, chambers of commerce, and the Washington State congressional delegation protested that the reserve would cause undue hardship on residents by taking away homestead and "prime" agricultural lands (the land, in fact, was not agricultural, abut[sic] heavily forested) as well as impeding the future development of the State.  

Why is it important to talk about what was happening in Washington State?

You'll see what I'm getting at soon enough. Here's more of the article:

After considerable pressure, Pinchot and President Roosevelt relented by, by[sic] saying that the reserve had been a "clerical" error. Soon thereafter, Senator Charles W. Fulton of Oregon, who had been implicated in the land frauds in that State, introduced an amendment to the annual agricultural appropriations bill.
 
I thought it was important that Roosevelt, when he got caught setting up that Forest Reserve in Washington,  claimed it had been a "clerical error," withdrew the proclamation and returned the land to the State of Washington.

It's too bad he wasn't pressured into declaring the Jémez Forest Reserve a "clerical error."

Our world would have been a completely different place if that had happened. Here's the rest of the part I wanted to read:  

This amendment, the Fulton Amendment prohibited the President from creating any additional forest reserves in the six Western States of Washington Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado; took away his power to proclaim reserves, established under the Forest Reserve (Creative) Act of 1891; and gave Congress alone the authority to establish reserves. However, before this bill was signed into law on March 4, 1907, Gifford Pinchot and the President came up with a plan.  

On the eve of the bill's signing, Chief Forester Pinchot and his assistant Arthur C. Ringland used a heavy blue pencil to draw many new forest reserves on maps. As soon as the map was finished and a proclamation written, the President signed the paper to establish another forest reserve. On March 1st and 2nd, Roosevelt established 17 new or combined forest reserves containing over 16 million acres in these six Western States. These have since been referred to as the "Midnight Reserves."  

What did the Forest Service have to say about that?

Well—one thing it couldn't do was deny that President Roosevelt and Chief Forester Pinchot established all the reserves that the article mentioned because the article I was reading was from a Forest Service Newsletter. By publishing the article in a Forest Service Newsletter the government was actually blowing a whistle on itself.

The article said Roosevelt had established 17 new or combined forest reserves containing 16,000,000 acres in the six Western States. We looked into what actually happened in those 2 days and the documents we found indicated that, counting other forest reserves they proclaimed outside the six Western States, they had actually converted more like 30,000,000 acres to forest reserves. Instead of seventeen new or combined reserves like the article claimed, our documents show that thirty-three reserves were actually created, combined, enlarged or modified. Of those five were new, eight were set apart from existing reserves, fifteen, including the Jémez Forest Reserve, were enlarged, and five others were modified.

Did you find any other articles about Pinchot and Roosevelt making the reserves—any other information to support what you just said? It's pretty serious, Grandpa, for you to say that the President and Chief Forester were ignoring Congress when they were making those reserves. It sounds like you're saying Roosevelt and Pinchot were intentionally converting millions of acres of private lands into public lands at the same time Congress was trying to take his  power to establish forest reserves.

That's exactly what I'm saying, Hijo. I don't know of any better evidence of what I just said than what I'm going to read next—from  President Roosevelt's own words—from his own memoir:

          While the Agricultural Appropriation Bill was passing through the Senate, in 1907, Senator Fulton, of Oregon, secured an amendment providing that the President could not set aside any additional National Forests in the six Northwestern States. This meant retaining some sixteen million of acres to be exploited by land grabbers and by the representatives of the great special interests, at the expense of the public interest.  

          But for four years the Forest Service had been gathering field notes as to what forests ought to be set aside in these States, and so was prepared to act. It was equally undesirable to veto the whole agricultural bill, and to sign it with this amendment effective. Accordingly, a plan to create the necessary National Forest in these States before the Agricultural Bill could be passed and signed was laid before me by Mr. Pinchot. I approved it. The necessary papers were immediately prepared. I signed the last proclamation a couple of days before by my signature, the bill became law; and when the friends of the special interests in the Senate got their amendment through and woke up, they discovered that sixteen million acres of timberland had been saved for the people by putting them in the National Forests before the land grabbers could get at them. 

          The opponents of the Forest Service turned handsprings in their wrath; and dire were their threats against the Executive; but the threats could not be carried out, and were really only a tribute to the efficiency of our action. 

Have we found any information on exactly how many acres President Roosevelt placed in forest reserves during the time he was President?
Yes. We've found some information and believe it's accurate:
The forest reserves of the United States quadrupled to about 194,000,000 acres under President Roosevelt's orders, equal in area to all the states on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Virginia and the states of Vermont, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This is a greater area than France, Belgium, and The Netherlands combined. 

Over Roosevelt's articulate objections, "An Act Making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight," H.R. 24815, Public Act No. 242, U.S. Congress. 59th. 2nd Session was passed on Feb. 25, 1907. Unwilling to pocket-veto the entire appropriations act, Roosevelt permitted Gifford Pinchot and his staff to identify some 16,000,000 acres of forest in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming which the President then designated as new national forest lands by executive order, between Congress's passage of the bill and its signing on Marth [sic] 4th by the reluctant President, who was now forbidden to create or enlarge the newly designated National Forests.
Do you have the names of the New Mexico reserves and the dates they were established?

We sure do. The Jémez was established, as we've already discussed, on October 12, 1905; the Lincoln and Portales were proclaimed on October 3, 1905; the Lincoln was enlarged on June 25, 1906; the Mount Taylor was proclaimed on October 6, 1906; the Gallinas, Magdalena, Peloncillo and San Mateo were established on November 5, 1906 and the Manzano was established on November 6, 1906.

As we said earlier, Roosevelt increases the Jémez Forest Reserve by over 223,000 acres and created the Taos Forest Reserve, all on the same day—November 7, 1906 and he created the Big Burros on February 6, 1907, and the Las Ánimas in Colorado and New Mexico on March 1, 1907.
 
The Jémez Reserve was enlarged in 1906?

Sure was. It was extended east toward the Río Grande Gorge and took in more land to the west.

On May 2, 1907, two months after Pinchot and Roosevelt established the "Midnight Reserves," James Wilson, the Secretary of Agriculture approved a pamphlet for publication that you're going to find interesting. Its' called, The Use of the Forest.

Here's some of what it says:  

At first a great many of the National Forests were made without knowing exactly where the boundary lines should run. This was unfortunate; because some agricultural lands which should have been excluded were taken in, and a good deal of timber land which should have been included was left out. This could have been avoided by making examinations on the ground, but there was no money for the work, and so the boundaries had to be drawn very roughly … 

Since 1900, however, men and money have been available for field examinations and rough and inaccurate work has been done away with entirely. The old and carelessly made National Forests have been surveyed and mapped, and the President has put back into the public domain those lands which should not have been included. Now, before new Forests or additions to old ones are made, all the lands are examined on the ground. 

The greatest care is used in this work. Every section of land is examined, mapped, and described, and the boundaries are drawn to exclude, as far as possible, everything which does not properly belong in a National Forest. Two very detailed maps are made. One shows just what is growing on the land, the other shows who owns or claims the land. Every bit of cultivated land is located and mapped, as well as the land which is suited to cultivation but which is not cultivated at present … 

Before any new National Forest is made it is known just why it should be made, just what effect it will have, and just where it should be located.  

What do you think about that, Hijo?

All I can say, Grandpa, is whoever wrote that had no clue what Pinchot and President Roosevelt had been up to two months earlier.
 
Why do you say that?

Because it was the exact opposite of what they had done. Do you have any idea who wrote it?

Sure do—Gifford Pinchot.

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