The Indo-Hispano

In 1966, Tijerina and members of the Alianza Federal de Mercedes took over the Echo Amphitheater picnic ground within Kit Carson National Forest, apprehended two U.S. Forest Service rangers and, in a mock trial, accused them of trespassing. Land-grant activists claimed the acreage because it had originally been granted to their ancestors by Spain, prompting the question that confronted Reies López Tijerina constantly: “Didn’t Spaniards steal the land in the first place from Native Americans?” In partial answer to this question, he sought alliances with Native Americans and promoted a new identity, the Indo-Hispano, the compound name recognizing centuries of cultural interchange and racial-mixing even as Tijerina minimized an equally long history of conflict.