For generations, descendants of Spanish settlers in Costilla County relied on La Sierra’s meadows and forests for grazing, hunting, fishing, and firewood—rights guaranteed by the 1844 Sangre de Cristo Land Grant and the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1960, a timber baron seized 77,500 acres, fenced off access, hired armed guards, and logged the mountain, threatening the community’s only water source. Local families formed the Land Rights Council in 1978, launching a decades-long fight for cultural survival and environmental justice that continues to inspire land and water defenders across the Southwest.