Private Land Claims in the Southwest
by J.J. Bowden
Part Two – Volumes Two through Six
Abstract
The United States was obligated under international law, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the Gadsden Treaty to recognize valid Spanish and Mexican land grants located within the area ceded to it by Mexico. Previous territorial acquisitions had shown both the legislative and executive branches of the government that the prompt settlement of private land claims in the ceded areas was desirable. While Congress promptly created a Board of Commissioners to adjudicate the claims in California, it refused to meet the challenge in the Southwest for six years, and then, it placed the arduous task of investigating and reporting upon the claims upon the Surveyors General of the territories, who were untrained and ill equipped to solve the legal problems which confronted them. Congress reserved the prerogative of confirming or rejecting the claims reported by the Surveyors General. This procedure completely broke down in 1879 following the confirmation of only a minor portion of the Southwestern private land claims. This created untold hardships for all concerned. Finally, in 1891, a well qualified non-partisan court was created by Congress, which, after thirteen and a half years of diligent effort, solved the problem insofar as it pertained to the government and its citizens.
This study traces the background of the problem and its solution in Part One. Part Two contains an historical account of each of the Southwestern private land claims. While source material was gathered from coast to coast, a majority of such data was obtained from the microfilm records of the Surveyor General’s office and Court of Private Land Claims, which are contained in the Bureau of Land Management, Santa Fe, New Mexico.