So there was this guy called Tijerina

It’s embarrassing to acknowledge how clueless I was about this part of the world before I came here. My understanding was something like this:

• American Revolution
• Lewis and Clark
• Wagon trains
• Founding of San Francisco, Seattle, and other places with decent restaurants

So now I find out that, in addition to the Indian thing, there’s this Spanish thing. It’s about land grants and property ownership. And there was this guy called Rey Tijerina. In the 60s, he started reminding people that when New Mexico became part of the U.S., its poor little farmers and shepherds were supposed to be able to keep their land. The U.S. made that promise in the treaty it signed with Mexico when it acquired New Mexico in 1848.

In 1963, Rey started an organization called la alianza federal de las mercedes (the Federal Land-Grant Alliance) to stop the U.S. Forest Service from shaving off more and more of that treaty land. In 1967, when la alianza took over the Tierra Amarilla courthouse (just down the road from Lumberton) to make a citizens' arrest, things spiraled out of control. Shots were fired. A sheriff and a jailer were hit, other policemen were beaten, and a journalist was locked up. The National Guard arrived soon with 200 tanks and other vehicles and 400 soldiers.

Reies Tijerina was arrested. He represented himself at his trial, served his time, was released, and is still alive. The New York Times wrote about him in 2006, saying, "He could easily be dismissed as absolutely crazy, but if you sit with him and give him an opening he will convert you."