Advocates for the Oppressed
Advocates for the Oppressed
Hispanos, Indians, Genízaros, and Their Land in New Mexico
Struggles over land and water have determined much of New Mexico's long history. The outcome of such disputes, especially in colonial times, often depended on which party had a strong advocate to argue a case before a local tribunal or on appeal. This book is partly about the advocates who represented the parties to these disputes, but it is most of all about the Hispanos, Indians, and Genízaros (Hispanicized nomadic Indians) themselves and the land they lived on and fought for.
Having written about Hispano land grants and Pueblo Indian grants separately, Malcolm Ebright now brings these narratives together for the first time, reconnecting them and resurrecting lost histories. He emphasizes the success that advocates for Indians, Genízaros, and Hispanos have had in achieving justice for marginalized people through the return of lost lands and by reestablishing the right to use those lands for traditional purposes.
Malcolm Ebright is the only scholar who could have conducted the depth of archival research needed for this book, which is different from other books in the field. It does not duplicate studies of the more commonly known land grants but focuses on the lesser known Ojo Caliente Grant, the grazing grants to New Mexico Pueblos, and the Pueblo land grants in the Galisteo Basin that were later abandoned. There is also a key chapter about the early land grants in Santa Fe and the story of the nonexistent, mythical Santa Fe League. The broader issues in the eighteenth-century lawsuits that Ebright covers are still relevant today: disputes over the use of common lands, conflicts over land titles and boundaries, and disputes over Pueblo Indian land rights.'--José A. Rivera, author of La Sociedad: Guardians of Hispanic Culture Along the Río Grande
Malcolm Ebright is a historian, an attorney, and the director of the Center for Land Grant Studies. His most recent book, written in collaboration with Rick Hendricks and Richard W. Hughes, is FourSquareLeagues:PuebloIndianLandinNewMexico (UNM Press).
