The pueblo is negotiating with the University of New Mexico for 5,300 acres on the flank of the Jemez Mountains. It is more than half the 9,600-acre James Webb Young Ranch donated to UNM 35 years ago. UNM used the buildings as a conference center and the ranch for field research by geology, anthropology, archaeology and other classes. Tribal council members spoke May 1 to the UNM regents finance and facilities committee about buying the land south of Bandelier National Monument. In June the three-member committee will consider the proposed $2.2 million sale, at $417 per acre, and whether to send it on to the full board. Commercial or residential development would be prohibited on both halves of the ranch but UNM could continue field research. Buying the land is the “least rational thing the tribe could do” from an economic standpoint, a pueblo attorney said. “They will never recoup the investment financially.” Pueblo representatives seemed briefly stunned when asked how far back they could trace their ancestry. Pueblo Gov. Wilson Romero responded, “Our ancestors were there for hundreds of years. … But I can’t say our ancestors bought it.”
