§ 539m — Findings And Purposes

(a) Congress finds that— (1) in 1748, the Pueblo of Sandia received a grant from a representative of the King of Spain, which grant was recognized and confirmed by Congress in 1858 (11 Stat. 374); and (2) in 1994, the Pueblo filed a civil action against the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil No. 1:94CV02624), asserting that Federal surveys of the grant boundaries erroneously excluded certain land within the Cibola National Forest, including a portion of the Sandia Mountain Wilderness. (b) The purposes of sections 539m to 539m–12 of this title are— (1) to establish the T’uf Shur Bien Preservation Trust Area in the Cibola National Forest; (2) to confirm the status of national forest land and wilderness land in the Area while resolving issues associated with the civil action referred to in subsection (a)(2) and the opinions of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior dated December 9, 1988 (M–36963; 96 I.D. 331) and January 19, 2001 (M–37002); and (3) to provide the Pueblo, the parties to the civil action, and the public with a fair and just settlement of the Pueblo’s claim.