William Redmond: “Basically we are looking for a 5-year commission. We want to establish a research center north of the City of Espanola…”

“Basically we are looking for a 5-year commission. We want to establish a research center north of the City of Espanola in Rio Arriba County in my congressional district at the de Onate Center, Don Juan de Onate. Basically what we will do is that individuals who believe that they have a valid claim can step forward with other individuals from their same land grant. They would present the documentation and we would work with them on the reconstruction of the documentation. Some of the documentation exists in the State of New Mexico. Some of the documentation exists in Mexico City. Some of the documentation exists in Spain. There is quite a bit of research that is going to have to go into this project. We want the heirs, according to the treaty, to receive their land, but we also do not want individuals filing fraudulent claims and acquiring land that does not rightly belong to them. The commission is a 5-year commission, it is going to take minimally 5 years to do the research that is necessary to establish the documentation, and at that particular point we will be making a recommendation, the commission will be making a recommendation to the President of the United States and to this body, the House and the Senate, for a final solution for this particular situation.”