IN 2012, Jemez Pueblo tribal and religious leadership filed a lawsuit to reclaim the Valles Caldera as their aboriginal and most sacred lands. In October 2024, a settlement between the National Park Service and the pueblo resulted in co-management of Banco Bonito. The 3,000-acre portion of the preserve includes shards of traditional black-on-white pottery and thousands of field houses used by ancestral Jemez people while tending crops. While those structures proved their longstanding ties in court, a representative of the Jemez Pueblo, speaking on behalf of tribal leadership, hopes this is only the first step toward restoring Jemez access and stewardship. —As told to Elizabeth Miller
THIS PLACE IS THE HEART OF OUR PEOPLE. It is our homeland. Because of that, and how it was wrongfully taken from my ancestors, it was decided that we’d put the lawsuit in to reclaim what is sacred to us.
WE WERE THE FIRST STEWARDS, the first conservationists of these areas. We took care of it. We respected it, and we continue to respect it as our ancestors did.
THE BEST WAY FOR ME TO HAVE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND how important it is, is to say: This place is as sacred as the Vatican is to the Catholics.
WHEN THE UNITED STATES FIRST PURCHASED THE LAND, it was managed by the Valles Caldera Trust. We had to request access to the Valles Caldera in writing. My complaint was why do we need to request access to our sacred grounds? Do Catholics request permission to access a church? No, they don’t.
IT TOOK A LAWSUIT, which is to me very sad, to get the Jemez people to go back and openly begin to practice our way of life as our ancestors did for thousands of years.
AS A RELIGIOUS LEADER, I’ve been into the Valles Caldera a few hundred times, because I believe in our Jemez ways. I believe in our culture, and I believe that the ancestors sacrificed so that we would continue to pay tribute to these sacred sites and places and that we would continue to pass our tradition to our kids, to our grandkids, and great-grandkids.
WE KNOW ABOUT THE LAND. We know the plants. We know the waterways. We know the animals, the ecosystem. We have sacred sites across the Valles Caldera. We think our traditional knowledge should be incorporated into the management. There needs to be more consultation. We could do tours. We could have a visitor center based on the Jemez history and culture of the place. We’re willing to share this information.
VALLES CALDERA FORMS THE CORE of the Jemez landscape. Our community is truly connected—on a daily basis through our prayers—to the Valles Caldera. Our ancestors are there. They’re living. They’re there. We pray for their blessings every day that we be given an opportunity to be part of this management.
WE DIDN’T DECIDE that only Banco Bonito belongs to Jemez. The courts did. The whole Valles Caldera belongs to the Jemez people, and it’ll always belong to the Jemez people.