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.
The Rise of Multiple-Use Management in the Intermountain West: A History of Region 4 of the Forest Service