I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico Representatives Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján were in attendance as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sent the Pigford and Cobell settlements to President Barack Obama after the bills passed both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. The bill included a $3.4 billion settlement for Native American trust account holders and a $1.15 billion for black farmers.
“We are very, very proud of the action that we will take today to sign the bill to send to the president to change the law to bring justice long overdue in the Pigford, Cobell cases,” Pelosi said at the enrolling of the bill.
The Cobell settlement includes four water rights agreements with Native Americans, two of which are related to New Mexico: the $81 million to begin construction on a regional water system in the Pojoaque River Basin and $66 million in funding for the Abeyta water rights settlement in the Taos Valley.
The $5.5 billion cost of the settlements is offset with other spending savings according to Speaker Pelosi.
“The Aamodt and Taos Pueblo Indian water rights cases have been in federal court for many decades,” Heinrich said before a vote was held on the bill. “These cases sought to bring justice to native pueblos who, like any other Western communities, depend on water as their life blood.”
The House easily passed the legislation on a 256 to 152 vote.
“By compensating black farmers and Native Americans for past failures of judgment by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, we close the door on an old injustice,” Pelosi said. “We must be ever vigilant in terms of how the law is enforced.”
