Welcome to SouthwestBooks.org - Books on the Land, Water & Peoples of the Southwest
SouthwestBooks.org from The Center for Land Grant Studies

Home

Orders Print Order Form
Order Online with PayPal
Just click on the
"Add to Cart" Buttons

Join Mailing List
Receive notice of special sales & events.

BOOKS

Land & Water
Essential books on land grants, water rights and acequias in New Mexico.

Southwest History
Hard-to-get books on the history and social issues of the Southwest at bargain prices.

Native American
Including books on Chaco Canyon, petroglyphs, pictographs, myths of the Southwest, and the Pecos Ruins.

Rare Books
Rare and Out of Print books. Limited availability - subject to prior sale.

RESEARCH

Excerpts
On line text excerpted from books & lecture notes. Bibliographies & Glossaries

Genealogical Materials
Census and other materials, including family trees for specific families.

Unpublished Manuscripts
By leading scholars of New Mexico and the Southwest.

Center for Land Grant Studies
Learn about the Center and help support its work.

Links

Contact Us

Land Grants, Water Rights & Acequias

Land Grants in a Nutshell. Complete text online. Notes from a lecture by Malcolm Ebright explaining the essential elements of New Mexican Land Grants. •  Sharing the Shortages Water Litigation and Regulation in Hispanic New Mexico, 1600-1850. Excerpt from an article in the New Mexico Historical Review. New: How to Research a Land Grant Historians Malcolm Ebright and Richard Salazar explain what resources are available to research Land Grants in New Mexico. Recorded and Produced by Cultural Energy • A very preliminary listing of grants entered so far in the Land Grant Database Project are shown here: Grants A-J | Grants L-R | Grants S-Z | Grants by County | Explanation of Types of Grants

Grant summaries - You can now purchase 22 of our Land Grant summaries

All books are new, in mint condition, unless otherwise indicated.

New Book by Malcolm Ebright
Advocates for the Opressed - Malcolm Ebright

Just off the press: Paperback edition of Advocates for the Oppressed. Reviewed by T.P. Bowman, West Texas A&M University: “... Ebright not only provides an important history of land policy in New Mexico but also reminds readers of the long history of people who defended the rights of Indians in New Spain for hundreds of years. With this impressive piece of scholarship, Ebright himself keeps the spirits of these advocates alive for the modern world to appreciate.”

ME-AFTO. Advocates for the Oppressed: Hispanos, Indians, Genízaros, and Their Land in New Mexico by Malcolm Ebright.

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 the return of lost lands and by reestablishing the right to use those lands for traditional purposes. Includes chapters on Zuni Pueblo and Galisteo, San Marcos, Cerrillos, and La Ciénega Pueblo grants. 440 pages, 13 original drawings by Glen Strock, 4 maps, index, bibliography.

 

Paperback $30

 

New Book from Ebright, Hendricks & Hughes
EHH-FSL. Four Square Leagues: Pueblo Land in New Mexico. by Malcolm Ebright, Rick Hendricks, and Richard W. Hughes. Albuquerque, UNM Press, 2014. This book, described as “an authoritative masterpiece,” with “information that is startlingly new,” is the first up-to-date account of the history of Pueblo Indian land beginning in late 17th century New Mexico. Containing chapters about the origin of the Pueblo league, about the Cruzate documents, and the adjudication of Pueblo lands by U.S. Courts, the book is characterized by success stories as well as the loss of Pueblo land.
Four Square Leagues - Malcolm Ebright, Rick Hendricks, Richard W. Hughes - UNM Press

Specific studies of the land struggles of Jemez, Cochiti, Santa Clara, Sandia, and Picuris Pueblos are capped by Santa Ana Pueblo’s campaign in the early 1700s to buy back their ancestral lands from their Spanish neighbors, and the story of Taos Pueblo’s successful battle for their sacred Blue Lake. 452 pages. 12 original drawings by Glen Strock, 4 maps and 7 illustrations, index, bibliography.


