Mexican Descendants Win in Colo. Court

abc ^ | 12/10/03

[knak]

Colorado Descendants of Mexican Settlers Win Court Ruling on Access to Ranch Land

The Associated Press

DENVER Dec. 10 — Fences that have kept descendants of Mexican settlers from grazing cattle and gathering firewood on a southern Colorado mountain will soon come down.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a state high court decision that concluded descendants of the original settlers had the right to use the 77,500-acre Taylor Ranch in the San Luis Valley.

"They never thought they could get it back, but we've won," Shirley Romero Otero, a descendant of settlers, said Wednesday. "Now I see people with hope and lots of pride."

Jeff Goldstein, a lawyer representing the descendants, said, "It's really a vindication of their rights. They've been saying this for over 40 years."

Stephen Kinnaird, a lawyer involved in the Supreme Court case representing the ranch owners, declined comment.

The 14,047-foot Culebra Peak and surrounding ranch land, about 180 miles south of Denver, became a part of the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American war. Residents used it for hunting, grazing and gathering wood to build and heat their adobe homes.

The battle began in 1960 after North Carolina timberman Jack Taylor bought the land, including the mountain.

Taylor put up a fence and ordered that trespassers be shot. There were frequent reports of tensions and beatings between the ranch and the valley residents.

With the Supreme Court challenge scuttled, the descendants and the current owners must agree on a management plan for the property, as ordered by the state court, before access is allowed.

They must also trace property titles back to when the settlers first arrived under a land grant from Mexico since only current property holders who are descendants have access rights. The state court ordered the ranch owners to pay for that work.

Otero, 48, remembers joining her family and neighbors on a summer trek to the land to gather enough wood for the winter. It wasn't just a chore, she recalls, but a big social event where the children would play and everyone would picnic together.

"I just want to go up there, at my age, and enjoy the spirituality of the mountain, the beautiful surroundings and the peace and tranquility that it will bring to me," Otero said.

[FITZ]

Taylor put up a fence and ordered that trespassers be shot.

Maybe Taylor didn't have full rights and wasn't supposed to put up that fence. It sounds like it's grazing land. Maybe like if you buy land that is accessible by an easement across someone else's land and they later put up a fence and tell you to keep off.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[Ben Ficklin]

There are a number of these older, clouded by time claims.

My memory may not be completely dependable on this but recall that the claims on the lands on Padre Island was denied. The claims on the King Ranch have not been settled. In New Mexico there are claims on land owned by the state.

[RLK]

Landowners who are the successors in title to the original settlers on the Sangre de Cristo grant, an 1844 Mexican land grant, claim access and use rights to property commonly known as the Taylor Ranch or The Mountain Tract. The landowners claim that rights to graze livestock, gather firewood and timber, hunt, fish and recreate, derive from Mexican law, prescription and express or implied grant.

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And these grants were derived from the claims of Spain's Hernando Cortez for the king of Spain, which Mexico negated in 1821.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[Poohbah]

And these grants were derived from the claims of Spain's Hernando Cortez for the king of Spain, which Mexico negated in 1821.

That would only be true if Mexico also negated all grants made under that claim. They didn't.

[Bikers4Bush]

Private land = private property, he bought it and he owns it. This nation has gone comletely insane.

[wjcsux]

What I said was clear enough for intelligent people. I'm not in the mood to be sidetracked by fools.
Good call.

[Orange1998]

In 1999, Pai bought the ranch, also called the Culebra Ranch and the Jaroso Creek Ranch, for $23 million between 1997 and 2000 as he was cashing out $353.7 million in Enron stock.

Enron creditors should own the ranch.

[MARTIAL MONK]

Private land = private property, he bought it and he owns it.

Not quite. He bought the rights to the land as they existed. These other folks had prior rights, recognized by law and treaty. The Bieubains and the Bents manipulated the law and their positions to "steal" millions of acres of grant land in the wake of the Mexican War. If the grants had not been upheld most of this land would not be private - it would be retained by the government.

[Bikers4Bush]

Those people didn't have jack until they won the court case.

When we got it from mexico any mexican claim became moot.

[Lurking Libertarian]

When we got it from mexico any mexican claim became moot.

Not if our Treaty with Mexico promised to respect existing rights of land grantees.

[r9etb]

Monger more clearly, please.

I think he's saying that it's all part of the elaborate plot, originally hatched in 1848, to take back Mexico. Or something like that.

[r9etb]

Private land = private property, he bought it and he owns it. This nation has gone comletely insane.

He never had full rights to the property. See the stories, above.

[Bikers4Bush]

If that's the case then why was only part of what they claimed the grant guaranteed held up and the rest not honored?

[Bikers4Bush]

I did, and I also read the dissenting opinion by the judges.

[Joe Hadenuf]

LOL!

[Lurking Libertarian]

I do not know enough about the details of the case to tell you if the court decision was right or wrong; I was jsut responding to the argument that any rights granted by Mexico were no longer valid. as a generalization, that argument is false, because by treaty the US agreed to respect Mexican land grants. The specifics of what was granted, and who are the heirs of the grantees, often raise complicated legal questions.

[Liberty Valance]

"Enron creditors should own the ranch"
lol, or at least get to spend summer vacations there :o)

[Doctor Stochastic]

While the Enron executives "vacation" at Salinas down the road a bit.