Feds Accepting Public Comment on Cochiti Pueblo Push to Take Land Into Trust
By Ben Neary
NMWF
The U.S. Department of Interior is accepting public comments on a pending application from Cochiti Pueblo asking the federal government to take a parcel of former state land into trust. Some neighboring landowners oppose the pueblo’s request, saying granting it would block their quest to regain access to roads and private property.
Cochiti Pueblo obtained the 9,270 acres of former state trust land in 2016 by swapping a hotel it had purchased in downtown Santa Fe -- Garrett's Desert Inn on Old Santa Fe Trail – to the state. The land parcel the pueblo acquired, immediately north of the old pueblo boundary, is called “Cañada de Cochiti.”
In the transfer documents, Cochiti Pueblo and the State Land Office agreed that Sandoval County would retain public rights of way over the Cañada de Cochiti parcel to the Dome Lookout road, the Bland Road, the Rancho de Cañada Road and the Dixon’s Apple Road, “for so long as they are maintained as public roads.”
Cochiti Pueblo closed Forest Road 289 – commonly called the Dome Road – in late 2018. It runs from the Cochiti area northwest through Cañada de Cochiti, then through forest service land before joining NM 4 near the Valles Caldera.
Some roadways in the area have been closed since fire and flooding in the area in 2011. However, the Dome Road had remained open aside from wintertime closures for decades until the pueblo blocked it in late 2018.
On Sept. 4, 2019, Cochiti Pueblo filed a document in the Sandoval County Clerk’s Office which it titled, “Cancellation of right-of-way easement….” regarding Forest Road 268 -- the Bland Canyon Road -- and (Forest Road 89) “Rancho de la Cañada Road,” which runs up Cochiti Canyon.
The pueblo’s document stated that the cancellation of the rights of way was based on Sandoval County’s “failure to comply with express covenants” of the State Land Office transfer agreement in regard to the roads. The pueblo has blocked county road crews from performing maintenance or otherwise opening the roads.
The New Mexico State Legislature in 1997 urged the federal government to recognize Forest Road 268, the “Bland Canyon Road” as a historic trail. The resolution passed by the Legislature said New Mexicans had used it to travel between the Rio Grande Valley and the Valles Caldera in the Jemez for centuries and that it was important throughout New Mexico history for the movement of livestock, and to allow residents -- Indians and non-Indians alike -- to reach the forest and to cut wood and hunt.
Closing the Dome Road, along with the closure of other nearby routes that lead to forest service lands, has left some landowners unable to reach their private inholdings within the Santa Fe National Forest. The closures also have blocked the general public, including Native Americans from other neighboring pueblos, from following traditional routes into the forest for hunting, wood-cutting, tending to livestock and general recreation.
Local residents and others have been unable to seek redress in the courts to regain access to their private property. Cochiti Pueblo has informed Sandoval County and private landowners that it won’t waive its sovereign immunity and submit to the authority of state courts.
If the U.S. Department of Interior accepts Cochiti Pueblo’s pending application to take the Cañada de Cochiti land into trust, it will become legally part of the Cochiti Pueblo, meaning it will be legally “Indian Land,” not subject to state or local laws or taxation.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs wrote to some non-Indian area landowners in August informing them that the pueblo’s trust application is pending and seeking public comment.
“The purpose for seeking your comments regarding the proposed trust land acquisition is to obtain sufficient data that would enable an analysis of the potential impact on local/state government, which may result from the removal of the subject property from the tax roll and local jurisdiction,” the BIA notice to landowners states.
The BIA letter, dated Aug. 19, stated residents would have 30 days to submit comments, meaning the deadline to comment is now less than two weeks away.
The BIA provided the following address to submit public comments:
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
Southwest Regional Office 1001 Indian School Road NW Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104
August 19, 2026
IN REPLY REFER TO:
420- Real Estate Services TR-4609-P5
Case Number: 22464
