New Era in Indian Affairs

To the Taos Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, the land is both religion and church. Since the 13th century they have particularly venerated Blue Lake in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. For them, Blue Lake is roughly analogous to Catholicism's Vatican or Judaism's Zion. But the tribe has owned neither land nor lake since 1906, when Teddy Roosevelt took them over as part of Carson National Forest. Although the House of Representatives has passed legislation in the past two years to right the old wrong, the measure has always been killed in the Senate Interior Committee.

Last week, much to the delight of the Taosenos, the Senate voted 70 to 12 to give 48,000 acres back to the tribe. Held in trust by the Secretary of the Interior, the land will be preserved as wilderness and used by the Indians mainly for religious ceremonies, hunting and maintaining livestock.

The bill's passage indicates that President Nixon is keeping his pledge, made last July, to open "a new era in which the Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions." The measure would never have got to the Senate floor without presidential pressure on members who feared that a break for the Taosenos would invite other Indians to press land claims against the Government. Now it goes to the White House for Nixon's signature, which is assured. Meanwhile, another part of the President's program is moving faster than anyone expected. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, traditionally staffed by patronage appointees, is being reorganized to permit the tribes to have greater control over their destinies.

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