Hardback Sale Price $40


Paperback Sale Price $25

Land Grants & Lawsuits in Northern New Mexico-Malcolm Ebright


Paperback $20.00


Embossed Cloth Hardcover $30.00

ME-LG. Land Grants and Lawsuits in Northern New Mexico by Malcolm Ebright. Republished by the Center for Land Grant Studies, Guadalupita, NM 2008. Original published by UNM Press, 1994, first edition out of print. New introduction by Malcolm Ebright and stunning new cover art by Glen Strock including an embossed cloth cover design by Glen Strock. Contains eight case studies of specific land grants, together with background material on the making of Spanish and Mexican land grants and their adjudication by the U.S. Considered the definitive book on New Mexico land grants; used as a text in South Western studies courses. 401 pps.
More InformationExcerpts

ME-RH-WB. The Witches of Abiquiú: the Governor, the Priest, the Genízaro Indians, and the Devil by Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks. UNM Press, 2006. Illustrations by Glen Strock. This is the story of a little-known witchcraft trial that took place at Abiquiú, New Mexico, between 1756 and 1766.

The Abiquiú Genízaro land grant where the witchcraft outbreak occurred was the crown jewel of Governor Vélez Cachupín's plan to achieve peace for the early New Mexican colonists, caught between the Pueblo Indians' resistance to Christianization and raids by nomadic indios bárbaros. Thanks mainly to the governor's strategy, peace was achieved with the Comanches and Utes, the Pueblo Indians retained their religious ceremonies, and the Abiquiú Pueblo land grant survived and flourished.


Paperback $25.00

Hardcover sold out

According to leading New Mexico historian Marc Simmons, "[Ebright and Hendricks] demonstrate masterful detective work, allowing them to produce an authoritative narrative that is as provocative as it is well-grounded." Includes drawings, map, and documents. 360 pp.

 

Paper $15

Click on cover for larger view

More Information

 

ME-SM. Spanish and Mexican Land Grants and the Law. Malcolm Ebright, ed. Sunflower University Press, 1989. Eight land grant scholars contribute to this collection of essays. The book includes historic maps, documents, photos and illustrations by Glen Strock. 104 pp.

The following is a complete list of the articles:
Malcolm Ebright – Introduction: Spanish and Mexican Land Grants and the Law
David E. Vassberg – The Spanish Background: Problems Concerning Ownership, Usurpations, and Defense of Common Lnads in 16th Century Castile.
Daniel Tyler – Ejido Lands in New Mexico
Iris H. W. Engstrand – An Enduring Legacy: California Ranchos in Historical Perspective
G. Emlen Hall – Land Litigation and the Idea of New Mexico Progress
Clark S. Knowlton – The Mora Land Grant: A New Mexico Tragedy
Joseph W. McKnight – Law Books on the Hispanic Frontier
Guillermo F. Margadant S. – Mexican Colonial Land Law

JR-AC. Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest by José A. Rivera. University of New Mexico Press, 1998. Traces the history of the New Mexico acequia from its old world roots, particularly in Valencia, Spain to present-day acequia disputes. Describes the acequia culture of the Southwest as growing "out of a conservation ethic and a tradition of sharing that should be recognized and preserved in an age of increasing competition for scarce resources." Approximately half the book is made up of important acequia documents from minutes, by-laws, including water-sharing rules and recent court decisions adopting water-sharing customs in the Taos Valley. Index, notes, glossary, maps, and extensive appendices. 269 pp.

Paper $30

WdB-RT. River of Traps: A Village Life. By William de Buys, UNM Press. 1990. 64 photos by Alex Harris. Set in the Northern New Mexico village of El Valle on the Las Trampas River, this story recounts the relationship between the writer and photographer, Jacobo Romero, and the land.

Mint Hardback - Out of Print $20

Click on cover for larger view

SC-MC. Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico. By Stanley Crawford, UNM Press, 1993. Beautifully written story of a northern New Mexican community and the acequia that knits it together. 242 pp.

Paper $19

Click on cover for larger view


Click on cover for larger view

Sale in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid
, June 5, 1967, which brought the injustices in the history of the Tierra Amarilla Grant to national and international attention.

Special Price with purchase of any other book $10

ME-TA. The Tierra Amarilla Grant: A History of Chicanery by Malcolm Ebright. This book contains a brief history of the Tierra Amarilla Grant, with a transcription and translation of the grant documents and a list of the first settlers in the seven communities that make up the Tierra Amarilla area. With a forward by Frank Waters and a photo essay of the Tierra Amarilla communities, this is a perfect commemoration of this revolutionary event that put the land grant issue on center stage in New Mexico.

