A settlement allows the Jemez Pueblo to hunt in the Banco Bonito section of Valles Caldera National Park/NPS file

Editor's note: This updates with reaction from Caldera Action, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable preservation-oriented management of Valles Caldera National Preserve.

The settlement Interior Department officials reached with the Jemez Pueblo over Banco Bonito within Valles Caldera National Preserve in northern New Mexico allows the pueblo to hunt, gather plants, wood, and other natural resources, and hold traditional religious practices there.

Neither officials at the preserve or the Interior Department would discuss details of the settlement, which was reached October 16 and announced two days later. 

The legal battle dates to the summer of 2012, when the Jemez Pueblo sued the United States, claiming that it held "aboriginal title" to all the land within the nearly 90,000-acre preserve. Under common law doctrine that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1823, aboriginal title grants a tribe the right to traditional practices on lands they can demonstrate they've used continuously "for time immemorial." In this case, the pueblo claimed its rights dated at least to 1650.

While a lower court had dismissed the pueblo's claim, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a split ruling in March 2023 reversed that ruling and recognized the tribe's claim to the 3,000 acres within Banco Bonito in the southwestern corner of the preserve and gave the parties time to negotiate a settlement. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland decided not to appeal the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court but rather reach a settlement with the pueblo.

Under that settlement, which was filed with the 10th Circuit last week, Banco Bonito will remain part of the national preserve, but the pueblo was given rights to the land. Among those rights:

• To use, hunt or "gather animals, plants, wood, water and other natural resources for a noncommercial purpose;"
• To "gather wild or native foods, materials for paints and medicines and other resources traditionally gathered for ceremonial or religious purposes;"
• To visit "sacred trails and places and conduct traditional religious practices;"
• "All other rights provided in the Preserve Act that do not require NPS authorization."

At Caldera Action, a nonprofit that advocates for preservation-oriented management of the preserve, Executive Director Tom Ribe said the agreement lacks details.

"I am concerned about the vagueness of the language in the agreement regarding the preserve in general. The court says to amend the Foundation Document to recognize the centrality of 'pueblo and tribal issues.'  What are 'issues'?," Ribe said in an email. "What if the tribe wants to graze large herds of cattle? Is that such an issue?

"The consultation process calls on the NPS to establish a process for considering 'management decisions affecting tribes.' Again, could the tribe say they wanted to graze cattle?," he continued. "Already they can graze cows in a very limited place on the preserve but what if they want to go further? I worry that the language is vague so there could be a legal tug of war about the limits of tribal action relative to the preserve's legal responsibilities under the [National Park Service] Organic Act and the preserve's [enabling] legislation."

The settlement also notes that "federal authorization may be required for Jemez to access Banco Bonito across other federal lands, and for any activities outside of Banco Bonito. Additionally, the public can access Banco Bonito. And it requires approval from the pueblo before the Park Service can build a campground or construct trails across the land, and that the agency must "consult and coordinate" with the Jemez before allowing any archaeological or ethnographic work within Banco Bonito.