New Mexico’s Taos Pueblo community recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the return of their sacred Blue Lake after 64 years under federal government control. Hundreds gathered Sept. 17 and 18 to commemorate this precedent-setting victory for religious freedom and sacred land protection.

Blue Lake, or Ba Whyea, is a small mountain lake that forms the headwaters of Rio Pueblo, which tumbles through the village of the Taos people. Oral tradition holds that the Taos tribe was created out of the sacred waters of Blue Lake. As a place of ritual worship and historic importance, the lake is essential to Taos culture, religion and daily life.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an order placing Blue Lake and its surrounding watershed under control of the U.S. Forest Service, and the Taos Pueblo community and allies spent the next six decades fighting to get it back.

The restoration finally came in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law a bill putting control of Blue Lake and its 48,000 surrounding acres back in the hands of the Taos Pueblo people. The bill also granted the community exclusive use of the 1,640 acres immediately surrounding the lake, making it off limits to all but enrolled Taos Pueblo members.

Gone are the days when the Taos Pueblo had to seek special-use permits from the Forest Service in order to practice their religion, a victory that community members — even after 40 years — continue to celebrate. Tribal member Sylvia Mirabal, who was only eight years old in 1970, said, “We are able to still get to Blue Lake freely, and that’s the most significant thing. My grandfathers made this happen.”

To learn more, read our Taos Blue Lake sacred site report.