Malcolm Ebright, The Tierra Amarilla Grant: A History of Chicanery, 66 pages, notes, photos, preface by Frank Waters

Special Price Paper $15

JvN-SM. Spanish and Mexican Land grants in New Mexico and Colorado by John R. and Christine M. Van Ness. Sunflower University, 1980. Articles about the Las Vegas, Embudo, Anton Chico, and Juan Bautista Valdez grants. Articles about common lands in Spain, New Mexico ejido lands, California ranchos, Pueblo Indian land litigation, the Mora grant, Mexican land law, Hispanic law books, and more. 119 pp.

Eleven land grant scholars contribute a wide-ranging group of essays to this lively and profusely illustrated book covering the Las Vegas, Embudo, Anton Chico, and Juan Bautista Valdez grants. Original drawings, historic photographs and maps, as well as reproductions of 200 year-old documents, all help to make the fascinating subject of land grants understandable.

The following is a complete list of the articles:
John R. Van Ness - Introduction
Clark S. Knowlton - The Town of Las Vegas Community Land Grant: An Anglo-American Coup d-…tat
Marianne L. Stoller - Grants of Desperation, Lands of Speculation: Mexican Period Land Grants in Colorado
Frances Leon Quintana & David H. Snow - Historical Archeology of the Rito Colorado Valley, New Mexico
Janet S. Lecompte - Manuel Armijo and the Americans
G. Emlen Hall - Giant Before the Surveyor-General: The Land Career of Donaciano Vigil
Malcolm Ebright - The Embudo Grant: A Case Study of Justice and the Court of Private Land Claims
Michael J. Rock - Anton Chico and Its Patent
Morris F. Taylor - The Leitensdorfer Claim in the Vigil and St. Vrain Grant
William Wroth - Hispanic Southwestern Craft and the Taylor Museum Collection
John R. Van Ness - The Juan Bautista Valdez Grant: Was It A Community Land Grant?

Paper $15

Land Grant Histories/Historias de la Mercedes

The Center for Land Grant Studies has undertaken the ambitious task of writing short summaries of all 300 or so New Mexico land grants. The summaries cover the history of each grant from the time the grant was made until its adjudication by the Surveyor General and/or the Court of Private Land Claims and its patenting by the United States (if the grant was confirmed).

These summaries are still in draft form, but all contain detailed citations to the basic documents, as well as to secondary sources. Also included is some historical analysis of the events described in these land grant histories. The following Land Grant Histories are currently available (more will be added soon). A sample grant summary, The Truchas Grant, may be viewed on-line in Web format.

CG-CLS. The Cundiyo Grant - made by Governor Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza in 1743.

Paper $10

TG-CLS. The Truchas Grant - made by Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín in 1754.

Paper $10

JJLG-CLS. The Juan José Lobato Grant - made by Governor Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza in 1744.

Paper $10

SMG-CLS. The Sebastian Martín Grant - made by Governor José Chacón Medina Salaza y Villaseñor in 1712.

Paper $10

PQG-CLS. The Pueblo Quemado Grant (no grant documents found).

Paper $10

LTG-CLS. The Las Trampas Grant - made by Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín in 1751.

Paper $10

JBVG-CLS. The Juan Bautista Valdez Grant - made by Governor Joaquín del Real Alencaster in 1807.

Paper $10

FMVG-CLS. The Francisco Montes Vigil Grant - made by Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín in 1754.

Paper $10

DABCG-CLS. The Doña Ana Bend Colony Grant

Paper $10

AGG-CLS. The Abiquiú Genízaro Grant

Paper $10

GG-CLS. The Galisteo Grant

Paper $10

MCCG-CLS. The Mesilla Civil Colony Grant

Paper $10

OCG-CLS. The Ojo Caliente Grant

Paper $10

AHG-CLS. The Arroyo Hondo Grant

Paper $10

SJCCG-CLS. The San Joaquín/Cañon de Chama Grant

Paper $10

FMVG-CLS. The Tierra Amarilla Grant

Paper $10

GLG-CLS. The Guadalupita Land Grant

Paper $10

SFG-CLS. The Santa Fe Grant

Paper $10

CG-CLS. The Cebolleta Grant

Paper $10

CNG-CLS. The Cristóbal Nieto Grant

Paper $10

SMPG-CLS. The San Marcos Pueblo Grant

Paper $10

EGG-CLS. The Elena Gallegos Grant

Paper $10

Home | Order | Land Water | Southwest | Native American | Rare | Genealogy | Manuscripts | Center | Links | Mailing List | Contact Us

© 1979 - 2024 The Center for Land Grant Studies • webmaster@southwestbooks.org • Privacy Policy